DALLAS — Image this: 150 folks crammed right into a front room. A full band. Vacation vitality spilling into each nook. And twin brothers realizing that what began as a easy gathering had outgrown the partitions containing it.
That’s how The Maiden Basis started—not with strategic plans and nonprofit paperwork, however with Terrence and Tim Maiden internet hosting mates who confirmed up with items as an alternative of empty palms, creating group as an alternative of simply consuming vacation cheer.
Twenty years later, that front room overflow has grow to be a Dallas establishment that’s invested over $500,000 into communities, reworked how town celebrates Christmas, and constructed a legacy that’s now being handed to the subsequent era.
Rolling Out sat down with Terrence Maiden—visionary actual property developer and co-founder of The Maiden Basis—to speak about twenty years of servant management, why the Winspear Opera Home felt like a dream come true, and the way twin brothers divide duties when constructing one thing that issues.
When 150 Individuals in Your Dwelling Room Turns into a Drawback
“Nicely, candidly, it began earlier than the 20 years in the past,” Terrence instructed Rolling Out. “I keep in mind internet hosting Christmas vacation occasions at my dwelling, and would simply inform family and friends to return over—don’t come empty-handed, carry a present. We type of outgrew that area, as a result of by the point we shifted to do Soulful Christmas, we have been having like 150 of us in my front room, if you’ll, with the band.”
Learn that once more. A full band. In a front room. With 150 folks.
That’s not a celebration. That’s a motion ready for infrastructure.
The primary official Soulful Christmas moved to Button’s restaurant in Dallas. “It was an exceptional occasion,” Terrence recalled. “We had RC & The Gritz carry out, and standing room solely, and so it simply type of grew through the years.”
However the Winspear Opera Home? That was the dream they didn’t dare say out loud.
“Once we first began Soulful Christmas, our hope was to get it to the extent the place we have been hosted in some type of main venue,” Terrence defined. “We by no means anticipated that it will be the Winspear Opera Home in Dallas. However once we have been capable of solidify that relationship with AT&T Performing Arts Heart final 12 months, it was virtually like a dream come true.”
This December 19 at 8:00 PM, The Maiden Basis presents its seventeenth Annual Soulful Christmas on the Winspear Opera Home (2403 Flora St., Dallas, TX 75201), that includes multi-GRAMMY Award nominee KEM and Dallas’ personal Brittany Holmes. However the actual headline is 20 years of proving that while you construct with objective, the venues ultimately match your imaginative and prescient.
How Twins Divide Empire-Constructing
Rolling Out requested the query everybody wonders about twin entrepreneurs: how do you break up duties with out splitting affect?
“Nicely, for probably the most half, I attempt to set forth the technique for our group, and I’m an enormous relationship individual,” Terrence defined. “I’m additionally closely concerned with securing a few of our strategic partnerships.”
Tim brings the numbers. “Tim, due to his banking background, he’s all within the numbers, proper?” Terrence stated. “So he’s liable for all of our actually compliance stuff, and he’s instrumental in ensuring that we preserve tabs on our expenditures and ensuring that we’re good stewards over the cash that’s entrusted with us once we’re placing on occasions of this caliber.”
Translation: Terrence desires and connects. Tim counts and protects. Collectively, they’ve generated over $500,000 in group funding by means of signature packages together with Elevate Male Management Academy, Gold Chair Management Sequence, RedBird Tomorrow Basis, Soulful Christmas, and Soup for the Soul.
The Return on Funding That Truly Issues
When Rolling Out requested about tangible returns past the half-million {dollars} invested, Terrence didn’t hesitate.
“There are such a lot of alternatives to level to that,” he stated. “I feel one which in all probability resonates with me probably the most is our Elevate Male Management Academy that we partnered with College of North Texas on.”
This system mentors younger males towards faculty and significant careers. However Terrence measures success in a different way than most nonprofits.
“It’s so fulfilling to see the younger males who’ve gone by means of our management program go off to school and safe actually significant profession paths for his or her lives, they usually come again and specific how that Elevate program actually makes a distinction,” Terrence shared. “At that time, you’re not solely altering these younger males’s lives, however then you definitely’re setting them as much as be good fathers, good husbands, after which additionally good group leaders. And in order that ripple affect actually speaks volumes to, type of, the work that we’re doing, and the investments that we’re making, and the way we consider, in the end, we’re making a distinction within the communities that we’re serving.”
That’s not simply mentorship. That’s generational intervention.
Why KEM Made Sense for December 19
Rolling Out requested what Terrence seems for past vocal expertise when choosing artists for Soulful Christmas. His reply revealed the muse’s deeper understanding of what Dallas wants in the course of the holidays.
“That’s a fantastic query, and we’re actually meticulous about discovering artists that actually, what we predict wouldn’t solely enchantment to a wider viewers, but additionally will produce one thing and supply an expertise that might be uplifting for the vacation season,” he defined.
