Our organization recently launched our Community Center Building campaign earlier this month. Today, we want to spend some time looking at grants as part of our funding strategy and discuss what these funds typically cover, what they don’t, and why private funding or sponsorship is so vital in closing the gap between grants and what is needed to complete this project.
Grants are powerful, but they come with guardrails
Most grant dollars arrive with strings attached, and for good reason. A funder awarding money for, say, energy-efficient construction wants that money spent on energy-efficient construction. That accountability protects everyone. It also means grant funding is restricted and can only be used for the specific line items, timelines, and categories approved by the funder.
That works beautifully for the predictable parts of a project. It works less well for everything else.
Construction is Covered, But What About Staff?
One of the benefits of grants for this type of work is that contingencies are often built in for timelines, cost adjustments, and supply readiness.
What grant funds often do not cover is the cost to run the organization. This is true of most nonprofit organizations; simply put, grants don’t cover staffing. For Homeward Bound Villages, managing an active build project, while operating a non-profit, and supporting the formation of the co-op at Karwick Village requires us to be exceptionally efficient with staff.
Common tasks for our organization include managing the project costs, paying invoices, and supporting the project with decisions along the way.
Homeward Bound Villages is not alone in this funding gap, where staff is needed to run the organization to move projects forward and serve those who need support.
Unrestricted funds, such as donations, cover the work of these vital roles among other things. This is where unrestricted dollars do their quiet, critical work.
What your gift actually covers
When you donate or sponsor this project, your dollars are unrestricted. This flexibility is often the difference between a project that stalls and a project that finishes. Here’s where those dollars most commonly go:
- Managing the Project- This requires skill, experience, and a deep understanding of construction schedules. A skilled project manager saves money overall; donations make this role possible.
- Administrative Support- Paying bills, answering phone calls and emails, and ensuring paperwork is in order is a full-time role. Without this person, the work doesn’t move forward.
- The unexpected but necessary. Site conditions, code requirements, and inspection findings can’t always be predicted. Donor dollars let us say yes to what the work requires, rather than pausing to find a funder.
- The pieces that make a building a home. Grants frequently fund structure and systems but not the finishing touches, landscaping, community gathering space, and the details that turn a building into a place people are proud to live and visit.
- The cost of doing the work well. Project management, oversight, and the staff time required to keep a build on track are real expenses that restricted funding often won’t cover.
Your gift is the part that adapts
Grants are the strong, fixed beams of this project, load-bearing, dependable, exactly where the plan said they’d be. Unrestricted donor and sponsor dollars are part of the structure that flexes when the unexpected arrives, so the whole tithing is built solidly.
We need both. We’re deeply grateful for the funders who have invested in this phase of construction. We’re asking you, neighbors, supporters, and local businesses, to provide the flexible foundation that lets every grant dollar do its job.
Build the next phase with us
Phase by phase, Karwick Village is becoming exactly what our community needs it to be. Your gift gives this project the freedom to meet whatever the next month of construction brings, and to finish strong.
Make a gift today, or talk with us about becoming a campaign sponsor. Every unrestricted dollar moves the next phase forward.
