Home Depot Associates Give Back

Habitat builds have been a long standing service program for The Home Depot for over 20 years. My family started working on Habitat for Humanity homes back in the 90’s in Atlanta. I can remember my wife coming home from builds exhausted, dirty and happy all at the same time. She was elated at helping make someone’s dream come true. It sounded like so much fun, I actually took vacation from my previous job so I could be a part of the Orange-blooded volunteers and use my hands and feet for something besides computer work. After 8 hours of working on a new home for someone in need, I GOT IT.   It’s been a passion of mine ever since.

Since moving to Austin 8 years ago, it has been a pleasure helping coordinate the builds each year and seeing so many willing volunteers bring their best to the table to keep the same great tradition going here in our local Austin community. The joy and the satisfaction that comes from serving someone else like this is not easily attained in other ways. The relationships you build are unforgettable. Knowing that you are helping a family so they have a place that they can call HOME, a safe place to raise their children, and a great outlook to the future - now that is priceless!  

Tim Call, one of our long-standing day captains, has consistently raised the bar on what can be achieved on the first build day. He has a heart of gold and words to back it up with….. 

“After my first year on a Habitat build, I decided to be a day captain. Each year since, I have volunteered for Day 1. Day 1 volunteers get to see the faces of the new homeowners who realize their dreams are now becoming a reality. Regardless of the weather and what part of the build is being worked on, you can see all the smiles of the workers and the constant laughter that fills the day.  All the volunteers have a sense of pride while they are working. For me, it is gratifying to see the volunteers who were hesitant in the beginning become the first to sign up each year as they realize that their talents are more than enough to be an HFH volunteer. It also is refreshing to hear the volunteers tell how  they used some method or tool they learned at the build in their own personal life. The rewards go both ways. At the volunteer level, there is no price tag that can be placed on the benefits and rewards that doing good for others brings. The builds allow you to develop new friendships that would not have formed in the office.  From a cultural perspective, this is the first time some of the volunteers have seen this type of benevolence.  Giving back and doing the right things are the core of our company’s foundation.” (Tim Call)

We take great pride in all of the core values of The Home Depot and seeing them in action.  Giving back to our community is the right thing to do.

--

Home Depot is a valued sponsor of Austin Habitat homes for hardworking families. We will dedicate their latest safe, decent and affordable home for Ababeye Mengistu on Thursday, May 22, 2014.

Blue Genie & Austin Habitat= FRIENDS FOREVER

Blue Genie Art Industries has enjoyed a long and storied friendship with our neighbors at the construction warehouse for Austin Habitat. We have been neighbors for 13 years. As with all great relationships, we've made friends, supported one another, collaborated, and looked out for one another. Some of our highlights:

• We have been able to fiscally support Austin Habitat as our advocacy partner for our annual Blue Genie Danger Derby, part of the EAST tour every fall
• We collaborated with Austin Habitat Americorps on a beautification project in 2011, painting a giant mural which faces Govalle Elementary School. Habitat was immensely supportive in providing materials and labor resources as we painted a mural with a positive message with the input and participation of the local community, school, and property management, and Blue Genie.
• Blue Genie has donated materials and other supplies to the ReStore.
• We helped create an entry portal for Habitat when they had presence at the Austin Rodeo. After the rodeo, Habitat re-mounted the portal over their door and it provided some fun theming for several years here at our combined warehouses.
• We help one another with deliveries, property management, even checking in when their alarm trips. There has historically been a fair amount of property crime in this neighborhood that has seen a lot of transformation, so keeping an eye out for one another extends that sense of friends and neighbors.
• Austin Habitat has been very generous over the years helping us on occasion to move heavy loads and palettes of materials off trucks.

Even when we had a party shut down by the city and we were asked to pay a fine and community service hours, I went straight to the Habitat ReStore to do my service. We believe firmly in the Habitat mission and have felt supported by their team in our endeavors as a local maker shop.

