Now that we've moved on to 2019, we wanted to look back on what made 2018 a truly unique and whirlwind year. So, buckle up—let's go for a ride through 2018!
January
Starting all the way back in January of last year, Wells Fargo made a multi-year $1,280,000 commitment to support affordable housing and celebrate a 25-year partnership with Twin Cities Habitat.
After 13 years of tireless work and dedication to Habitat's mission, former CEO Susan Haigh announced her retirement, and the search for a new CEO began!
The Habitat Young Professionals Network was recognized at the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals (YPro) Discovered Gala as the 2018 YPro Advocate of the Year – Medium Organization winner.
The ReStore had a record-breaking 50% Off Sale!
In February, we had the honor to share the news that our partners at Briggs and Morgan, Steve Ryan and Brian Corey, were named “Attorneys of the Year” for their work on behalf of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity.
Our Multiplying the Impact fundraising campaign hit the mid-way point of raising $27.5M—we love our donors!
We sent Habitat staff and supporters to join 350 others at Habitat on the Hill - D.C. to advocate for affordable housing solutions with legislators at the nation's Capitol - later leading to a 10% increase in funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development which does benefit Habitats all across the country.
Come March, we welcomed seven new members to our board of directors.
We launched Twin Cities Habitat's first-ever House that Beer Built! Now almost done, the home will be the product of financial and labor contributions from several local breweries, like our main sponsor, Dual Citizen.
Next was time to travel, as some volunteers participated in our Global Village build in Nicaragua.
We launched online applications to our Homeownership Program, streamlining the process for families looking to partner with Habitat.
The Minneapolis ReStore reached $1 million in sales to support building even more homes for Minnesota families!
In April, our Hard Hat & Black Tie gala broke a record for us, having raised over $940,000 to support our mission!
AmeriCorps members headed off to Texas to assist in home repair with a local affiliate to help rebuild after Hurricane Harvey.
About 115 Habitat advocates from across the state gathered at the Capitol for Habitat on the Hill - MN to make our voices heard about statewide housing policy and funding for affordable housing.
We celebrated National Volunteer Week by recognizing the thousands of volunteers who make our mission happen.
Part of what makes the ReStore so great is diverting tons of useful tools and furniture to re-use instead of the landfill. So we celebrated that with a Pre-Earth Day Sale.
As we started the month of May, we captured headlines with our announcement that Chris Coleman, former Mayor of St. Paul, would be Twin Cities Habitat's next President & CEO.
We launched our online volunteer store, where volunteers can earn points toward fabulous Habitat swag by logging volunteer hours with us.
Because we couldn't just end the month without a bang, we ended May with our advocacy paying off—and big time. The $120M bonding bill was passed!
In the transition from May to June, we finally had to say goodbye to Sue. Good thing we always do everything with pizzazz!
Next, we got to welcome Chris to Habitat—and what an exciting first month he had!
June saw plenty of excitement too, as Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity and Minnesota Housing entered into a ten-year, $25 million agreement, to help tackle the region’s affordable housing crisis and racial gap in homeownership.
We started some new volunteer positions to share our mission with the community.
We celebrated a week of Neighborhood Revitalization in the Jordan area neighborhood during our Jordan Week of Kindness event.
And we thanked our ReStore customers with a special Customer Appreciation Sale.
Every summer comes our Women Build, and this year saw an amazing number of women who came out to build and obliterate gender norms on site.
30 families moved into their homes in the summer, which is more than we've ever had in such a short period of time!
Our Raise the Roof Golf Tournament also broke fundraising records by raising over $158,000 for safe and affordable housing in the Twin Cities.
As the summer came to a close, we said goodbye to our wonderful AmeriCorps members for both the year and the summer.
Our New Brighton ReStore location met the milestone of 1,000 monthly donations!
We continued our legacy of supporting fair and affordable housing for LGBTQIA+ individuals through our Rainbow Build.
We continued our reign as the top ENERGY STAR builder in the state in September, proving that affordable can also mean energy-efficient.
Our now Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan came to chat with us and our partners in the Homes for All coalition about housing as a bi-partisan issue.
It was a year for great sales at the ReStore, and we held one to celebrate the ReStore's 11-year anniversary of funding Habitat's mission.
With a big win in the budget for AmeriCorps, we supported four new office positions starting in 2018 that will support Habitat homebuyers in different ways than our construction members.
Faith leaders gathered to build for a day as part of our Senior Pastor Build.
We celebrated World Habitat Day by taking action and gearing up to vote with affordable housing in mind.
We couldn't do what we do without the support of our sponsors, and they continue to support us yearly during our CEO Build.
We hosted a build with our dedicated Board and Board Emeritus.
In November, we launched our Multiply the Impact campaign to the public! It's a five-year $55 million fundraising campaign to double Habitat homeownership opportunities for Twin Cities families. Now's the time for everyone to get on board and make this audacious goal a reality.
A team traveled again for a Global Village build—this time in Vietnam.
We participated in Give to the Max Day, and leveraged generous matching gifts to create more affordable homeownership opportunities for local families.
We rounded up the year by celebrating our Homeowners as we welcomed a record 92 new families into the Habitat family in 2018.
Wow, what an amazing year! You made all this success possible. Your donations, volunteer hours, advocacy, and support are leading the way toward doubling the number of local Habitat homeownership opportunities. Thank you.
*thanks to our wonderful photographers Andrea, Bruce, Chick, Mark, Paul D, and Paul S!*
Your gift unlocks bright futures! Donate now to create, preserve, and promote affordable homeownership in the Twin Cities.
Greta Gaetz : 6:30 AM on June 12, 2019
An affordable home impacts everything, from strengthening our families to contributing to our region's economic prosperity. Unfortunately, too many...
Guest Blogger : 9:00 AM on November 10, 2014
Guest Blog by Lan Freitag, Leadership Giving Officer As I sat in a meeting listening to the fundraising challenges we were up against in the current...
![Home is [still] out of reach for many Minnesotans](https://www.tchabitat.org/hubfs/blog/2019%20Blog%20Images/October/1%20in%20four%20housholds.png)
Becky Engen : 12:59 PM on October 21, 2019
Maybe you've heard about the affordable housing crisis. Do you know the data behind it? A few months ago, Minnesota Housing Partnership (MHP)...
Christy Ohlrogge