How Housing and Homelessness Fundraisers Are Faring in Difficult Times

When Habitat for Humanity was forced to abandon home-building projects last year due to covid, many companies kept giving money—even though their employees could no longer volunteer at Habitat building sites. Photo courtesy of Habitat for Humanity International

Last year, as the pandemic raged, Habitat for Humanity raised over $248 million, a tiny dip of less than 2% from the previous year. “We have not seen a decline in giving to the extent others have,” says Colleen Finn Ridenhour, Habitat’s chief development officer.

A big reason for the home-building charity’s relative fundraising success in the health crisis: strong support from individual donors. That, and many companies that provide money and enlist employee volunteers to build Habitat houses have continued to give generously—even when the organization had to cancel building projects because of COVID-related safety concerns.

Other corporate donors have stepped up to support Habitat in new ways during the pandemic. For example, as part of its COVID-relief efforts, Lowe’s gave $1 million to support mortgage forbearance and general operating support for Habitat affiliates. Republic Services, a Phoenix-based company providing recycling and waste disposal services, gave another $1 million to a dozen Habitat affiliates working to revitalize neighborhoods. And Bank of America contributed $224,000 for communal hand-washing stations and home repairs. 

The pandemic, Ridenhour says, has had a positive effect in bringing the importance of safe housing into sharper focus for donors. “Housing is now at the forefront of everyone’s thinking,” she says. “The pandemic has put our work in a new light.”

Indeed, advocates and organizations working on housing and homelessness have faced new and heightened challenges in the past year, with illness and loss of income making it harder for people to make rent and mortgage payments, and unstable living situations putting people at greater risk of contracting COVID-19. Nonprofits raise money from varying sources to provide housing and fight homelessness, including individuals, corporations and foundations—which often account for only a fraction of revenues—government funds and other income, depending on the services they provide.

As the first year of the pandemic drew to a close, Inside Philanthropy spoke with several fundraisers working for organizations in housing and homelessness to find out how their philanthropic support is holding up, where it’s coming from and what needs donors are helping them meet.

For many, government aid dwarfs contributions

Habitat for Humanity has a diversified, robust fundraising operation. In addition to corporate support, it relies on direct marketing, large gifts from individuals, foundation grants, workplace giving and planned giving.

Unlike Habitat, however, many nonprofit housing organizations, particularly those that develop and operate affordable housing facilities, are far more dependent on government aid. They rely on fundraising and charitable donations for only a tiny portion of their overall revenues.

At Mercy Housing, a Denver-based charity that operates affordable housing properties in 21 states, charitable contributions normally account for just 10% of revenues. More than 75% of Mercy Housing’s budget comes from the rent paid on some 24,000 affordable housing units. Much of that rental income is subsidized by the federal government, meaning that a low-income tenant pays a percentage of income for the rent. The government reimburses the landlord, in this case Mercy Housing, for the rest.

“We fundraise to provide things like financial literacy training, after-school programs and other wraparound services such as childcare options for tenants” that make it more likely people will be able to keep their homes, says Connie Rule, Mercy Housing’s senior vice president of national philanthropy. In an unusual but welcome development, an anonymous donor stepped up and gave a multimillion-dollar contribution last year to create “Rent Relief,” another wraparound program to help tenants of Mercy Housing stay in their homes in the event of a health crisis or if they lose a job, as many have in the pandemic.

Foundations making grants to housing organizations seem most willing to support wraparound services. Kerry Sullivan is president of the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, which has made $60 million in affordable housing grants since 2017. “A great housing grant application for me would also address support services,” Sullivan says. That demonstrates that the housing organization is able to build a strong network for its clients. “They work with other providers and don’t try to do it all. This is a valuable demonstration of a strong nonprofit, that they can collaborate.” 

Fundraising less visible in some housing groups

With philanthropy accounting for a small part of many nonprofit housing budgets, “you have organizations that do not have dedicated fundraising staff, because they are not doing typical fundraising activities,” says Stephen Glaude, president and CEO of the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development, a charity that advocates for affordable housing in the District of Columbia. “The employees who generate funds are people with titles like finance director and project manager.”

Glaude himself did not replace a fundraiser who left his housing advocacy organization two years ago, partly because of “shrinking philanthropy” resources for housing in his city. To raise $2 million annually, “I decided I could do [fundraising] without that dedicated person, with help from other staff as needed,” he says.

His organization has no individual donors, Glaude says, but “I raise money from foundations, corporations, banks and bank foundations. I get episodic government grants for specific projects.” One such project during the pandemic, he says, was distributing protective personal equipment to homeless shelters and affordable housing units with support from the D.C. mayor’s office of community affairs.

Because several foundations and corporations increased their donations and were more generous in giving operating support last year because of COVID, Glaude says, there are signs of pulling back in 2021. While the extra money he raised last year will carry his organization in coming months, “some who gave more in 2020 are uncertain about their ability to give this year,” he says. “And if they don’t renew, 2022 could be a really thin year.” 

In many cases, the contributions nonprofit housing groups get come from locally based foundations and corporations, often banks or bank foundations. “Some get local philanthropic support, but usually, it’s not very big,” says Peter Tatian, a housing policy expert with the Urban Institute. In particular, if nonprofit housing organizations are involved in developing affordable real estate, he says, “that requires millions of dollars from government and/or private investors. So philanthropy is much smaller,” Tatian says.

At statewide organization Housing Action Illinois, headquartered in Chicago, foundation and corporate grants account for about 30% of the nonprofit’s total budget. “All of our foundations are based in Chicago, and our corporate grants tend to come from a regional office here,” says Sharon Legenza, executive director. Last year, Housing Action Illinois raised slightly more from those sources: $280,000 from foundations and another $180,000 from companies.

Unlike many housing organizations that have no individual donors, Housing Action Illinois does have a small number of individual supporters, currently about 50 people, Legenza says. With growing awareness of the importance of housing in the pandemic, gifts from individuals rose last year by 40% to over $11,000. The organization was also successful in moving an event, an annual conference for 250-300 people, online. Housing Action Illinois was able to raise the same amount of money from previous corporate sponsors, though it did lower the cost for people attending virtually. Happily, the online gathering netted the same amount as the in-person meeting, because Housing Action Illinois didn’t have to rent space for the event.

Groups fighting homelessness have a fundraising edge

While affordable housing groups have fewer individual donors, homeless shelters and other charities that work with the homeless are usually more successful in recruiting individuals, who account for about 80% of all charitable giving nationwide. Homeless No More, a Columbia, South Carolina, charity that helps homeless families with children under 18, operates an emergency shelter. It also has transitional housing where 25 families can stay for up to two years while they get back on their feet. 

Last year, “we did see a dip in corporate giving, but we had a major increase from individual donors,” says Elizabeth Dudek, the charity’s director of development. She said Homeless No More pushed harder for donations because the charity was spending significantly more to help its families in the pandemic: opening a virtual school for children in its shelters, for example, and increasing its feeding program from one to three hot meals per day. Donors responded, giving $322,190 last year, up from $130,646 before the health crisis.

Dudek says that she and her colleagues paid special attention to people who had given $50 to $250 previously, asking them to make monthly rather than annual gifts. “We focused on them,” she explains, “because they often still have paychecks.” About 10% of the donors agreed to monthly donations, and “that really helped,” she says. “If someone gives you $100 every year, you can ask for $20 per month,” which adds up to $240 per year. And, says Dudek, “they often still give you $100 at Christmas.”