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Fill in the Blank: I am proud of _______

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Last week, I posted some thoughts on the things that I would change about what’s going on around us - the things about the world that make me embarrassed and that we could change.  This week, I want to look at the other side and talk about the situations I see that make me proud of us all.

First, I want to talk about a few things close to home - our home at The Home Depot Foundation.  In 2007, we pledged to invest $400 million to build and rehab 100,000 homes and plant three million trees over ten years.  Just three years in, we’ve contributed $163 million, touched 64,000 families by helping them live in safe, healthy homes and planted 732,000 trees.  That’s a lot of numbers, but it’s also a lot of people and neighborhoods changed for the better and many, many great partners with whom we have worked.

Speaking of which, I am exceptionally proud, as well as humbled, to have worked with each of the nonprofit partners who made those numbers a reality in communities across the country.  Seven days a week, passionate professionals spend their days pouring out their energy working to help others.  They aren’t just thinking about making a difference (or writing about it), they are actually changing the way people are living their lives: building healthy homes where a policeman can afford to raise his family; teaching a mom how to program her thermostat to save money on her utilities so she buy new sneakers for her son; planting a garden where a family and neighbors can plant vegetables, watch with anticipation as the tomatoes turn red and enjoy what they have grown together, creating a healthier meal and a stronger community.

I’m proud of the thousands, actually the millions, of volunteers who give their time to do things for others without asking for anything in return.  They paint homes, plant trees, mentor kids, cook meals and visit veterans’ hospitals.  They understand that by giving of themselves, they will be happier and more fulfilled, and all of us will benefit.  And they often do this when they have no idea who will ultimately be helped by what they are doing.

I’m astounded that even as we are bombarded with bad economic news, Americans donated over $300 billion to charities in 2009.

I am proud that an average person laughs 15 times a day.  I am proud that usually if you trust people, they won’t let you down.  I’m amazed that there are scientists who are creating medicines to fight horrible diseases.  I’m awed that anyone has walked on the moon.  I’m proud that we can each do so many things - big and small - to make life a little easier, a little happier or a little healthier for someone else.  And I’m even more proud of us because we actually do so many of those things every day.

By Kelly Caffarelli
Posted in Healthy, Affordable Housing, Philanthropy, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Paying Volunteers say “Thank You New Orleans!”

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Be glad that you aren’t sitting next to me – I’m tired, sweaty and smelly… and I feel great. I just got back from a Habitat for Humanity site where we worked on 5 different houses. All told, dozens of people who work with The Home Depot’s marketing, advertising and online teams essentially built a house – albeit not all in one piece. We did different work at different houses: at the first, laying the cement block foundation; second, building the floor system; third, framing a three-bedroom, one-bath home; fourth, siding an entire home and starting to paint it; and finally, nailing shingles on the roof and completing some framing inside. WHEW!

foundation

While these days of working in a community - beside colleagues, neighbors and in this case, the future owner of the homes we were building - are always meaningful, I think all of us were particularly inspired because we are in New Orleans as the fifth anniversary of Katrina approaches. Even as we sweated to bring these new homes out of the sandy ground, across the street decrepit and abandoned homes seemed to be staring at us through glassless windows. No one having stepped foot in them since the storm blew through over four and a half years ago.

The point I want to underscore though is not where we are, or what we did, but who was there. The Habitat staff was organized, professional and easy to work with, and the future homeowners were quietly excited, but perhaps a little overwhelmed. There were quite a few people who work for The Home Depot, but the vast majority of the volunteers are employed by the companies The Home Depot has hired to help its marketing and advertising efforts. These are men and women to whom “building a deck” doesn’t involve hammering nails, but instead means creating a powerpoint presentation. And not only did they travel and give their day to help someone they didn’t know, they even made a financial donation to do it.

roofing

Now, I’ve worked for large corporations for my entire adult life (How long is that? Long enough!), and I understand that sometimes it’s hard to see that real, breathing human beings with emotions and compassion make the decisions for these organizations. But I wish you could have seen the companies working through these people today. From early this morning, my goal for the day was to make sure these paying volunteers had a good experience and knew that we appreciated the time and money they were giving. Instead, I spent the day being thanked by others for giving them an opportunity to help this community where they don’t live and to help families they will probably never see again. The statements were gratifying: they told me that they would remember this day for a very long time, that it was the best corporate event they had ever attended and that when they get home they were going to take their families to do something in their community. In fact the only “complaint” I heard was that they didn’t get the chance to work hard enough.

wallraising

As the media stories start to gear up this summer about the five years that have passed since Katrina struck and the progress, or lack of progress, that has been made, I know I’ll remember what I experienced today: a neighborhood with amazingly strong people trying to reclaim their homes and a gracious community allowing scores of strangers the opportunity to help others and to give of themselves.

