Along the way, we’ve learned that the art and science of grassroots fundraising has in many ways been lost, and needs to be redeveloped. To that end, we’ve been holding occasional mini-courses on grassroots fundraising and doing lots of one-on-one consulting.

The Interactive Resource Center (the IRC) and Faith Action International House are two local groups we’re proud to support in this way. The IRC assists people who are homeless, recently homeless, or facing homelessness reconnect with their own lives and with the community at large. Faith Action is all about building a united community of many cultures – engaging native-born Americans, immigrants, and refugees in learning, service, and advocacy for human rights, justice, and equality. What’s interesting about both these groups is the growing role played by the people they serve in getting the work of the organization done and in planning next steps.

Faith Action and the IRC are each working to raise as much money as they can before the year is out. And for each group, we’ve promised to match up to $10,000 of their smaller donations. With the incentive of our matching grants, we’re hoping lots of new supporters surface.

After this batch of grassroots dollars gets raised, the next challenge to Faith Action and the IRC will be to figure out meaningful ways to connect their new-found supporters into the larger missions of their organizations. That’s how you build an organization that’s here for the long haul.

Eliza Gilkyson

The Peace & Justice Network is holding its First Annual Concert for Peace, Justice & Sustainability featuring Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Eliza Gilkyson, with opening remarks by author and activist Robert Jensen.

“Gilkyson doesn’t pull any punches. She graces the music with her lush and passionate voice; a dark and lonely sound, hope and satisfaction, and edgy lyrics with piercing imagery …”
– New York Times.

Homekeeping is a non-profit, community-based organization, founded and incorporated in the State of North Carolina. Its staff is committed to increasing home retention by preventing foreclosure, particularly for low-to-moderate income homeowners. They provide education to homeowners and homebuyers, and teach homeowners to care for their homes to protect their investment.

When you visit Homekeeping Default Mortgage Counseling, Ms. Mary Tay, Executive Director and Founder, will invite you into her cozy office, offer you something to eat, and tell you story after story of people she meets who have fallen on hard times and can’t pay their mortgages. Without mentioning any names, Ms. Tay will describe people who have been laid off from jobs they have worked for decades. She will tell you about folks without health insurance who have had accidents and run up huge hospital bills. She works with homeowners whose hours at their factory jobs have been cut back just as their adjustable-rate mortgage increased by hundreds of dollars a month. Her cases have included elderly couples living on Social Security with the rising cost of multiple prescriptions eating into their mortgage money. This agency has even helped a 78-year-old widow whose daughter in New Jersey suddenly stopped paying her mortgage and could not be reached by phone. A neighbor referred her to Homekeeping.

By the time clients come to see Ms. Tay, many of her clients are already in foreclosure, and a few have come in to talk with her only days from having their homes sold at auction. One lady’s home had been sold the day before. But if they are willing to struggle to keep their homes, they have come to the right place. Homekeeping has a phenomenal success rate of over 90% in keeping homeowners in their homes!

Ms. Tay is committed, caring, and dedicated to helping people keep their homes. She accomplishes this by working countless hours on behalf of each and every client. She is able to do this because of her own experience of moving out of public housing and becoming a first-time homebuyer. She has also developed extensive contacts and trusting relationships with the staffs at the Office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), mortgage insurers, local non-profit agencies, and banks all over the country. (Mortgages are bundled and sold, not necessarily locally.)

Long before the current mortgage crisis, Homekeeping specialized in working with low-to-moderate income homeowners. Ms. Tay recruited and trained her Latina neighbor to assist her with Spanish-speaking clients.  Among Ms. Tay’s many skills are teaching budgeting and financial literacy with down-to-earth practical examples, so first-time homeowners do not get into trouble in the first place. Those whose houses are saved from foreclosure do not fall behind as easily again.

Ms. Tay is also known for negotiation of creative win-win solutions that help both her clients and the mortgage holders. For example, when the elderly widow mentioned above contacted Ms. Tay, sadly the home had already been foreclosed. The frail little lady had not a clue about how to handle the mysterious mail coming to her address describing delinquency and foreclosure. She had never dealt with such issues as her daughter, many states away, had always paid the mortgage note and taken care of such matters after the death of her father. When this devastated senior became a client of Homekeeping, a search for the daughter revealed that her daughter in New Jersey had suffered a nervous breakdown and had been hospitalized long-term. Since the sale had already occurred, Ms. Tay convinced and solicited the help of HUD to sell the home to a local housing non-profit agency.  The elderly widow, mother and former owner of this home is now guaranteed to be able to stay in her home as long as she can live independently.  She pays a low fixed monthly percentage of her Social Security income as a renter.

