Habitat launches new major fund campaign

To that end, local Habitat officials Jan. 19 announced the launch of Founding Families, its first community-wide major gifts campaign.

Jan Sederholm, executive director of the Springfield affiliate of Habitat for Humanity, said that the campaign goal is to raise $350,000, which would pay infrastructure costs for 26 homes in the new subdivision.

She added that there are no campaign donors to announce yet, but Habitat is working with a local company that will announce donation plans soon.

The Habitat Board of Directors will meet Feb. 1, Sederholm said, then, “We’re going to be fanning out looking for the money.”

While individual sponsors will be used for the homes, no homes can be built there without the infrastructure work first.

“To find the funding for the infrastructure, we want to call on companies, but we felt like companies in Springfield – and for that matter, churches and organizations, too – those that serve the community all have such a family spirit. That’s what’s so wonderful about Springfield. And so we thought Founding Families represented the cause and the folks involved,” she said.

Sederholm said Habitat wanted to accurately reflect its mission when choosing a name for the campaign.

“We don’t just set out to build houses. We find the families first – the families in need – not just here in Springfield, but in all of Greene County,” she said. “As we conduct this campaign, we have to cast a wider and deeper net for funds, because we’ve always built one house at a time, one family at a time.”

This year, the local Habitat affiliate will build 10 new homes, some of them in the new subdivision. The Greater Springfield Board of Realtors has already stepped up to sponsor the first home that will be built in the new development.

The organization also will have four rehabilitated homes for families, bringing the total families served in 2005 to 14.

But that’s still not enough. Sederholm said Habitat families are being chosen and will be notified in early February whether they qualify for homes. “We did have 106 families (apply), and we’re actually going to have more families to meet the requirements than we have houses,” she said.

The goal, Sederholm added, is not to have to turn any qualifying families away, but they may have to wait beyond 2005 to get their homes. Also unveiled Jan. 19, during Habitat’s annual meeting and recognition luncheon, were the design plans for the homes in the new subdivision. Homes will be energy-efficient, in keeping with the overall low-impact plans for the development. The home designs are the work of Lisa Drew-Alton, Sederholm said. She noted that in 2005, the average cost for a Habitat home locally will be between $52,000 and $55,000.

The new subdivision is designed to minimize effects to the environment. For example, even though Greene County regulations would allow 72 homes on the 18-acre site, Habitat is limiting it to 56. Fewer homes will allow planners to maximize green space and amenities.

Native plants also will be used to help with water retention and the removal of impurities.

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