Your Mortgage Prevention Capital Campaign has a lot to share!
We’ve been a little quiet during the Annual Support Drive, but we wanted to share this update.
In June 2023 you authorized us finish fundraising and to spend 4.8 million dollars for our Addition and related improvements. You did authorize up to $400,000 of that to be put into a mortgage.
Then, last July 21, 2024, we announced that we had less than $400,000 remaining to raise to prevent having a mortgage when our construction loan comes due in August 2026. So we launched this “Mortgage Prevention” phase, hoping for no mortgage at all..
The Gateways team managing this construction has just paid the final bills for the Addition, right within the budget you authorized. We are done!
The separate fundraising for the Solar Project is complete, fully funded at $180,000, with a combination of direct gifts and low-interest loans. This budget includes a contingency. A contract is signed and we expect construction to start soon!
The money raised for the Solar Project included $15,700 already spent by Gateways to prepare the Addition for installation of solar panels. This amount has now been credited back to the Capital Campaign. As a result, and due to your continuing generosity, the remaining need to avoid a mortgage is now less than $335,000!
What’s next?
We will continue contacting members and friends through this August for gifts and pledges towards the remaining need. In September we will kick off a renewed effort to raise whatever still remains as of that date. We will start with an information session on September 21st after the service, focused especially on newer members. We are hoping to hold other exciting events in the Fall.
We have had some Leadership changes: Franklin has stepped down as Co-chair; Shari will continue through the end of the campaign. Please contact Shari or the main office to volunteer to help bring this home! We need a lot of help – planning events, contacting members for visits, making our communications as clear as we can – but …
We have a Campaign End Date! The capital campaign will be winding up by December 31, 2025. Your pledge payments may continue past that date, but capital fundraising will come to a close.
What if we don’t raise it all? If we don’t raise the amount needed to pay off the construction loan, repayment will have to come out of the Operating Budget, starting August 2026. Options the Board will consider include extending the current loan for an additional year on an interest-only basis, or taking out a mortgage, in either case as of August 2026.
Thank you!
Mortgage Prevention Capital Campaign Team – Shari Loe, Chair; Laurent Comes, Tim Davis, Candice Donaldson, Helene Ferm, Paul Ferm, Rev. Sasha Ostrom