Nonprofit IPO Launched by Warren Buffett Raises $700,000 for Innovative
Housing and Job-Training Center
SAN RAFAEL, Calif., May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The first-ever nonprofit IPO,
launched a year ago with help from renowned investor Warren Buffett,
celebrates its first anniversary with more than $700,000 raised from the sale
of "fundraising shares," priced at $32 each.
Billed as an "Immediate Public Opportunity ... to end homelessness," the
IPO was created to close financing for The Next Key Center, a pioneering
affordable housing and job-training center under construction in Novato,
Calif.
The nonprofit organization that is building the center, Homeward Bound of
Marin, has leveraged Mr. Buffett's inaugural share purchase on May 15, 2007,
to raise more than $700,000 from community groups, individuals and businesses
like Circle Bank and Marion Weinreb & Associates.
"The IPO has succeeded beyond our dreams in offering people a way to take
stock in programs that provide long-term solutions to homelessness," said Mary
Kay Sweeney, executive director of Homeward Bound.
"We know that homelessness is a community social issue; this strategy has
enticed people from all across our community to invest in people. The returns
on investment from this IPO will have names and faces -- they will be people
with jobs and houses and bright futures ahead of them," she added.
Celebrity "investors" in the nonprofit IPO include rock musician Sammy
Hagar, San Francisco Giants pitcher Russ Ortiz, and authors Jack Kornfield and
Sylvia Boorstein, along with a wide sampling of Bay Area residents who bought
shares for themselves and as birthday, graduation and holiday gifts. The
newest shareholders include a Novato Girl Scout Daisy Troop and 8th graders at
Marin Country Day School.
Besides joining a broad web of community partners in creation of The Next
Key Center, Sweeney said, the IPO has helped Homeward Bound attract new
funding from entities that appreciate the support marshaled through the IPO
campaign. These include the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, which
provided a $1 million grant from its Affordable Housing Program.
Fundraising shares are still available for purchase at www.IPOhomeward.com
or by calling (415) 455-5681.
"We hope to raise over $1 million through the sale of shares in this
unique IPO," Sweeney said. "We still need to sell $300,000 worth of
fundraising shares to meet this goal, but we are confident that the
investment-savvy community in the Bay Area will grasp this opportunity. It's
not every day that we get to invest like Warren Buffett!"
More about The Next Key Center
Homeward Bound, Marin County's primary provider of shelter and residential
services to homeless families and adults, has raised more than $8.5 million of
the estimated $10 million needed to complete The Next Key Center.
The Next Key Center will include 32 studio apartments for formerly
homeless adults engaged in job training or education programs, a 150-seat
conference space with demonstration kitchen, administrative offices and room
to expand the Fresh Starts Culinary Academy and other job-training programs.
In an effort to model environmental sustainability to residents working
toward a self-sustaining lifestyle, the center will include solar heating for
its hot water and photovoltaic panels on its roof to generate electricity,
with a total cost estimated at $300,000.
Construction crews expect to finish the housing portion of The Next Key
Center by the end of the year, Sweeney said.
For more information about this unique nonprofit IPO, visit
www.ipohomeward.com.
For more information about Homeward Bound of Marin, visit www.hbofm.org.
Images of The Next Key Center and celebrity IPO shareholders in JPEG
format are available on request.
SOURCE Homeward Bound
Paul Fordham, Development Director of Homeward Bound of Marin,
+1-415-259-9876, +1-415-455-5681, pfordham@hbofm.org
