GULF SHORES, Ala. — The person handing you a cold drink at the National Shrimp Festival isn’t pocketing your tip. For roughly two decades, National Shrimp Festival volunteers working the concession tents have turned every dollar dropped in the tip jar over to local nonprofits, and during the 2025 festival that added up to more than $28,000 shared among 25 organizations.
With the 53rd Annual National Shrimp Festival set for Oct. 8-11 in Gulf Shores, organizers are looking for more volunteers — and especially for groups — to fill the remaining concession shifts and steer those tips toward causes they care about.
At a glance
- What: 53rd Annual National Shrimp Festival, organized by the Coastal Alabama Business Chamber
- When: Thursday, Oct. 8, through Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026
- Where: Gulf Shores
- Expected crowd: More than 300,000 attendees over four days
- Volunteers: Nearly 1,000 people each year
- Concession shifts: 664 total slots, four hours each; many still open
- 2025 tip total: More than $28,000, split among 25 nonprofits
- How to help: Sign up through the festival’s online Volunteer and Concessions forms
A tip jar that works for charity
Nearly 1,000 people give their time every year to keep the festival running, working everything from merchandise to concessions. Many of them are also quietly raising money. Volunteers in the concession tents don’t keep any of the tips they collect. Every dollar is set aside for a nonprofit, and when more than one organization is represented on a shift, the tips are divided among them.
Concessions Co-Chair Renee Jones said the program has been running for about 20 years and that the arrangement still catches people off guard.
“For about 20 years the volunteers in our concessions tents have collected money for area non-profits,” Jones said. “It surprises many people that the tips we collect at our tents are not split by the volunteers. They are strictly volunteers and donate their time and tip money to help out our area.”
The accounting is straightforward. Tips are counted at the end of each four-hour shift and set aside for the appropriate nonprofit, a process Jones described as transparent.
“We count the tips at the end of each four-hour shift and set that money aside for the non-profits,” Jones said. “In some instances, we will split tips if more than one group is represented, but the more people you get to volunteer together, it improves the amount of money your preferred organization gets. To borrow a phrase, ‘The more the merrier.'”
From a short list to volunteers’ choice
The program started small. Concessions Co-Chair Sam Washington said volunteers were originally handed a short list of nonprofits and picked one to support. Early beneficiaries included the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, Share the Beach and Relay For Life.
Over time, volunteer groups began asking to add their own favorite causes, and the approach changed.
“We used to give the volunteers a list of non-profits, and they were able to choose one,” Washington said. “But then around 2010 or 2011 we began to get groups that wanted to have some of their favorite ones included, so we now let the volunteers of each shift pick a non-profit.”
That shift turned the tip jar into something closer to a community-directed grant program. A church group, a school booster club or a civic organization can staff a tent together and direct the proceeds of their shift to a nonprofit of their choosing, as long as it is a verified nonprofit. Groups that want to support a particular organization can contact festival concessions organizers to confirm its eligibility.
Why groups make the biggest difference
Individuals are welcome, but Washington said groups have a bigger impact. The math is simple: when a shift is staffed entirely by people supporting the same organization, the full tip total for those four hours goes to that one cause instead of being divided.
There are 664 concession slots across the four-day festival, and many shifts are still open. For a group looking for a fundraiser that requires no ticket sales, no bake sale and no upfront costs, a few four-hour shifts serving one of the largest crowds on the Gulf Coast can be an effective option.
Share the Beach among top beneficiaries
One of the program’s original beneficiaries remains one of its biggest. Share the Beach, the Alabama Coastal Foundation’s sea turtle conservation program, received nearly $4,000 from festival tip collections in 2025.
Share the Beach Director Rachael Holdsworth said the money goes directly toward the equipment and supplies that keep the volunteer-driven program running.
“The Alabama Coastal Foundation truly appreciates all of the support raised at Shrimp Fest,” Holdsworth said. “Those donations go towards our Share the Beach sea turtle conservation program to help cover the supplies and equipment needed to successfully operate that amazing effort that has over 550 volunteers. We’re looking forward to volunteering with concessions again this year.”
Share the Beach was created in 2001 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s field office in Daphne to involve residents in protecting sea turtles, and the Alabama Coastal Foundation took over leadership of the program in January 2018. Volunteers patrol Alabama’s beaches during nesting season, which runs from May through October, locate and monitor nests, educate beachgoers and help reduce threats such as artificial lighting that can disorient nesting females and hatchlings.
The 2026 season has been an active one. As of August, Share the Beach had confirmed 89 nests on Alabama’s shoreline: 85 loggerhead nests, two Kemp’s ridley nests and two green turtle nests. Anyone who spots a nesting turtle, a hatchling in trouble or an injured sea turtle can call the Alabama Sea Turtle Hotline at 866-SEA-TURTLE (866-732-8878).
The perks of pouring for a cause
Volunteering isn’t all work. According to the festival, volunteers receive a Shrimp Festival poster T-shirt and two drink tickets to redeem after their shift. Concession volunteers must be at least 21 years old.
Jones summed up the appeal:
“Where else can you have fun interacting with customers while wearing a new Shrimp Fest Volunteer t-shirt, enjoy a couple of the beers you just sold after four hours of work, and help out your favorite charity?” Jones said.
Besides concessions, the festival also recruits volunteers for merchandise and bike valet shifts.
A festival that began with volunteers
The National Shrimp Festival has been held in Gulf Shores since 1971. It began as a volunteer effort in what was then a small fishing town, created in part to recognize the local commercial shrimpers and to give the coast a reason for visitors to come after the summer season ended.
Today, the Coastal Alabama Business Chamber organizes the festival, which draws more than 300,000 people over four days. It has grown into one of the largest events on the Alabama coast, with art and craft vendors, food, live music and family activities spread along the public beach.
Even at that size, the event still depends on people who show up for a shift. The concession tip program is one way the festival’s volunteer roots continue: the crowd buys a drink, drops a dollar in the jar, and a local nonprofit gets a little stronger.
How to get involved
- Sign up: Individuals and groups can register through the festival’s online Volunteer and Concessions forms.
- Bring a group: Staffing a shift together means your chosen nonprofit keeps the full tip total instead of splitting it.
- Verify your nonprofit: Contact festival concessions organizers to confirm that your organization is eligible to receive tips.
- Plan for four hours: Concession shifts run four hours, and volunteers must be 21 or older.
The 53rd Annual National Shrimp Festival runs Oct. 8-11 in Gulf Shores. With many of the 664 concession slots still open, there’s still time to pick a cause, round up some friends and put the tip jar to work.