By Kelly Caffarelli
Posted in Sustainable Communities, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Preventing Green from Going Brown

Monday, March 29th, 2010

I am very excited today to have a guest post on Triple Pundit, one of my favorite web sites. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Triple Pundit provides really great editorial coverage and group discussions on sustainable business in the 21st century. Their goal is to cultivate awareness and understanding of the triple bottom line - how people, profit and the planet interact. I firmly believe that if we don’t take into account the impact of our actions on all three of these dimensions, we won’t be successful and this site is one of my daily must-reads.

My guest post focuses on how easily green buildings can go brown if we aren’t vigilant about what happens after the construction process. This is a subject that may not seem very important or glamorous, but about which I am passionate - just ask anyone who’s discussed it with me (whether they wanted to or not!). The Home Depot Foundation made a long-term commitment in 2007 to invest $400 million to build and rehabilitate 100,000 affordable homes, plant three million trees across the country and help cities incorporate sustainability into their policies and operations. In just three short years, the Foundation has made a great deal of progress, having built over 50,000 homes and planted over 600,000 trees in our communities. While it won’t have been wasted, we certainly won’t accomplish our long-term objectives if what we created green isn’t maintained to stay green.

The point of our investment in affordable housing is to provide working families of modest incomes with the true benefits of living in a green home - significant savings on monthly utility bills and long-term operational and maintenance expenses as well as better health. These benefits won’t be realized or will be diluted if the homes and buildings aren’t maintained properly.  This also can have a dramatic impact on the overall data collection as businesses and governments attempt to track the long-term benefits of green building.  If the data being collected isn’t really from a green building…then the information we derive from that data won’t be accurate.

This is an issue that The Home Depot Foundation will continue to emphasize and work with other organizations to develop solutions and suggestions. To see some great examples of sustainable community develop that we’ve supported, please visit our web site.

If you have made any changes to your own home in hopes of reaping the financial and health benefits of green building, I encourage you to double-check your maintenance and usage of the product. For instance, if you install a high-efficiency HVAC system, but either don’t change the filters regularly or don’t use the right ones, the system won’t perform as promised and you won’t see the savings you had hoped when you open your power bills this summer.  Homeowners can visit The Home Depot Eco Options web site for specific tips on how to make their homes more energy efficient.

I hope you’ll read my Triple Pundit guest post and let me know what you think. Any and all ideas you have about how we can maintain the value of green investments are welcome.

By Kelly Caffarelli
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Confessions of a Focused Philanthropist

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

I have a confession to make:  being a focused grantmaking organization can be no fun at all.  This thought became strikingly clear to me last week when the Foundation hosted a reception for about 60 leaders of some of the most successful Atlanta-area nonprofits.  We gather this group several times a year to provide them a peer-to-peer opportunity to discuss the issues they are facing, the shared challenges, and (perhaps) find new and creative ways to partner and collaborate.

These leaders represent a broad cross-section of charitable organizations: some work in housing (the Foundation’s focus),  others in youth development, the arts,  and education, and still others work to end domestic violence, preserve historic sites  and provide legal assistance to people who couldn’t otherwise afford it.   While we don’t talk about it much,we know that each one of these organizations provides an essential piece to the puzzle that can become a livable, thriving community.  And now more than ever, each one of them is looking for - and truly needs - additional financial resources.  In the past, they were seeking donors to build new buildings or expand their services.  Today, some of them are asking for donations to keep their doors open.

These leaders represent organizations that we respect.  In this relatively small community, they are our friends.  And when your friends are in trouble, you naturally want to help.  (I believe that’s part of what defines human nature.)  Unfortunately, in the real world of limited dollars and cents, we can’t help everyone, and we certainly can’t help everyone to the extent they need.  I believe that these nonprofit organizations know it is a stretch, but it’s their jobs and they ask for additional support.  I see the disappointment when it doesn’t come.

