The OneStar Foundation
For more than thirty years, The OneStar Foundation has strengthened education, fought hunger, promoted health care, and helped people overcome trauma. When Texans are faced with poverty, abuse, homelessness and addiction, OneStar is there to lend a helping hand.
OneStar connects the private sector with government and seeks innovative new approaches to confronting social problems. OneStar promotes other nonprofits' efforts to streamline their operations and reach more people.
The focus of OneStar is divided into four branches:
- Service and Volunteerism is in charge of Texas' national volunteer programs and engages them to create community-wide approaches to address social issues.
- Nonprofit Organizational Excellence develops and teaches strategies on improving operations, performance and end results.
- Research, Evaluation and Learning creates studies that report vital information about nonprofit sector best practices and policies.
- Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship encourages nonprofits to establish long term strategies and creative approaches to accomplishing their missions.
OneStar builds its vision on four basic principles. First, solution-oriented strategies must be based on real research, not intuition. Second, the greatest social challenges deserve lasting solutions, not temporary bandages. Third, even the best ideas will fail unless organizations can learn what success looks like. Fourth, the ultimate success of our nonprofit organizations often rests on the volunteers that serve on the front lines and help these groups fulfill their missions.
OneStar also hosts the annual Governor's Nonprofit Leadership Conference and Governor's Volunteer Awards ceremony. This event is intended to promote these strategies and highlight success stories from around the state.
OneStar's Service and Volunteerism focus area is cultivating a strong volunteer ethic across the state with AmeriCorps Texas and its three-year, $45 million investment in Texas’s volunteer industry. OneStar continually seeks out other worthy causes to fund.
Stellar Leadership
Currently, OneStar is managed by President and CEO Susan Weddington, the former Republican Party of Texas chairman. Weddington was appointed by Governor Rick Perry, who has said, "The same characteristics that made Susan Weddington a great chairman of the Republican Party of Texas will make her a tremendous leader in the volunteer community. Susan is hardworking, driven, and determined to make a difference for all Texans, regardless of race, creed, ethnicity or political affiliation." The current Chairman, Walter G. Diggles, is a senior pastor at the New Lighthouse Church of God, and recently was awarded the prestigious Walter Scheiber Leadership Award.