Over the Last 14 years, Luck Presents and the Luck Family Foundation have raised upwards of 3 million dollars for the community in central Texas and beyond.
Established to sustain the philanthropic and community impact work of The Nelson Family, the Luck Foundation provides financial grant assistance and other resources to artists, chefs, farmers, small businesses, and other organizations doing the work in our communities
The mission: to sustain and enrich the community that we love through supporting the people and organizations that make it so special. While our focus shifts from time to time, the driving force behind the Luck Family Foundation is to lift up our community so that art, and the people who make it can thrive for generations to come.
Potluck
One of our largest annual fundraising events is the annual Potluck Dinner held each year in Luck, Texas the night before our annual Luck Reunion festival. The event brings together a group of world-class chefs and less than 300 guests for a night of communal feast, reflection, and music. The funds raised through the dinner each year support special grants awarded to organizations in our food ways such as Farm Aid and the Texas Food and Wine Alliance and more. Through this special give, we have been able to create a grant program alongside the Texas Food and Wine alliance which is awarded each year to community building food workers based on criteria developed hand in hand with Luck.
Past recipients of grants include Boggy Creek Farms, Farm Share Austin, Mercado Sin Nombre, Jesse Griffiths of Dai Due, and many more. These grants have been used to purchase industrial farm equipment, special corn processing molinos, and other special projects that directly support these community partners in their ability to thrive and provide.
"The potluck is an intimate a dinner party all in the idea of building community and being able to give back to the people who help make our food systems operate. It was a grass roots idea of saying hey, let's have a dinner, invite a lot of the artists, invite a lot of our community, and sit down and start conversations.”
- Matt Bizer, Luck Founder and CEO
"The idea of coming here and raising money through food for food is a valuable outing, and I think bringing the general public here to see that opportunity is really valuable for all of us."
- Chef Michel Fojtasek
“Given that we are a nonprofit, we are heavily dependent on grant money. Receiving a grant of the kind that we received from the Luck Foundation, we were all really excited, because we knew that we were immediately going to be able to purchase equipment that would in turn save us a considerable amount of labor hours."
- Casey Frank, Austin Farmshare
Luck supports our sister-organization, Farm Aid through special grants each year. Farm Aid's mission is to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America by keeping family farmers on the land, strengthening family farm food systems, advocating for fair farm policies, and connecting consumers with good food from family farms. Farm Aid's work includes providing immediate support to farmers in crisis and promoting a system that ensures farmers receive a fair living, communities are well-nourished, and natural resources are protected.
Our Partners
We work with Reverb alongside other organizations such Overdrive Energy Solutions to take Luck off of diesel fuel, and each year work to lower our overall carbon footprint.
The Texas Food and Wine Alliance mission is to support Texas's culinary communities through education, innovation, and grants. They achieve this by offering educational programs, hosting events like the Culinary Arts Career Conference, and providing grants to a variety of culinary entrepreneurs, non-profits, and businesses across the state.
We work continuously with the SIMS Foundation, an Austin non profit who provides resources, mental health services, and recovery assistance for individuals within the music industry.
The mission of the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM) is to provide access to affordable healthcare for low-income, working musicians in Austin, with a focus on prevention and wellness. HAAM accomplishes this by connecting musicians with healthcare services like dental, vision, and mental health care, and offering navigation assistance to help them access and afford care.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we worked extensively with the Central Texas Food Bank. As the largest hunger-relief organization in Central Texas, their mission is providing equitable, nutritious food access.
