Rock band 3 Doors Down returned to Mobile on Monday to announce that a March charity concert raised $90,003 for Gulf Coast charities, and that the group has bigger charitable plans for the future.

The popular hard-rock group billed its March 26 show, its first appearance at the Mobile Civic Center, as a homecoming concert. The stated goal was to raise $125,000 for 16 nonprofit organizations.

The $90,003 raised came from a variety of sources, including the pay that band members normally would have received, the auction of band memorabilia and third-party donations made in conjunction with the band's fund-raising effort.

In a Monday news conference, band members presented the beneficiaries with checks and announced the creation of a new organization, The Better Life Foundation.

Named after the group's first album, The Better Life, the foundation will raise money for regional nonprofit organizations. Singer Brad Arnold said that as with the March concert, the foundation will focus on groups that assist children and young adults.

The goal of this charity is just to change people's lives, Arnold said. We look for it to be a really, really good thing.

After the current tour, Arnold said, $1 from each ticket to the band's shows will go to the foundation.

The foundation's first big splash will come Dec. 18, when 3 Doors Down organizes a major charity auction in Gulfport. The event probably will take place at the Grand Casino, Arnold said, and will feature as much music as possible.

"By Dec. 18 we should have some really, really cool stuff for our auction, and we're going to see how many people we can get to come down and play, he said.

Mark D. Smith, a local financial adviser who coordinated many aspects of the show, said the foundation will soon have its own Web site. The site and other specific details of the foundation's work are still being developed, he said.

"You just have to give us a little time, he said.

According to a statement released by the group's publicist, 16 agencies benefited from the March concert: Alabama Baptist Children's Homes and Family Ministries; Center for The Prevention of Child Abuse; Gulf Coast Women's Center for Nonviolence; Habitat for Humanity; Hancock Medical Center Foundation; Hope Haven; Lighthouse Services; Mulherin Custodial Home; New Horizons of Northwest Florida Inc.; Our Daily Bread; Ronald McDonald House of Mobile; South Baldwin County United Way Inc.; The Child Advocacy Center; Wilmer Hall; United Cerebral Palsy of Mobile; and USA Children's & Women's Hospital.

Formed in Escatawpa, Miss., 3 Doors Down has released two multi-platinum albums since 1999.