I think that’s where the words “focused” and “disciplined” start rearing their ugly heads.  We have to decide the area in which we are going to support our communities’ organizations so we can have a real impact.  If we are “scatter shot” about our grants, we won’t be able to create a measurable difference; we won’t really help much at all.

This explanation absolutely makes sense from a rational, thoughtful point of view. I fully understand the importance of thinking strategically and ensure that we are leveraging our investments and catalyzing change.  I just can’t help thinking, though, that it would be much more emotionally satisfying  - and a lot easier - if we could stop keeping track of the budget for a while and just tell everyone “yes.”

By Kelly Caffarelli
Posted in Philanthropy, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Year End and the Chase is On

Friday, December 18th, 2009

I’ve been thinking about this post for a couple of days.  I wanted to find something cheery to write - something in the holiday spirit.  Our office is full of such: Christmas trees and wreaths, menorahs and holiday sweets.  My inbox is full of sparkling, gold-edged holiday cards sending good will.

I appreciate all of that and am definitely looking forward to the holidays and having some time to spend with family and friends.  But I’m having trouble with the upbeat message as I’m struck by how many of those year-end cards are being sent to chase down a last few donations - desperately.  I know I should expect this given the headlines and economic reality that have defined 2010 (for details on that, see the results of a recent Chronicle of Philanthropy survey), but I think that what has caught my attention is not only the quantity of these pleas, but the tone of them.  For quite a few, it’s clear that this isn’t just about trying to get a few more dollars into the bank, but it’s really about saving staff jobs, programs and, perhaps, even the organization itself.

But, that’s not what I’ve been mulling over.  It’s really that I’m torn about what the appropriate response is.  Of course, on a personal level, I’d like the Foundation to be able to give to each of these nonprofits.  I’m absolutely sure that every single one of them is helping someone who needs help, making a community stronger or giving voice to a forgotten cause.   As everyone in philanthropy knows, though, we shouldn’t make grants scatter shot; we have to be focused, aligned, strategic.

On a professional level, I completely agree with that  - we invest in nonprofits that can work with us strategically to make significant impact in our communities.  As we reach the end of our fiscal year, we’ve managed our budget so that we’ve granted all that we have to give - we have to make our numbers work too.  We aren’t set up to respond to these kinds of spur of the moment requests, nor do I think that we should be.

It still doesn’t feel good to send out the letters declining these requests.  But with my personal year-end donations, I plan on spreading my gifts among a number of organizations, some of which I haven’t supported before.  I guess that I’m not along in that, as one respondent to the Chronicle survey said he was seeing the number of donors giving to his organization going up even while the dollars are down.  I’m lucky in that I can have it both ways - I’ll let my head rule at work, but my heart wins at home.

By Kelly Caffarelli
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

“Cities of the Future” Are Being Built Today

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

For many people, the notion of building sustainable communities seems like something rather far-fetched … an expensive “city of the future” that is nice to aspire to, but perhaps not something very realistic to actually accomplish.  When The Home Depot Foundation was founded eight years ago, we decided to try to disprove that notion by focusing our work on creating healthy, affordable housing as the cornerstone of creating communities that aren’t just surviving, but are thriving.  Communities where the housing is healthy and efficient, while also affordable to live in for the long term; where there are safe and green outside places for people to walk, play and learn; and where people have access to good jobs, good schools and the stores and services they need.

As a result of our commitment, we want to shine the light on cities that are making great strides in bringing the economic, social and environmental benefits of sustainability to their residents. And so, this year we created the Awards of Excellence for Sustainable Community Development to identify, recognize and showcase the work being done in cities to construct green affordable housing in a sustainable community.

We were blown away by the quality of the submissions we received from cities across the country - there is truly some fantastic work being done.  It’s clear that many cities across the country are finding successful ways of dealing with the financial, social and environmental issues facing them through thoughtful design, land use and building methods.

I’m proud to announce today that the inaugural winners of this award are Minneapolis, MN and its nonprofit partner Aeon and North Charleston, SC and its nonprofit partner The Sustainability Institute.  It’s also nice for me to note that the winners don’t just walk away a beautiful award to display. They are also receiving a combined total of $150,000 to further the sustainability goals of their communities.