Ms. Tay is well known in the Greensboro community, having lived here for more than thirty years. Her clients trust her expertise and appreciate her sensitivity to their needs in this turbulent economy. Ms. Tay’s extraordinary work is not self-supporting, however. By the time foreclosure has begun, her clients have often fallen several months behind in their mortgage payments and many cannot afford even the nominal $25 fee Homekeeping charges for mortgage counseling. (That does not stop them from thanking her by bringing her a pie, or a homemade cake, a beautiful area rug and once in a while a $5 dollar bill in a card.)  Many former clients volunteer to help Homekeeping help others.

F4DC is honored to support Ms. Tay’s work with two grants to help provide computer support, fund the training of two long-time volunteers as HUD-certified housing counselors, expand Homekeeping’s Board, and leverage other fundraising. If you are interested in helping to support Homekeeping, contact Ms. Tay at (336) 510-9619 or email her at mbynum1@triad.rr.com.

100 Leaders was awarded a grant to support the work of identifying, developing, and networking community leaders for more effective and sustainable community involvement and advocacy.

Caregiver Village’s grant will support a strategic plan to guide a partnership between the Piedmont Heights community and the Center for Women’s Health and Wellness at UNCG.  Their collaboration will combine scholarship, education, and community action to promote the health, wellness, and quality of life of the community’s residents.

The Spirit House Choosing Sides violence prevention program amplifies the voices of young people impacted by violence, provides academic and cultural enrichment, develops young leaders, and offers life-skill lessons to help participants avoid destructive behavior.

The Crack Intervention Research Project will use their grant to improve and build on crack interventions developed through the Yale School of Public Health and the Harm Reduction Crack Institute.  Tailoring crack intervention to the needs of local crack users will decrease the incidence of HIV, hepatitis C, and other infectious diseases.

The F4DC grant to Future Leaders will provide living wage stipends for young interns from different countries to learn community organizing.  Through translating, they will help immigrants communicate with landlords and mortgage companies and help empower their immigrant communities to assert their rights as tenants and as home buyers.

Healing the Hurt plans to provide a program of professionally-guided support groups, counseling services, and community outreach social programs for families experiencing physical, emotional, and psychological abuses, including death, by law enforcement.

The Greensboro Health Disparities Collaborative will plan and hold public forums to increase community knowledge and facilitate discussions about racial disparities in breast cancer care.

The HIVE Youth Committee was awarded a grant to begin organizing a HIVE Youth Committee and to support initial programs and outreach.

Homekeeping Mortgage Default Counseling will use its grant to train and certify additional housing counselors and to help expand and develop its Board of Directors.

Los Artistas Greensboro art program promotes self-confidence, motivation, and self-expression for Latino/a youth and helps transform diversity into a platform for understanding and learning through art.  The funds will support staff compensation, mileage reimbursement, and needed resources.  Visit The Center for Visual Artists-Greensboro for more information on the Los Artistas program.

The Peace and Justice Network connects and mobilizes local progressive organizations and individuals to impact policy and social outcomes in Greensboro.  PJN will use its grant to take its programs and processes to the next level:   creating stronger alliances, leveraging expertise, and enhancing skill sets to create a dynamic community that functions more cohesively.

SURGE will provide skills training to young progressive activists around the state, focusing on campus and community organizing, media engagement, direct action, and other skills.  Go here to learn more about the SURGE Network.

The American Friends Service Committee’s Truth in Recruiting project aims to increase youth awareness in North and South Carolina about alternatives to military service and opt-out options, and to build the capacity of local community groups to work for peace and create alternatives to war and militarism.  Their grant will be used for travel costs and printed materials.

The workshop was held Saturday, August 23, 2008 from 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM at The Greensboro HIVE, 1214 Grove Street. Attendance at the Grant-Writing Workshop was optional; however, we encouraged grant-seekers to attend if they had questions about the application process or needed assistance with grant proposals. Go here to view the workshop agenda. View photos of some of the participants in the Grant-Writing Workshop.