Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones speaks to constituents at a recent down hall. Credit: Jacob R. Lopez

What if you threw a fundraiser and nobody came?

As Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has proposed ways for the city to deal with its looming $158 million budget deficit, she suggested that corporations and philanthropists could help offset proposed budget cuts to nonprofits ranging from Síclovía to the San Antonio Botanical Garden.

However, political experts and those on the fundraising front lines worry the private sector’s philanthropic dollars are already stretched thin. 

“[I’m] struggling to think of big corporations in this town and big-time people, developers and such, who are going to be willing to sign on, particularly for the amount of money she’s asking for,” University of Texas at San Antonio political scientist Jon Taylor said. “And in an economy that is not doing well and can get much worse. It just seems like a reach for me on her part.”

Last month, Jones sent out a letter to the heads of Valero, USAA and Frost Bank and other San Antonio-based companies asking them to consider a three-year funding commitment from a list of 15 nonprofits that currently receive support from the city.

The total of the commitments Jones wants to outsource exceeds $6.5 million, and it includes covering city commitments to organizations as wide-ranging as the Avenida Guadalupe Association, LiftFund and the San Antonio Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission.

During a town hall last Wednesday, Jones told the Current that no business or philanthropic leaders have so far responded to her letter.

“The letter was just sent out last week,” Jones said. “So, I’m guessing people are maybe still looking at their budgets, but we haven’t received anything as of yet. But they’ve got until Aug. 21. So, hopefully we get some answers in.”

Jones also said she’s committed to doing everything she can to prevent the 3.5% property tax rate hike championed by City Manager Erik Walsh as a means to deal with the deficit.

“We’ve got to be creative,” said Jones, who’s among the only members of City Council to publicly offer alternatives to a property tax increase. “I mean, people are talking about raising garage sale permits. What are we going to raise them to? $25,000 a piece? Let’s be serious.”

UTSA’s Taylor said he’s not surprised by the lack of response, citing the chilly relationship between Jones and San Antonio business leaders over her opposition to the $4 billion downtown sports-and-entertainment district known as Project Marvel.

“I’m not surprised they balked at this because she opposed their pet project, Project Marvel,” Taylor said. “She’s not necessarily showing a great willingness to work with them at times.”

Business leaders who spoke to the Current agree that it’s unlikely they will step up to cover the lost city funds. Their reasons are both practical and political, they added.

Big problems

The first major hurdle for Jones’ donor proposal is that large companies typically allocate funds to philanthropic missions in the first fiscal quarter, according to experts. 

“Once that money is allocated, there’s usually not additional funding to go around,” said John Burnam, a consultant who’s worked in San Antonio’s nonprofit fundraising space for more than a decade. 

What’s more, San Antonio’s meager corporate base already donates a lot of money to local nonprofits.

Grocer H-E-B, for example, pours millions into causes including education and disaster relief while anchoring massive fundraising campaigns for the San Antonio Food Bank. 

Meanwhile, USAA, through its foundations, is one of the city’s largest grant makers, funneling millions to housing initiatives including Haven for Hope and local health programs. 

Frost Bank contributes more than $1 million annually to programs including tutoring for underprivileged youth along with health and educational initiatives.

However, beyond that trio and a few other deep-pocketed enterprises, San Antonio doesn’t have many other locally headquartered corporations able to write million-dollar checks. Burnam cautioned that present economic realities are already straining the funding base.   

“There’s been something like an 80% to 87% increase in applications to private foundations in the South Texas area, largely due to deficits and budget cuts,” Burnam said. “But our funding base in San Antonio is not remotely strong enough to handle that kind of load increase.” 

While San Antonio is home to large corporations such as USAA, experts said its corporate base is shrinking rather than growing. Credit: Sanford Nowlin

Shrinking base

Indeed, San Antonio’s corporate base has shrunk over the past two decades. AT&T relocated its headquarters in 2008 after its then-CEO decided Dallas made a better fit. 

While USAA’s corporate headquarters remains in San Antonio, the financial-services behemoth moved its USAA Federal Savings Bank operations to Phoenix in 2024. However, a USAA official told the Current it was a “paper move” to simplify the company’s operations.

That same year, much-downsized tech firm Rackspace abandoned its 1.2 million-square-foot headquarters, dubbed “The Castle,” for a much smaller office space.

Compounding the problem, many corporate donors are reluctant to supply funds to make up for federal budget cuts to nonprofits due to potential political blowback, according to Burnam.

“They don’t want to upset the [Trump] administration, and the mayor is able to provide the same amount of pressure as the federal government,” Burnam said.

Beyond Jones’ resistance to Project Marvel, some in the Alamo City’s corporate community feel as if they’ve never received a friendly introduction from the mayor. Instead, her letter asking them to step up their philanthropic efforts comes across as her first meaningful interaction with them. 

“We already pay enough in taxes,” one high-ranking business executive, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of political blowback, told the Current.

If nothing else, Jones’ request is unprecedented, UTSA’s Taylor said.

“I can’t think of any mayor going to downtown business types and saying, ‘Hey, I need you guys to cover the city’s budget shortfall and chip in,’” the professor said. “Think about cities that have faced dire financial straits, like Detroit and Cleveland. Their business communities didn’t step in and cover their city’s expenses. It’s the same thing here. She’s also asking the same people for money who, for the most part, did not support her in the general election. It’s just not going to happen.”

Jones’ fundraising demand alone isn’t going to scare off corporations looking to relocate to San Antonio, the executive who spoke anonymously said. However, it does give companies already considering leaving town another excuse to leave.

The Sa Antonio Botanical Garden is one of the nonprofits that may face a loss of city funds. Credit: Courtesy Photo / San Antonio Botanical Gardens

How did we get here?

San Antonio isn’t alone in staring down the barrel of a budget deficit. 

Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and cities nationwide are facing similar straits as COVID-19 relief funds authorized under the Biden-era American Rescue Plan dry up, according to Taylor.

“Cities probably should have been planning for that in advance, and many of them didn’t,” Taylor said. “You’ve also got population growth, and in that respect, the need for city services, which means heightened expenses. Inflation played a role as well.”

San Antonio’s budget ballooned by more than $1.3 billion under former Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s watch.

District 10 conservative Marc Whyte has blamed the current budget issues on excessive spending, frequently pointing to city-sponsored Zumba classes that were poorly attended and cost taxpayers $100,000. Pressed for other cuts, however, Whyte has tended to talk in generalities.

“We do not have a revenue problem here in this city,” Whyte previously told the Current. “We have a spending problem.”

As an alternative to Jones’ austerity measures, Whyte has pushed the idea of zero-based budgeting — an accounting theory in which a a budget is built from the ground up each year based on an organization’s highest priorities. 

While corporations regularly make use of the practice, it hasn’t worked in government, according to Taylor.

“It’s a cute concept. [President] Jimmy Carter tried it at the federal level, and it didn’t work,” Taylor said. “Ultimately, what happens is that you end up using that budget system for the purposes of budget austerity.”

Whyte’s proposal has yet to generate much support on the progressive-leaning council. That’s also the case for Jones’ other proposed solution — cutting job-training program Ready to Work.

Should Jones’ fundraising effort fall flat, the city will still be left with the same uncomfortable choices: raise taxes, cut services or find another way to bridge a $158 million hole.

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...