Texas Roadhouse Georgia Wish Night Left No Public Tally

On August 18, 2025, 20 Texas Roadhouse restaurants in Georgia gave 10 percent of Monday sales to Make-A-Wish Georgia. The window ran from 3 to 10 p.m., which is the whole weekday at these stores, and local notices listed every participating city by name.

No dollar total was published after the plates were cleared. Thirteen days later the chapter closed a fiscal year in which its Form 990 listed 506 wishes fulfilled, while its own annual report had already put hundreds of children on a wait that can stretch toward two years.

Twenty Georgia Stores, One Monday Window

The night was sold as a statewide push, not a single-store spirit night. Guests did not have to buy a raffle ticket or write a separate check. They ate, and the restaurants pledged a cut of that evening’s sales to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Georgia, the Atlanta-based chapter that grants wishes for children with critical illnesses in the state.

Local notices laid out a statewide Monday night in Georgia, with the same 3 to 10 p.m. window at every listed store. The cities named were Athens, Augusta, Buford, Cartersville, Columbus, Cumming, Douglasville, Gainesville, Hiram, Macon, Marietta, McDonough, Newnan, Pooler, Rome, Savannah, Snellville, Statesboro, Valdosta, and Warner Robins.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The terms: All listed Georgia locations pledged 10 percent of sales from 3 to 10 p.m. on August 18, 2025.
• The footprint: Twenty cities were named, from Rome and Cumming down to Valdosta and Pooler.
• The beneficiary: Make-A-Wish Georgia, which serves children across 159 counties.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The haul: Neither the restaurants nor the chapter posted a public dollar total for that Monday.
• Wishes funded: No filing ties a specific number of granted wishes to the dinner window.
• A repeat: No statewide Make-A-Wish night for 2026 was announced in the same form.

Kent Taylor founded Texas Roadhouse in 1993. By February 19, 2026, the Louisville-based company said it had grown to over 820 restaurants system-wide in 49 states, one U.S. territory, and ten foreign countries. The Georgia dinner used a thin slice of that system: 20 stores, one weekday, 10 percent of sales.

Make-A-Wish Georgia Granted 503 Wishes in Fiscal 2024

Make-A-Wish Georgia’s fiscal 2024 annual report, covering September 1, 2023, through August 31, 2024, is the last full public scorecard with a detailed wish mix. CEO Tim Earley wrote that the chapter granted 503 wishes that year, up from 477 the year before, and that it was still more than one wish a day across the state.

He also put the backlog in writing. Earley told donors the chapter had 746 children waiting for wishes, and that the list would keep growing as the chapter tried to reach more families.

Today, we have 746 critically ill children waiting for their wishes to be granted and, as we look to the future, we strive to expand our reach and impact so this list will only continue to grow.

Tim Earley, CEO, Make-A-Wish Georgia FY24 annual report

MAKE-A-WISH GEORGIA AT A GLANCE

• Wishes granted: 503 in fiscal 2024; the Form 990 for the year ended August 31, 2025, lists 506 wishes fulfilled.
• Children waiting: 746, in Earley’s fiscal 2024 report.
• Average wish: $11,102 in fiscal 2024, including cash and in-kind support.
• Wish-granting spend: $7,244,702 of $10,116,815 in total expenses that year.

The youngest children were the largest age group. Audited notes put the average fiscal 2024 wish at $6,143 in cash and $4,959 in donated goods and services. Cancer accounted for 259 of the 503 wishes, and 198 of the wishes were Disney trips. Atlanta’s region granted 263, far ahead of every other patch on the chapter map.

FISCAL 2024 WISHES BY AGE

The chapter says it will make every effort to grant a wish within two years of a child’s qualification date, and that matching a family with volunteer wish granters can take several months. On its GAgives profile it has said an average of 79 children in Georgia are diagnosed with a critical illness each month, and that it is only reaching half of eligible children.

