The Revolving Repair Fund: Making More Repairs Possible Without Delay
The Revolving Repair Fund, which launched in 2024, was first publicly announced in RTGC’s 2023-24 Annual Report on impact.
Over the past several years, Rebuilding Together of Greater Charlotte has significantly expanded our services to provide critical repairs to more neighbors in need across the area. For example, we have grown from serving one county to five counties and added four new Building a Healthy Neighborhood communities while continuing our work in Hidden Valley, where we will complete repair projects on about 70 homes in total by the end of 2025.
While growing our services, RTGC has also built our operational infrastructure, which has allowed us to take advantage of government funding sources for critical home repair and accessibility modification projects.
Although these sources are less flexible and more complicated than private funding sources, they allow us to invest significantly more in each home, mitigating more safety and health hazards for a greater and longer-lasting impact for each family served.
However, almost all of our government funding sources operate on a reimbursement basis, which means we have to pay for the project expenses upfront and then submit for reimbursement upon project completion. This has created a critical need for more operating capital to cover these outlays and keep projects moving.
“Without sufficient operating funds for upfront expenses,” explains Executive Director Beth Morrison, “we are forced to slow down our projects and await reimbursements before starting new projects. It means more families wait longer for the repairs they need.”
Our solution? The Revolving Repair Fund, an internal fund we use to cover the hard costs of our reimbursable projects. When we receive reimbursements for the completed projects, those funds are returned to the Revolving Repair Fund. Establishing an internal restricted fund in this way allows us to follow the important transparency guidelines in the reimbursement process while avoiding slowdowns and simultaneously repairing several homes in need. It gives us the flexibility we need to serve multiple families without delay.
It also gives supporters a longer-lasting impact for each gift. Every donation to the Revolving Repair Fund will be used on multiple projects because the funds will revolve back into the fund when we are reimbursed. Instead of providing repairs for one neighbor in need, gifts to the Revolving Repair Fund will be used repeatedly. Based on our experience working with these government contracts, we can expect funds to revolve three to four times per year.
Recognizing the importance and value of the Revolving Repair Fund, Lowe’s Companies generously donated $250k to launch the fund. Further donations from Bank of America and Wells Fargo have brought the capital funds to $290k – 58% of its $500k goal.
This fund ensures all of our crucial repairs are addressed and every dollar we receive goes toward our vision of safe and healthy homes and communities for everyone in the Greater Charlotte area.
This story was featured in RTGC’s 2023-24 Annual Report. For more stories like this on our impact in the past fiscal year, please review the report.