Serving neighboring Illinois’ communities, the Neighborhood Housing Service of Freeport and the Rockford Area Affordable Housing Coalition provided similar services in their towns designed to help community members purchase their own homes and had successfully collaborated on programming for several years. Based on their shared vision of creating a greater impact in the region, the two organizations merged to streamline operations with a goal for the merged entity to expand its program from four counties to ten. In addition, the merged organization, now named HomeStart, was able to expand its policy and advocacy influence as well as leverage the expertise of its combined leadership to win contracts for affordable housing units. The SeaChange-Lodestar Fund for Nonprofit Collaboration provided a challenge grant to fund implementation expenses of the merger.
Grant Information
Grant Amount: $20,000
Year Granted: 2013
Grantee: HomeStart
Location: IL - Illinois
Grantee Website: HomeStart