Our History

Marlo, OnRamp’s first client, receiving her Tahoe in 2017

  • 2015                Blake Jennings begins to repair vehicles for financially struggling church members and staff. Some are repairable; some are not. Owners of unrepairable vehicles don’t have any capacity to buy a replacement.

  • Aug 2016         Blake comes up with the concept for a vehicle donation charity in the Brazos Valley to help impoverished families in need of transportation.

  • Jan 2017          OnRamp is incorporated as a Texas Non-profit

  • May 2017        OnRamp receives 501c3 status. Blake meets a single mom of 4 named Marlo and saw how badly she was scammed when purchasing a used car that was worthless.

  • Sept 2017        OnRamp accepts Marlo as the first client

  • Oct 2017         Blake begins raising money to buy Marlo a car – ends up raising enough for 3 cars! He buys and donated our first vehicle to her – a Chevy Tahoe

  • Nov 2017        Second vehicle donation and first to come through an independent Advocate

  • Jan 2018          Third vehicle donation and first to a person needing a vehicle to qualify for an organ transplant

  • Aug 2018         Ninth vehicle donation but first Tier2 Vehicle and introduction of OnRamp’s Two-Step option (give a temporary, low-cost “Tier2” vehicle to help applicant make progress to meet all program requirements, at which time it is replaced with a long-term, high-value “Tier1” vehicle and “Tier2” is returned to inventory)

  • Sept 2018        OnRamp is chosen as a Bush School of Government and Public Service Capstone Project by Dr Catherine Cole’s Masters-level class

  • Apr 2019         Dr Catherine Cole becomes the first non-family member of the Board

  • May 2020        OnRamp hires first employee, Stephanie Mason, as parttime Operations Manager

  • Oct 2020         Preparations begin to launch OnRampDFW

  • Jan 2021          Formal partnership with local Christian Brothers begins as GM, Jeremy Smith, joins our vehicle team

  • Mar 2021        OnRamp adopts Smartsheets as our information hub and begins building proprietary database that can be used by all future OnRamps

  • July 2021         OnRamp hires Founder, Blake Jennings, as fulltime President

  • Jan 2022          OnRampDFW gives away its first vehicle to a client

  • Mar 2022        OnRamp hires Cassidy Somervill as parttime Care Director

  • Apr 2022         OnRamp gives a vehicle to its 100th client

  • Dec 2022         OnRamp moves from remote work into an office for the first time

  • Jan 2023          Stephanie Mason promoted to fulltime Ops Director

  • Apr 2023         Hosted our first formal fundraiser – Drive with OnRamp

  • Jan 2024         OnRamp hires Taylor Carlson as fulltime Care Director, with Cassidy serving as parttime Communications Director

  • Mar 2024        OnRamp Coastal Bend launches and donates a vehicle to their first client

  • May 2024        OnRamp gives a vehicle to its 200th client