Fewer than a dozen tickets were left for Austin's Music for the Mind gala when SIMS Foundation CEO Derrick Lesnau sat down with We Are Austin host Trevor Scott to talk about how the nonprofit is ending 2026. The annual gala, set for Nov. 18 at Assembly Hall, anchors a broader year-end push called Restore the Rhythm that SIMS says it needs to keep serving the city's music community.
A Gala Built Around Music and a Famous Voice
According to KEYE / CBS Austin, the gala will include food, drinks, live music and a silent auction, with performances from Paige Pleasants, Merlot and Gina Chavez. Author Brené Brown is set to appear as the special guest speaker, and the evening will also mark the first presentation of the Champion of Care Award, which the station reports will go to Geronimo Rodriguez for his mental health advocacy. The Sims Ellison Impact Award, meanwhile, will be presented to Amy Corbin of C3 Presents, per the same report.
Lesnau told Scott that fewer than 12 tickets remained for the gala at the time of their conversation, a sign of how much demand the event has drawn ahead of its Nov. 18 date. He described SIMS Foundation's purpose in direct terms, saying the organization provides mental health resources and recovery resources for music industry professionals and their dependent family members.
Restore the Rhythm Keeps the Lights On Past the Gala
The gala isn't the only piece of SIMS Foundation's year-end plan. The Restore the Rhythm campaign begins Nov. 17 and continues through the end of 2026, with a concert benefiting the campaign planned for Dec. 3 at Antone's, according to the station's report. Lesnau said the campaign exists to remind the community that SIMS still needs support after a year spent providing resources to musicians and industry professionals.
That spending was substantial. The nonprofit put money and resources into connecting musicians and industry professionals with mental health providers and care throughout the first 11 months of 2026, per the same account. Lesnau told Scott he regularly hears from people who tell him, in his words, “Sims saved my life” — a line that underscores why the organization keeps returning to its community for help closing out each year.
A Mission Rooted in Loss, Now Decades Deep
SIMS Foundation's name traces back to 1995, when musician Sims Ellison died following a battle with depression — a tragedy that led to the nonprofit's founding, according to KEYE / CBS Austin. In the three decades since, the organization has grown considerably: its own event page for Music for the Mind states that SIMS has served more than 25,000 music-industry professionals through more than 300,000 sessions of support, investing $50 million in the community's emotional wellness, according to SIMS Foundation. The nonprofit describes its mission as connecting local music-industry professionals with licensed mental healthcare and substance-use recovery providers.
Trevor Scott framed the stakes plainly during the segment, saying, “We ask so much of our music community,” a sentiment that points to why SIMS keeps pressing for donations even after a strong year of service. Lesnau credited the community itself with building this kind of support system for people in the music industry, and he said people can help simply by volunteering or donating as the campaign gets underway.
The Road Here Included a Rocky 2024 and 2025
This year-end push follows a turbulent stretch for the organization. SIMS Foundation paused services for roughly 90 days starting in October 2024 to raise money and transition to a new service model, according to KUT. Operations resumed Feb. 3, 2025, reconnecting clients with healthcare providers and introducing a new plan based on household income and reported financial resources, the Austin Chronicle reported. Under that model, the Chronicle noted, client co-pays range from $15 to $50 depending on where clients fall on the federal poverty line, with SIMS covering the remaining provider costs.
Accounts of the fundraising that got SIMS through that transition differ. KUT reported that the organization reached its fundraising goal of a half-million dollars after a late push in late 2024, while the Austin Chronicle reported the Restore the Rhythm campaign had raised $233,914 of its $500,000 goal as of its February 2025 article. SIMS itself said in December 2024 that funding from Armadillo World Headquarters and C3 Presents had brought the campaign to 30% of its goal.
Expanding Who Gets Help
More recently, SIMS turned its attention to a group it says has long been eligible for support but often didn't know it: venue workers. In January 2026, the nonprofit was launching the Dick Chalmers Music Venue Program, described as a fund dedicated to helping venue workers get counseling, psychiatric care and recovery support, per KUT's reporting. SIMS said venue workers have always been eligible for those services through SIMS, but many were unaware of the support available to them. The station also reported that SIMS had focused on increasing donations to eliminate its waitlist for services before expanding outreach to that group, with an early fundraising effort built around multiple venues participating in a Dry January mocktail fundraiser.
