As we approach the end of another year, we want to share with you – and all of our supporters – what we’ve been working on for the last twelve months. We’ve had some terrific highlights, including the sale of three homes to our homeowner partners. We hope to close on two more homes before the New Year.
Additionally, we have completed or are in the process of completing 15 critical home repair projects and 25 porch repairs as part of our collaboration with Building Blocks of Kalamazoo on the Maggie Wardle Porch Safety Initiative. I’m incredibly proud of our homeowner partners, volunteers, and staff for making that happen! It has sometimes felt like an impossible goal after the tumult of the last few years, but we did it.
As we look to the future, it is into a starkly different environment than five or ten years ago. The funding landscape has shifted and we, like you, face the effects of inflation and turbulent markets. In the last few years, we have seen construction costs increase between 30% and 50% – across the board. Traditional institutional funders’ support has not kept pace and, in some cases, they have had a diminished ability to support nonprofit efforts in general. Individual donors are feeling the strain and are facing less flexibility to support the programs they love. The way we have made true affordable homeownership work in the past will not be sufficient going forward.
I’m happy to say that we are working diligently to address the changes we face and to reorient to a truly sustainable model. That is why your support is so important. If you have the capacity to donate this year, it will go a long way to ease the strain of increased building costs. If you have the ability to increase your annual donation, it will go a long way to help others who perhaps can’t give as much this year.
And if you can share your enthusiasm for the critically important work that we do and encourage your family and friends to get involved and support affordable home ownership, it will go a very long way to ensuring that our next 40 years will be even more impactful than our first 40 years.
Thank you for everything you do to make our work possible and I wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season and joyous 2023.
Sincerely,
Rob Oakleaf
Executive Director
