HomeAid Northern Virginia has received a $100,000 donation from Elm Street Development to help fund HomeAid projects for the shelter community in Northern Virginia as well as the Women Giving Back (WGB) program, which provides free clothing to women and children living in local shelters.
The donation was unexpected. HomeAid Northern Virginia’s fund-raising chair John DeZinno had asked David Flanagan, president of Elm Street Development, if his company would consider donating a building lot for a future HomeAid project. Flanagan instead offered to donate $100,000 to the organization.
“It’s an incredible offer,” DeZinno said, “that will go a long way in sustaining HomeAid’s mission. It’s impossible to put into words how many families and individuals will be directly helped through this gift, and how many lives will be changed over the long term.”
“We’ve made donations before,” Flanagan said, “because HomeAid is a great cause, and we know that by giving this kind of monetary gift, HomeAid can leverage every dollar through the in-kind donations that will follow. Through their partnerships and their low overhead, we know that our $100,000 will allow many more donations of time, labor and materials and will ultimately result in a far greater story than any of us could ever provide on our own.”
HomeAid Northern Virginia was started in 2001 by the members of the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association (NVBIA), and since then has completed 86 projects valued at more than $12.2 million and serving more than 60,000 homeless individuals.
In addition, Women Giving Back, a HomeAid program, has since 2007 donated more than 299,000 items of professional clothing and accessories to more than 21,000 homeless women and their children in Northern Virginia.