Special events and community groups supplied 29 percent of fiscal 2024 support, about $2.86 million. Corporations supplied 15 percent, about $1.46 million. A Monday cut of steakhouse tickets sits in that second stream, and it has to clear a chapter that spent more than it took in that year, with revenue of $9,769,245 against expenses of $10,116,815.

National Profit Nights Hit $1.1 Million

Texas Roadhouse already runs a louder version of the same idea. On February 2, 2026, Texas Roadhouse, Bubba’s 33, and Jaggers donated 100 percent of profits from dine-in and to-go orders to the American Tinnitus Association, raising a record $1.1 million in a single day. That beat the prior tinnitus night’s $980,000, which had beaten $925,000 raised on February 5, 2024.

CEO Jerry Morgan thanked “Roadies and guests for banding together to raise awareness and funds for tinnitus,” and said more than 50 million adults in the United States live with the condition. ATA chief executive Patrick A. Lynch said the 2026 day pushed the partnership past $4.7 million since 2021. Those nights honor late founder Kent Taylor, who had severe tinnitus, and they are counted in public, down to the dollar.

Georgia has seen the heavier switch too. In September 2024, Texas Roadhouse locations across the state donated 100 percent of profits from 3 to 10 p.m. to the Barrow Community Fund after the shooting at Apalachee High School. Same hours, same brand, a different cut: all profits, not 10 percent of sales.

THE CHAIN’S PUBLIC GIVING BEATS

1. 1993: Kent Taylor founds Texas Roadhouse.
2. February 5, 2024: A national dine-to-donate day raises $925,000 for the American Tinnitus Association.
3. September 2024: Georgia locations give 100 percent of Monday profits to the Barrow Community Fund.
4. August 18, 2025: Twenty Georgia stores give 10 percent of Monday sales to Make-A-Wish Georgia.
5. February 2, 2026: All three brands give 100 percent of profits and raise $1.1 million for the ATA.

HOW THE DINNERS COMPARE

In December 2025, Earley told a Savannah room the chapter wanted to grant over 60 wishes for sick children in that area that year, and the annual Waiting for Wishes event there raised over $160,000, with online gifts already over $130,000 before the doors opened. One gala weekend, counted. One statewide steak night, not counted.

The 10 Percent Template Is Still in Circulation

The Georgia Make-A-Wish window was not a one-off invention. It is the same flyer kit Texas Roadhouse stores use for schools, animal shelters, and other chapters: pick a weekday, take 10 percent of sales in a set window, and ask guests to mention the cause or drop a receipt in a box.

Make-A-Wish Nebraska was still using that ask in 2026, telling supporters that Omaha and Papillion restaurants would give 10 percent of sales from 3 to 10 p.m. on April 29 if diners showed the flyer. The copy could have been swapped onto a Georgia poster without changing a number.

Georgia stores kept running the kit after August 18, 2025, for other local names.

OTHER GEORGIA 10 PERCENT NIGHTS

• Valdosta, Feb. 13, 2026: A spirit night sent 10 percent of food purchases logged in a box to Westside Elementary School, 3 to 10 p.m.
• Valdosta, July 1, 2026: A police-and-fire rib contest sat inside a 3 to 10 p.m. window that again pledged 10 percent of sales to charity.
• Valdosta, Sept. 24, 2026: The same restaurant pledged 10 percent of each ticket from 3 to 8 p.m. to Wreaths Across America, with a printed flyer required for credit.
• Statesboro, Sept. 27, 2026: A bike run for Homes For Our Troops used a different format, registration fees and a ride, on a brand the company has backed for more than 20 years.

Texas Roadhouse says those charity rides have raised more than $1.25 million nationwide over 21 years. That is a counted, multi-year machine. The Make-A-Wish Monday in Georgia was a single shift on the lighter setting, then the calendar moved on to wreaths, schools, and veterans.

Who Decides Which Cause Gets the Dinner Rush?