In short, we heart Austin Habitat!

Kevin Collins,  Blue Genie Principal

Austin Habitat hearts you too!

Blueprints & Blue Jeans 2014

Published by Austin Habitat Development Associate, Isto Barton

Who cares about placemats?

The formula for a fundraiser is roughly the same no matter what event you go to. Venue. Food. Drinks. Entertainment. Decorations.

Lather.

Rinse.

Repeat.

It’s easy to become jaded when planning a fundraiser for an organization like Austin Habitat for Humanity. My colleagues spend their days interacting with our clients: counselling Austinites on financial responsibility through our Housing Counseling Program; making homes safe for the elderly and disabled through our Home Repair Program; turning furniture donations into dollars at the ReStore; and, of course, building homes with hardworking Central Texans through the Affordable Homeownership Program. It was hard for me to connect the triviality of event planning to the incredible groundwork of our staff, volunteers, subcontractors, and clients.

Before long the aforementioned checklist was secured and the evening was upon us.

Venue: Getaway Motor Club. Check.

Food: Word of Mouth. Check.

Drinks: Pinthouse Pizza; Deep Eddy Vodka. Check.

Entertainment: Dale Watson. Check.

Decorations: Valerie Miller Events. Check.

Check. Check. Check.

The evening began with the phenomenal Dale Watson playing music to a dancing audience. Those not dancing helped themselves to a Tater Tot Bar, Mini Meatloaf, and Chicken & Waffles. A Deep Eddy Betty stirred signature cocktails whileSay Cheese snapped photos with their photo booth. Three kegs of beer from Pinthouse Pizza flowed upstairs where you could play  Jenga or “Guess the length of the 2x4.”

The night proceeded as CEO Kelly Weiss welcomed the crowd and thanked our sponsors. Board member Jeff Serra spoke to us about the importance of Habitat for Humanity, and told the stories of the Ingram, Castro, and Mengistu families. As he concluded, it was time to hand the mic to Gayle Stallings of FUN Auctions – assisted by volunteers and habitat homeowners. The game was on!

Five Auction items later, we had raised around $15,000 and were ready for the Cevallos Brothers’Fund the Need video (can be viewed here). The sniffles that spread across the audience were soon drowned by thunderous applause as Ms. Loya came to the front of the house. The next ten minutes were a blur. Paddles flew to the melody of the auctioneering as we raised $10 thousand… $25 thousand… $50 thousand! I was cheering from the back of the auditorium as the rest of our staff tallied our totals from the evening.

Night-of, we walked away with $140,000 – enough money to pay for the supplies of two Habitat homes. 

As Dale resumed playing and the dancing started up again, I reflected on the triviality of the placemat.

Blueprints & Blue Jeans provided our donors, volunteers, staff, subcontractors, and clients to come together under one roof for a much-needed pat on the back. We got to sit back as a community and appreciate what Austin Habitat for Humanity accomplished over the last year. Our contractors got to have a drink with our homeowners. Our donors got to meet the wide range of our Habitat staff. We all took a moment to celebrate. To appreciate. To congratulate. And it was this energy: kicked into gear with lively music in a beautiful venue – satiated with meatloaf, and aided by a few drinks that we came together to raise two roofs in one night. I love that.

If someone has to care about placemats, I couldn’t be happier to have that job.

Mission: Possible

Guest Blog entry by Austin Habitat's new VP of Development, Georgia Thomsen. 

I’ll be celebrating my four month anniversary at Austin Habitat next week and I’m never been happier. Why?

My close friend and mentor, Steven Tomlinson, once gave me some wonderful advice. “Georgia,” he said. “You should only take a job for three reasons. One: It will provide you with an opportunity to learn something new Two: It will provide you the opportunity to be around, and learn from, people who are smarter than you or Three: It fills your spirit and gives you joy”

I have been raising money for non-profits in Austin since 2007. And I can tell you there are a lot of wonderful organizations and causes in this town. I’ve been privileged to work for some of the most innovative, well respected and productive non-profits in this community. But without a doubt, none of them come close to my experience working at Austin Habitat for Humanity.

Learning something new:

I knew a little about Austin’s affordability issue before I came here. Anyone in this town who picks up the Statesman, or turns on the local news, knows a little bit about our housing crisis. Only three months into 2014, homes sales are up 4% and median home prices are up 7% year-over-year. All of this is happening as housing inventories have hit all-time lows. It is a tough market. But I had no idea how deep this problem runs.

In the short time I’ve been at Habitat, I’ve learned about the incredible need for affordable housing. Austin’s poverty rate is HIGHER than the national and state averages and 1 in 8 of our children live in poverty. Rentals are becoming harder to find and our families are paying more as monthly rent climbs higher and higher. It’s devastating, and the more I learn, the more passionate I become about helping.

Learning from people who are smarter than me:

There’s no doubt that Kelly Weiss, our President and CEO, is talented. She knows more about this industry than anyone else in our community. But aside from Kelly, Austin Habitat for Humanity has a passionate, and incredibly smart, Board of Directors. Their resumes are impressive:  a University of Texas finance professor, a former chairman and CEO of one of America’s largest energy refining and marketing companies, the CTO of one of Austin’s most philanthropic companies, a Texas legislator and an independent feature film producer who just showed at Sundance. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

I’m honored to be able to learn from these brilliant, passionate people.

It gives me joy:

I took this picture at my very first Habitat house dedication in January. I wish this picture could convey what we were all feeling. Five amazing families were about to have their lives changed forever. Their hard work, dedication and over 300 sweat equity hours led them to this life-changing event: Home Ownership. To know I played a small part in making their dreams a reality filled me with great joy. I want to do it again. And again. And again.

Why did I choose to come to work at Habitat?

Because Steven was right. And I was lucky enough to find all three.  

Social Investing

As Austin continues to grow, by way of internal migration, pushing up the cost of housing and subsequently out of reach for many families, Austin Habitat for Humanity faces increased pressure on serving the underserved in the Austin housing market.

We all know that Austin Habitat serves via multiple programs, Home Construction, Home Repair, Housing Counseling & ReStore (Home Improvement Store) but how do we scale these programs to reach those in need.

Surrounding Home Construction, one way the organization is researching how to scale the operation is by Social Investing.  Internally at Austin Habitat we’ve referenced this term in a number of ways including Habishares, Homeshares etc, but it is essentially financing Home Construction instead of fundraising.  Traditional fundraising will always remain, and grow, but to supplement the projected growth of Home Construction we will also finance construction.  Financing could come from private investors, foundations, financial institutions etc.  In fact, we already finance some of our Home Construction by way of the Bootstrap grants we receive through the State of Texas. 

Why finance?  At a certain point we can only raise a certain amount of funds via traditional fundraising for a number of reasons – one being market saturation as many nonprofits compete for donor dollars within the Austin community.  Financing allows Austin Habitat to build a house that would otherwise not have been possible without it, and it does not affect the homeowner other than provide the needed capital to build the house.  Austin Habitat manages the financing obligations – all the homeowner needs to do is pay their regular mortgage payment the same as all Habitat homeowners.

Why haven’t we done this sooner?  As the trend and demand for Corporations to become more socially responsible, Social Investing is gaining more traction, but it takes time.  Social Investments have been in existence for many years but access to them has been a challenge.

Is financing Home Construction detrimental to Austin Habitat and what are the effects on cash flow?  No, it is not detrimental.  The financing obligation Austin Habitat pays to the investor is covered by the mortgage payment Austin Habitat receives from the homeowner.

As Austin Habitat continues to pursue Social Investing models to implement, the integrity of what we do at Austin Habitat will always remain the same.

-Mat King, Austin Habitat for Humanity Chief Financial Officer