You can read a quick description of the accomplishments of each below, but be sure to visit our web site to read the press release and the case studies for each as well as to watch the video.

Minneapolis, MN and Aeon:

  • The City of Minneapolis has titled its Comprehensive Plan as “The Minneapolis Plan for Sustainable Growth,” making it clear that sustainability will be considered with all decisions, not as an afterthought. The city has established 25 sustainability indicators to track its progress, each with specific targets and incentives for achieving those targets.  As part of this commitment, the city partnered with Aeon to develop Ripley Gardens, a best-in-class example of the successful completion of a sustainable community. Using the historic Ripley Memorial Hospital and planning to add three additional buildings, the project team created plans for a residential development focused on historic preservation, energy efficiency and sustainability.  The site is accessible to transit, jobs in the downtown area and bike trails and contains one acre of greenspace that includes a playground and a community garden. The project boasts green and efficient building and maintenance practices and meets the MN Green Communities standards.  View the case study and watch the video.

North Charleston, SC and The Sustainability Institute:

  • In the early 2000’s, North Charleston faced many challenges, including the closing of a major naval base.  The city struggled as residents moved to the surrounding suburbs leaving vacant homes, a low home ownership rate and impoverished neighborhoods. In 2008, the city revised its Comprehensive Plan and included sustainability as a goal with specific priorities to guide its actions.  As a result, the city partnered with The Sustainability Institute to develop Oak Terrace Preserve, a once vibrant community that had fallen into major disrepair by 2000.  The city purchased the land, with a vision to transform it into a sustainable, attractive community. Today, it exemplifies best practices in housing, natural resources and land use and development.  It includes bioswales, rain gardens, pervious paving in alleys and “flexi-pave” sidewalks.  The community layout encourages community interactions and all 55 homes on the property achieved EarthCraft certification.  View the case study and watch the video.

My sincere congratulations to Minneapolis and North Charleston for their impressive work to make their cities a healthier, more productive place for their citizens.  My hope and the goal of The Home Depot Foundation is that their success stories will offer insight, inspiration and a roadmap for other cities to follow as they develop and implement sustainability plans for their communities.

We’re excited about the progress being made by so many non profit housing organizations, green builders and developers, and cities.  You can count on The Home Depot Foundation to keep the sustainability drumbeat going  by highlighting success stories like Minneapolis and North Charleston who are building “cities of the future” today.

By paula
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

We’re Giving it Away!

Friday, December 4th, 2009

At The Home Depot Foundation, we make grants every week, but this week, the amounts have really added up.  In fact, today we are mailing out grants that total over $750,000.  None of the grants is individually enormous, but combined, they demonstrate how we work throughout the country to support local communities to do the work they need to do given their unique situation.

I’m not going to list them all, but here are some highlights:

  • Atlanta Land Trust Collaborative: $125,000 to support the development homes that will always be affordable for families of lower income
  • Clean Air Campaign: $25,000 to support carpooling initiatives that have saved commuters almost $800,000 in 2009
  • Global Green USA: $15,000 to provide technical assistance to nonprofit developers working to make homes more efficient and healthier
  • Park Pride: $25,000 to sponsor a conference about the role of parks and green infrastructure in the new economy
  • FLASH: $50,000 in support of their work to strengthen homes and safeguard families from the impacts of disasters

The list goes on, but hopefully you get a feel for what we are doing.  And while at first blush this may seem like a somewhat random list of organizations and efforts, I hope that you’ll take a second look and see that they are all aimed at creating healthier, more livable and more affordable communities.   We like to think that we are very smart and strategic in what we do as a Foundation, but I’ve got to admit that at bottom we are just trying to create neighborhoods where anyone would want to live and houses that any family would be proud to call home.

By Kelly Caffarelli
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

WHEW - What a week!

Monday, September 28th, 2009

The rains hit Atlanta hard last week, and The Home Depot Foundation partnered with the Company to help those impacted here in our hometown.   That meant making donations to the Red Cross, which was providing shelter and food to those who were driven from their homes, and local governments struggling to keep up with the needs of their residents and to assess the damage.  We donated almost $50,000 just in bottled water, and we made a further commitment that we are standing ready to help when the rebuilding begins.