A Texas Roadhouse donation request does not go to a national grants office. It goes to the Managing Partner who runs the nearest restaurant, often with the local store marketer. Each store funds its own community giving. There is no open corporate grant program for a chapter to apply to, and typical in-store gifts are dinner certificates, not checks large enough to clear a wish on their own.

That structure explains how 20 Georgia stores could line up on the same Monday without turning the night into a national campaign. It also explains why the tinnitus day is different. Corporate sets that date, puts all three brands on 100 percent of profits, and then publishes the total. Local partners set the 10 percent nights, and many of those nights end the way the Make-A-Wish evening did: with a flyer, a time window, and no follow-up figure.

Jerry Morgan has pointed the company’s public giving back to operators and to “Roadie Nation,” which he said stood over 100,000 employees strong at the February 2026 earnings release. The people who portion steaks on a Monday in Valdosta or Snellville are the people who make a 10 percent night real. They are also the people whose Managing Partner chooses the next flyer, which may be a school, a wreath drive, or another chapter in another state.

Make-A-Wish Georgia still has to staff the other side of that gift. The chapter listed 37 employees on its fiscal 2025 return, works through 11 regions, and has recruited volunteer wish granters storey by storey, including a public ask for more help in the Valdosta area. Money from a dinner rush still has to be matched with volunteers, vendors, and a child’s medical timeline.

An $11,102 Wish Against a Night With No Public Tally

The audited average wish in fiscal 2024 cost $11,102. Direct costs of wishes that year were $5,584,641. Company Texas Roadhouse restaurants, by the chain’s own count, posted average weekly sales of $161,918 in fiscal 2025, with $21,973 of that in to-go orders, and the Texas Roadhouse brand’s average unit volume was $8,687,000.

Those sales figures are national company averages, not a ledger for Athens or Warner Robins, and they are not a substitute for the missing Monday total. They do show why a 10 percent slice of one weekday at 20 dinner-only stores is a different instrument from a 100 percent-of-profits day across more than 800 restaurants. They also show why a chapter that is only reaching about half of eligible children cannot treat an untallied Monday as a closing of the gap.

Fiscal 2025’s Form 990 put chapter revenue at $9,149,969 and expenses at $9,702,767. Wish volume barely moved, 506 against 503. Earley’s 746 children still waiting, written before the steak night, remains the last numbered backlog the chapter put in front of donors. The restaurants did what the flyer promised. The public record stops there.

On September 24, 2026, the Valdosta Texas Roadhouse at 1874 Clubhouse Drive ran another 10 percent window, this time for Wreaths Across America, from 3 to 8 p.m. The kit was still on the host stand. The wish list was still the chapter’s to work down.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Families Pay for a Make-A-Wish Georgia Wish?

No. Make-A-Wish Georgia says families never need to contribute cash to receive a wish, and that covered expenses are spelled out when the wish is approved, with spending money included in some cases. The chapter also says it does not ask for proof of income or immigration status.

What Ages Qualify for a Make-A-Wish Georgia Wish?

A child can be referred from age 2 and a half until before the 18th birthday, must live in Georgia, and must have a physician-determined qualifying critical illness without a prior granted wish. Parents, the medical team, or the child can make the referral.

How Many Children Has Make-A-Wish Georgia Served Since 1995?

The chapter, which Charity Navigator lists as having granted wishes of more than 10,000 kids across Georgia since 1995, is a 501(c)(3) with EIN 58-2146828 and offices at 1775 The Exchange SE, Suite 200, Atlanta. It says it receives no federal or state funding.

Which Parts of Georgia Does the Chapter Cover?

Make-A-Wish Georgia serves all 159 counties across 11 regions, including Albany, Macon, Valdosta, Gainesville, Statesboro, Augusta, Dalton, Savannah, Atlanta, Athens, and Columbus. Wish assists are coordinated by the chapter in the territory where the wish is being granted.