Pay It Forward

Surprise donation from Reliant Gives ensures all Dallas foster kids have a voice

CASA of Collin County's executive director, Tricia Clifton, burst into tears at the sight of the Reliant employees carrying a $100,000 check, but it wasn't just because of the five zeros or the impact it would make for abused and neglected children in Collin County. It was because the mission of CASA is personal for Clifton.

As a young child she was placed in foster care, so she knows all too well how important it is for foster children to have someone advocating for their best interest. Court-appointed special advocates, or CASAs, are trained volunteers that give children placed in foster care a voice as they move through a complicated legal system.

Clifton also knows that companies like Reliant are crucial to helping local nonprofits across Texas continue to thrive and support those in need. For CASA of Collin County, $100,000 means that every child in the county who enters the foster care system this year will have an advocate. This is especially crucial, as the number of children currently in the system has almost doubled since last year — all within the first five months of 2018.

Reliant employees join together twice a year to host Reliant Gives, a program that supports deserving causes and communities across Texas. Through nominations by Reliant employees and votes from the public, nonprofits have the chance to receive a $100,000 donation, with runners-up receiving $20,000 and $10,000 donations.

For this year's first round of Reliant Gives, CASA of Collin County received the top donation, with Houston nonprofits The Rose and SIRE securing the runner-up donations through public voting.

Hands and feet in the community
Through the Reliant Gives program, established in 2016, $720,000 has now been donated to 18 deserving nonprofits across Texas. In addition to this program, Reliant supports local communities through volunteerism, charitable giving, and strategic long-term partnerships. In 2017 alone, they provided more than $4 million in financial and in-kind donations to various organizations across the state, and Reliant employees supported over 100 nonprofits with nearly 8,000 volunteer hours.

Giving is in Reliant's DNA, exemplified by programs like Reliant Gives and positiveNRG. The Reliant Gives donations were timed to coincide with positiveNRG Week, which is a week dedicated to volunteerism across the country by Reliant’s parent company, NRG.

In May, Reliant employees throughout Dallas rolled up their sleeves to be the hands and feet at an array of organizations, including:

Whether it's organizing food drives, planting trees, walking for a cause, or fundraising on behalf of nonprofits, Reliant is committed to giving to the communities where its employees live and work. For more information on Reliant Gives, visit reliant.com/reliantgives.

CASA of Collin Country was this year's big winner.

CASA of Collin County

Photo courtesy of Reliant

CASA of Collin Country was this year's big winner.

promoted charity jwvideo

happy go lucky plano

Dallas neighbor dazzles on new list of happiest cities in America

Plano Balloon Festival

Photo courtesy of Visit Plano

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A new happiness study has ranked Plano one of the happiest cities in America this year, and it once again landed on top as the happiest city in Texas.

Plano has moved up on the list and ranks as the 16th happiest U.S. city in 2026. Last year, it was 17th.

WalletHub determined the happiest cities in America based on 29 relevant metrics based on "positive-psychology research" across three main categories: emotional and physical wellbeing, income and employment, and community and environment. As with most WalletHub studies, it compared the 182 most populous U.S. cities.

Fremont, California claimed the top spot as the happiest city nationwide for another year. Bismark, North Dakota and Scottsdale, Arizona, respectfully, rounded out the top three.

Here's how WalletHub ranked Plano across the three key dimensions:

No. 15 – Emotional and physical wellbeing
No. 22 – Community and environment
No. 72 – Income and employment

Plano and its residents have continued improving their city year after year, whether its through opening new bakeries and restaurants, inviting fun pop-ups for locals, or having a strong job market.

Plano's happiness far outshines the rest of North Texas; according to WalletHub, Irving is the 70th happiest city in the country, the third-happiest in Texas, and the second-happiest city in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro. Garland ranked farther behind as No. 92 nationally, and more DFW cities ranked even lower: Grand Prairie (No. 106), Dallas (No. 111), Fort Worth (No. 113), and Arlington (No. 119).

The report additionally found that Dallasites spend the third-most amount of time at work in the nation. The city ranked No. 180 in the national analysis of U.S. cities with the "fewest work hours."

WalletHub also emphasized that money doesn't buy happiness — after a certain point.

"For decades, researchers have explored the science of happiness and identified several core factors, including mental well-being, physical health, strong social ties, job satisfaction, and financial stability," the report said. "Still, income has its limits — studies show that earning more than $75,000 a year does not lead to greater happiness."

Six-figure earners in Plano aren't necessarily as happy as those who don't make as much, as a separate financial study from SmartAsset revealed these big earners are only taking home about $72,653 after taxes and adjusted for the cost of living.

This is how other Texas cities ranked in the report:

No. 39 – Austin
No. 128 – Houston
No. 135 – Lubbock
No. 137 – El Paso
No. 140 – Laredo
No. 143 – Amarillo
No. 150 – Brownsville
No. 154 – San Antonio
No. 155 – Corpus Christi

wallethub plano reports

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