Supporting Our Communities

In 2025, South Plains Electric Cooperative's Operation Round Up program awarded Community Grants to 28 local nonprofit organizations serving members throughout our service territory.

Following the 2025 grant cycle, the Community Grant Program concluded after distributing more than $156,000 to local nonprofits since 2020.

In 2026, the Operation Round Up Board approved a new partnership with CoBank's Sharing Success Grant Program. Through this collaboration, Community Partners of Lubbock's Rainbow Room and the Dickens County-Spur Public Library each received a $10,000 grant to support their important community initiatives.

Operation Round Up also strengthened support for local emergency services in 2026 by providing contributions to all 40 volunteer fire departments within our service area, totaling $60,000.

Concern for community is one of the Seven Cooperative Principles that guide South Plains Electric Cooperative. Investing in our communities allows us to support programs and organizations that enhance the quality of life for our members and their families. Through Operation Round Up, cooperative members work together to provide meaningful assistance to neighbors across the South and Rolling Plains.

Established in 1993, Operation Round Up was created to provide a "hand up, not a handout" to individuals and communities in need. Its guiding philosophy, "Neighbors Helping Neighbors," reflects the cooperative spirit at the heart of South Plains Electric Cooperative. The program is funded by participating members who round their monthly electric bill up to the next whole dollar. While the average member contributes only about $6 per year, those small contributions create a significant impact throughout our communities.

Since its inception, Operation Round Up has distributed more than $2 million to support local high school student scholarships, teacher mini-grants, volunteer fire departments, families recovering from house fires, nonprofit organizations and individuals facing hardship.

Operation Round Up is funded entirely through the generosity of cooperative members who round their electric bills up to the nearest dollar.

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Click here for more information about the program.