Editor's Note: Below is the first post from the winners of Project Enterprise. Over the next 6 or so months, Alison and Jason of Materials Matter will pull back the curtain on what it takes to run an entrepreneurial project with a humanitarian mission. They will try to post about once a week. If you want them to discuss any particular topic, send an e-mail to ProjectEnterprise@thirteen.org and it will be forwarded to them. Thanks for reading!
First of all, we want to thank everyone who voted for us. More importantly, we want to acknowledge the other three organizations that we were so humbled to be nominated with. They are all doing incredible and extremely interesting work. We hope to hear more about them in the upcoming months and wish them the best of luck with all they are doing.
Yeah!!! We won!!!
For those of you who don't know, Materials Matter is a nonprofit 501(c)3 charity whose mission is to provide the material resources nonprofits need to build housing and shelter and revitalize communities; to equip low income families with the materials and supplies they need to repair and care for their homes affordably, and to promote conservation through materials recycling.
To give you the quick spiel.
Materials Matter envisions a greener, more just world where all families can achieve a higher level of economic independence, and improve their lives and neighborhoods, and where government, for-profit and nonprofit sectors all work together to meet the triple bottom line of positive financial, environmental and social outcomes for all.
We provide overall benefits for the community while directly affecting the 'distressed and underprivileged'. We are dedicated to being a leader in cooperative resource development for nonprofits serving Orange County, the Inland Empire and the entire Southern California region.
We harness the collective buying power of the nonprofit community and the goodwill of the business community to secure low-cost and donated materials and supplies. With regular access to our services, organizations save precious financial and human resources, and ultimately build more homes and shelters and serve more families in need.
We hope to eventually take the model nationwide and from there... Who knows?
But…We Do Have Some Challenges
In the summer of 2007, we decided to embark on a big change. We decided to expand our mission so that we could help all nonprofits, not just Habitat for Humanity. We disaffiliated from Habitat for Humanity [see Materials Matter Historyfor more explanation] and went our own way. This was an interesting time that we can talk about as a separate entry. It was extremely exciting and trying at the same time. We were losing this $4 billion name brand recognition, but that name brand was also holding us back. As Habitat we tried never to compete with the affiliates which prohibited us from seeking most grants, donations and having events. We were now free and able to leap from buildings and shout our name. The question was, how do we climb up to those roofs? And did anyone want to hear us shout?
The last five months have been amazing and very challenging. We've been more successful that ever, but yet been struggling financially -- we think mostly due to the housing market and the way we've been structured. Again, we can talk about all of this more in the upcoming journal entries, but let's just say, it hasn't been easy. However, we knew that with the rebranding and introduction of this semi-new entity without the fancy name needed some help. We discussed the hiring of a PR firm to help get the word out to the community. And, if anyone is thinking of starting a nonprofit or even has any business that needs a little kickstart, I'd say, hire a PR firm (a good one with references and a lot of experience that meets your needs).
Clik here to view.