There was quite a flurry of activity among the staff: assessing the situation, vetting requests and coordinating the logistics of the donations - scheduling the delivery of 10 truckloads of water is harder than you might think!  What struck me in the midst of all of this, as CNN covered the devastated areas of the area, was how our days went on pretty much as scheduled, and how the Foundation works in communities in so many ways - even during the course of one week.

As we were helping our neighbors in Atlanta, our month-long Celebration of Service had Home Depot associates across the country busy in their communities.  Last week, hundreds of our associates completed 33 projects - and prepared for 31 more this week.  (See the complete calendar).  In each of these places, we were making a tangible difference in the places people live and work and the quality of people’s lives - whether by converting a warehouse into a 60-bed shelter in Boise, creating an outdoor classroom at an elementary school in Miami or making a library wheelchair accessible in Scottsboro, Ala.  At the end of the day’s work, our associates had made a place better with their sweat equity.

But there are other, less direct ways, that we improve communities as well.  During that same period, I attended a meeting of the sustainability officers of almost 70 cities who are leading efforts to make their hometowns greener, healthier and more economically stable.  It was the first time that they had all gotten together, and they learned a great deal from each other in terms of what to do and what to avoid doing as well.  I also met with board members of a children’s hospital to help them brainstorm new ways to attract donors and accompanied the company’s CEO to speak to a business leadership group and to an organization that supports the local police force.  Later in the week we had a discussion with our nonprofit partner about the best way to continue to make progress in New Orleans toward rebuilding homes for those who lost everything to Hurricane Katrina, despite the economic and political hurdles.  While all important, I didn’t leave any of these with something concrete to demonstrate how our work had benefited anyone.

I love the immediacy of our volunteer projects: that wonderful feeling of accomplishment when you can see the tangible results of your work.  But to work for a foundation requires patience, too.  Obviously, anyone who has watched the recovery of New Orleans knows change can take time.  But you don’t build any homes, create economic stability for a neighborhood or grow civic leaders overnight either.  So we keep giving our sweat equity while we are investing in the long-term as well.  And in each of our activities we keep our focus on our ultimate goal of better homes, better communities and better lives for each of us.

By Kelly Caffarelli
Posted in Associate Volunteerism: Team Depot, Philanthropy, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

And so it starts

Monday, July 20th, 2009

I am starting a blog - much like many others today. I hope, however, that I offer something different than others. As President of The Home Depot Foundation, I am privileged that on a daily basis, I’m able to support and partner with nonprofits that have enormous impacts in our communities; to have discussions with influential leaders in government, philanthropy and business; and to influence how our cities address the numerous and interconnected social, economic and environmental issues they are facing, even as their budgets continue to dwindle. Much of these efforts focus on how to provide healthy, affordable homes for families throughout our country. And we think a great deal about the pocketbook issues facing these working families and how to ensure the long-term affordability of the homes. (Much more on that to come.)

As a Foundation, we’ve had many successes. In 1993, we started talking about efficiency, conservation and health as they relate to affordable housing. This was long before “green” was cool – in fact at the time “green building” was too crunchy, too “out there,” so we called it “responsible building.” Two years ago, we made a commitment that to address the long-term issues involving the lack of housing and communities that are affordable and healthy, we would invest $400 million over ten years to help build and rehabilitate 100 homes and to plant 3 million trees. Since we made that announcement, we’ve already seen our funds support 27,000 homes and plant and maintain 500,000 trees. We are a founding funder of Enterprise’s Green Communities and are partnering with Habitat for Humanity to help their affiliates enhance the sustainability of at least 5,000 of the homes they build. There’s lots of information about our accomplishments on our website at www.homedepotfoundation.org.

And, while the opportunities to do good and help others are huge, we aren’t always successful in our first attempts, and sometimes getting a project completed looks a lot like the passing of legislation or the proverbial making of sausage – no matter what analogy you use, it ain’t pretty. So my commitment to this virtual conversation is to share with you the things we get right (you know I have to!), but also the complicated issues we are thinking through and discussing, the disagreements we have and the stumbles we experience. My goal is that it will offer enough of a different perspective, raise issues that are relevant enough and be thought-provoking enough that it will compel you to join in the discussion.

By Kelly Caffarelli
Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »