Aurora-based The Neighbor Project and the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley have partnered on the issue of affordable housing in the area.
The Neighbor Project has placed $1 million in its fund with the Community Foundation. The money is half of the $2 million grant The Neighbor Project recently received from MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving Foundation.
“We chose to partner with the Community Foundation because of their deep roots in Aurora and the Fox Valley community along with their broad expertise regarding community issues and needs,” said Rick Guzman, executive director of The Neighbor Project. “The foundation will help multiply the impact of these dollars by pooling resources together and investing them for the future.”
In March, The Neighbor Project was awarded a $2 million grant from Scott’s Yield Giving Foundation for “taking transformative and inclusive approaches to some of the nation’s most pressing and persistent challenges.”
The Neighbor Project is dedicated to building new paths to homeownership for lower-income residents in the Aurora area. The grant from Scott’s foundation will allow The Neighbor Project to expand programs that help lower-income, working residents purchase their own homes, a critical step on the path to financial stability and wealth creation, officials said.
“Homelessness and lack of affordable housing ranked second and third respectively in top concerns felt by community members and Fox Valley nonprofits,“ said Julie Christman, Community Foundation president and CEO, citing findings from the 2023 Community Needs Assessment it commissioned with the Dunham Foundation. “Housing is clearly a critical issue in the community, and the Community Foundation is proud to partner with The Neighbor Project to help more families buy homes in the future.”
The Neighbor Project was awarded the $2 million from Scott’s Yield Giving out of 6,353 applications from nonprofits around the world. Originally, the organization planned to give 250 awards of $1 million each, but Scott’s foundation awarded The Neighbor Project $2 million because it was one of the highest-scoring organizations.
The Neighbor Project holds three funds with the Community Foundation, dedicated to affordable housing, home ownership and financial education.
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