There are many ways you can get involved with Habitat for Humanity, and one of them involves giving a Gift-In-Kind donation. We have an amazing community of donors and corporate sponsors, and we are grateful to each and every one of them. Without the support of local and national companies, we wouldn’t be where we are today. We’re proud to say that donations to Habitat make an immediate and positive difference on our organization’s daily operations and longer-term goals. Read on to learn more about our Gift-In-Kind donation process!
What is a Gift-In-Kind donation?
Gift-In-Kind donations are donations of goods and services. These goods might include wood, brick, flooring, cabinetry, appliances, paint, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, drywalling, bathroom fixtures, lighting fixtures and more. Other donation items might be safety equipment such as tools, steel-toed boots, hard hats, safety shoes, safety gloves and food for our our volunteers on our build sites.
Donated skilled trades services might include HVAC, plumbing, bricklaying, landscaping, drywalling, roofing and more. If you or your business is able to donate any of these goods or services, visit Habitat’s website to fill out our easy online donation form.
How do Gift-In-Kind donations help Habitat?
We have the same construction and development costs as other for-profit development companies. However, because we’re a nonprofit organization, we rely on donations to get our build projects off the ground. Fifty-six per cent of development fees occur before we put a shovel into the ground, due to things like development fees, planning submissions and permits.
When land, materials and supplies are donated, we’re able to keep our upfront costs low because we don’t need to purchase those things ourselves. That means that when one of our partner families pays back their mortgage, we’re able to put that money back into our revolving fund to continue the cycle of building another home for another deserving family.
On any given day, we might have up to 30 volunteers on our site. These include both teams of corporate volunteers taking part in team build days, and individual construction volunteers. This means that we’re looking for more donations than ever before, including hospitality donations of food and coffee for our volunteers onsite.
In addition to fuelling our volunteers for their day on the site, these donations also help keep people upbeat and smiling throughout the day, making their overall experience with Habitat a more positive one. This means they might be more likely to spread the word about their Habitat build day, or even come back and spend another day building with us.
Why give a Gift-In-Kind donation?
You will receive a charitable tax receipt for any donations of over $100 when you indicate this on our online donation form. Beyond this, though, donating to Habitat helps your Corporate Social Responsibility. We recognize our donors in a variety of ways, including social media posts and other forms of online recognition. We want everyone to know about the great gift that you’ve given us!
We’re also happy to engage our donors beyond the initial donation. We invite our corporate partners to special Habitat events, like our dedication ceremonies where families receive the keys to their brand new homes. In this way, we foster a continued relationship with our donors. When you give to Habitat, you become an important part of our team and we value your contributions immensely.
As previously mentioned, donations of materials and services truly make a huge difference on our build site. When companies partner with us and donate a certain item or service, it is one less thing we have to source out and fund ourselves. That means that more of our money can be saved for the development costs, land purchases and other necessary parts of the building process.
Other ways to donate
If your company would like to get involved with Habitat but you don’t have goods or services that could be donated to a build site, there are a plethora of other ways you can get involved and help make a difference in the lives of families right here in your community.
Your company can consider donating overstock to a Habitat ReStore. Our ReStores are our discount home improvement centres where items are sold for 30 to 70 per cent of their original retail value. Overstock items might be mis-packaged, damaged, returned, discontinued or are end-of-the-line products.
Donating these items not only gives Habitat product to fill our shelves, but also helps your company by clearing out your warehouse and avoid paying to send items to the landfill. A portion of proceeds from items sold in our ReStores go towards covering our administrative costs, while the rest go directly into our home building projects.
You can also make a corporate donation through fundraising for Habitat. Depending on the amount you donate, your team may be able to take part in a team building day with Habitat. This can vary from an onsite experience on one of our build sites, a half or full day in our exclusive upcycling facility called the ReVive Centre or a half or full day volunteering in one of our ReStores. Visit our team experiences website to learn more.
Your company can also organize a workplace giving campaign to raise awareness and funds for Habitat. Check out our blog post about fundraising tips to learn more about how to make a corporate donation to Habitat.
Give the gift of a Gift-In-Kind donation today
As you can see, Gift-In-Kind donations are a very important part of our construction process. They help keep our building costs low, and ultimately allow us to save money while we construct an affordable home for a deserving family. Whether your company is able to donate equipment, food, skilled trades services or something else, we can’t wait to hear from you.
To make a Gift-In-Kind donation, follow this link to fill out the donation form on our website. Our team will be in contact with you to follow up so that we can work together to change the lives of families in need of safe, decent and affordable housing for generations to come.