Shipley Do-Nuts expects to have a good 2026, certainly from a development perspective. The Houston-based chain, which finished last year at just under 400 locations, expects to open another 30 by the end of the year.
The most unique of those 30 locations is in South Dallas, in a development known as Malcolm’s Point.
The franchisee for that location is the SouthFair Community Development Corp., a nonprofit organization designed to create housing and economic development opportunities in the Fair Park neighborhood of South Dallas, near the Texas State Fairgrounds.
The group had targeted franchising, and Shipley in particular, to bring economic development, as well as coffee and doughnuts, to a community that could use all of it.
“The community wants it,” Annie Evans, executive director with the SouthFair CDC, said in an interview. “They’re waiting on it, and they want brand new, just like every other city or area in Dallas. We want brand new as well.”
Agreements between franchisors and nonprofit franchisees are exceedingly rare, but not entirely unprecedented. The Dale Rogers Training Center in Oklahoma City, for instance, operates a Papa Murphy’s location. Affordable Homes of South Texas operates a Blimpie Sub Shop.
Franchising is in many respects a natural business for nonprofits, particularly those whose missions are aimed at community development. Companies simply follow a business plan that is already established. That can generate relatively simple economic opportunity for a neighborhood.
Franchising is expected to generate more than $900 billion in economic output this year, according to the data firm Frandata. Franchises support nearly 9 million jobs.
There is also a multiplier effect: Every $1 spent at a restaurant generates $2.55 in spending for the broader economy, according to the National Restaurant Association.
But restaurants also have an emotional impact on communities, particularly when those communities don’t otherwise have quick access to hot new concepts or certain types of franchises.
“It provides hope,” Evans said. “It’s an opportunity for the community to see something different, and to see that a franchise, a brand name such as Shipley cares.”
Shipley Do-Nuts was formed in 1936, when Lawrence Shipley created a recipe for hand-cut doughnuts served hot throughout the day at 5 cents per dozen. Today the brand serves doughnuts, beignets, and kolaches and is about to launch its new coffee program.
Evans began thinking of a franchise as part of the organization’s Malcolm Point project, a $2.3 million retail, restaurant, and office park development in South Dallas, next to the organization’s headquarters.
As that project was delayed, she began thinking of franchises. “And I thought about doughnuts and coffee,” she said. Local residents wanted that, too, something SouthFair knew from the surveys it had done of community residents.
Evans was then introduced to Shipley Do-Nuts CEO Flynn Dekker through a mutual friend, former Wingstop executive Calvin Golden.
Dekker is a longtime restaurant industry executive who was appointed CEO of the doughnut chain in 2023. And it just so happened that Dekker is from the neighborhood. He is definitely on board with SouthFair’s mission.
“I used to live just a couple of blocks from where this location will go,” he said. “It’s just been an underserved side of Fair Park.”
While SouthFair is a nonprofit, with a different mission than a traditional operator, in many respects the relationship is just like every other franchisor-franchisee relationship. The operator wants the business to work. And the franchisor wants access to a market in which it does not currently operate.
“It really is a traditional franchise relationship,” he said. “This is the way for them to be self-sustaining. And it supports a market that we think is important. We have about 32 locations in the Dallas area, and this is the most centrally located.”
SouthFair will have a liaison between the organization and the shop and will hire a general manager to operate the location. Evans will oversee everything. The group also is working with Golden, who today is a consultant and speaker.
“This is the first of its kind,” Dekker said. “And in my many years in franchising, there has never been an opportunity like this that we’ve had a chance to be part of. So we’re excited to see how this goes and think this could be the roadmap for how we support lots of communities in all different types of cities and markets.”
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