Final 12 months’s artist, Tye Tribbett, taught them one thing essential about timing and want.
“What we found final 12 months once we had Tye Tribbett is that the vacation season is tough for lots of households, and having the chance to get out and about and go to a live performance that’s uplifting, and whereas it’s also possible to jam to some good vacation hits, it’s actually inspiring. It’s encouraging,” Terrence stated. “I can’t inform you the variety of those who went to the live performance final 12 months and reached out and simply stated, thanks, that was precisely what we wanted this vacation season.”
That suggestions loop—artists who perceive the project, audiences who really feel seen—is what separates Soulful Christmas from each different vacation live performance cluttering your December calendar.
The place the Cash Truly Goes
This 12 months’s Soulful Christmas, offered by Truist Financial institution, advantages two organizations doing important work year-round: Concord Group Improvement Company (offering meals and counseling assets to Southwest Dallas and Crimson Chook residents) and Austin Avenue Heart (supporting people experiencing homelessness).
“We attempt to have a look at quite a lot of issues once we’re choosing the nonprofits to assist on an annual foundation,” Terrence instructed Rolling Out. “One, we attempt to actually vet out their affect and the social causes that they’re preventing. The opposite factor is we have a look at their management group and have a look at the historical past of their work.”
The choice course of isn’t straightforward given Dallas’s nonprofit panorama. “It’s oftentimes very tough to search out simply the fitting group, as a result of there are such a lot of organizations in Dallas-Fort Value that’s doing unbelievable work,” he acknowledged. “But it surely provides us the bandwidth and the chance to provide to so many alternative organizations.”
Final 12 months, the muse supported Oak Cliff and Behind Each Door. This 12 months, Concord and Austin Avenue. The technique? Help a number of organizations doing exhausting work 12 months in and 12 months out throughout town.
When Sponsors Turn into Companions
When Rolling Out requested how The Maiden Basis ensures company partnerships really feel genuine as an alternative of transactional, Terrence revealed the pitch that works.
“Nicely, we additionally attempt to place this with our sponsors, that this is a chance so that you can have a good time your group, have a good time the vacation season, and are available out and do one thing that’s enjoyable,” he stated. “And that has resonated with plenty of our sponsors.”
However the actual promoting level is observe report. “The opposite factor is, our sponsors has seen the work of the Maiden Basis during the last couple of a long time, and we constructed the extent of confidence and belief with our companions, and they’re glad to assist the endeavors that we’re targeted on, as a result of they know that, they know the place our coronary heart is, they usually’ve seen tangible outcomes from our work.”
That’s not company social duty theater. That’s 20 years of receipts proving your mission matches your advertising and marketing.
The Subsequent Era Will get the Baton
Rolling Out requested the query that issues for any 20-year-old basis: what does success seem like for the subsequent twenty years?
“Nicely, part of our strategic plan, now that now we have efficiently made it to our twentieth 12 months, is we’re targeted on the subsequent 5 years of placing collectively some type of succession plan with our household,” Terrence revealed. “And our hopes is that we are able to in the end move on the baton to our youngsters to hold the mantle into the subsequent twenty years of constructing an affect within the metropolis.”
This isn’t theoretical. “We’re hopeful that Tim and I’ve laid a strong basis for them to construct off of and do even better works. And so, we’re being intentional in involving our youngsters in what we’re doing now, in hopes that they may proceed the legacy of the work that we’ve finished within the metropolis.”
That intentionality—bringing the subsequent era into the work now, not after the founders retire—separates organizations that final from organizations that fade when their visionaries step again.
December 19: Extra Than a Live performance
This 12 months’s Soulful Christmas on the Winspear Opera Home isn’t simply the seventeenth annual live performance or perhaps a 20-year milestone celebration. It’s proof that when two brothers refuse to let their front room restrict their imaginative and prescient, after they flip vacation overflow into sustained group funding, after they measure success in reworked lives as an alternative of simply {dollars} distributed—the venues ultimately catch as much as the mission.
Tickets and sponsorship alternatives can be found at maidenfoundation.org. The night guarantees KEM‘s Grammy-nominated vocals, Brittany Holmes’ Dallas hometown excellence, and proof that soul, spirit, and giving create traditions Dallas received’t let die.
Twenty years. $500,000 invested. Numerous younger males mentored into fatherhood and management. A basis being handed to the subsequent era with intention and infrastructure intact.
From front room overflow to Winspear Opera Home. From 150 folks with items to a citywide motion that transforms how Dallas celebrates Christmas whereas serving communities that want it most.
That’s not only a basis. That’s what occurs when twins refuse to play small.
The seventeenth Annual Soulful Christmas takes place December 19 at 8:00 PM at Winspear Opera Home. Go to maidenfoundation.org for tickets. Observe @maidenfoundation on social media.
