Safe Foundations Adult Home Repair Program

Words in [brackets] are blanks you fill in with your own details when you adopt this sample in Supreme Plan AI.

Executive Summary

Safe Foundations Adult Home Repair Program is a nonprofit in Kentucky that makes homes safe for low-income homeowners who are older or have disabilities. A licensed crew lead and trained volunteers repair roofs, floors, steps, heating and plumbing, build wheelchair ramps and install grab bars and detectors, with permits and inspections where required.

Many of these homeowners live in homes with failing roofs, unsafe steps and broken heating and cannot afford to fix them. Falls and unsafe homes are a leading reason older adults end up in the hospital or lose their homes.

With this grant we will repair about 60 homes in Year 1 in 1 county. We work only on homes that owners live in, with written consent, and we do not place liens or charge homeowners. We do not promise to fix every problem in a home. We promise safe, honest work and respect for every homeowner.

Our Year 1 budget is about $263,000, growing to about $338,000 by Year 5 as we add sites, coaches and participants. Each year's budget is planned to balance, with a small surplus each year. We have 4 staff in Year 1 (an Executive Director, a Program Manager, a Repair Crew Lead and a part-time volunteer coordinator) and 8 by Year 5.

We are asking the Bluegrass Housing Repair Foundation for $80,000 for the Repair Crew Lead and repair materials. Our other income and startup support cover the rest. These numbers are estimates based on the assumptions listed at the end of this proposal, and we do not promise any result beyond what we describe.

Company Description

Safe Foundations Adult Home Repair Program is a nonprofit organization in Kentucky. We are a registered charity with a volunteer board of directors, a written conflict-of-interest policy and a yearly budget the board reviews.

Our mission. Every older adult and person with a disability should be able to live in a home that is safe, warm and dry.

What we do.
- Repair roofs, floors, steps, heating and plumbing for low-income homeowners who are older or have disabilities.
- Build wheelchair ramps and install grab bars and other safety features.
- Use licensed contractors for electrical, plumbing and structural work and trained volunteers for basic repairs.
- Assess each home for safety and prioritize hazards that could cause injury or illness.
- Connect homeowners with weatherization and other programs.
- Follow up with each homeowner after the work is complete.

Our values. Respect for every participant, honesty with families and partners, safety first and a place for everyone who wants to belong.

What we do not do. We work only on homes that homeowners own and live in, with written consent. We do not do work that needs a license without a licensed contractor, and we pull permits where required. We do not give legal or financial advice. We do not place liens on homes or charge homeowners. We do not promise to repair every problem in a home. We follow the rules of our partner sites and our insurer.

How we got here. A group of retired contractors, church volunteers and a county aging office began fixing wheelchair ramps and leaking roofs for neighbors one weekend a month. The requests quickly outgrew the volunteers. We kept simple records of homes we repaired and homes on our waiting list. This proposal asks for support to move from monthly volunteer weekends to a steady program with paid, trained staff and the materials to match.

Problem & Opportunity

Many low-income homeowners, especially older adults and people with disabilities, live in homes with failing roofs, unsafe steps and broken heating, and cannot afford to fix them.

Cost. A new roof or a ramp can cost thousands of dollars, and a homeowner on a fixed income cannot pay.

Access. Contractors may not take small jobs, and homeowners may not know where to find help or fear being taken advantage of.

Safety and trust. Homeowners want honest, licensed workers, and funders want to know that every repair is safe and permitted.

Missed benefits. Unrepaired homes lead to falls, illness and, in the worst cases, loss of the home or a move to a nursing home.

What we hear.
- A widow says she steps over a hole in her kitchen floor every day.
- A veteran says he cannot get his wheelchair into the bathroom.
- A nurse says falls at home are the most common reason her patients come to the hospital.
- A neighbor says the roof has leaked for three winters.

We do not claim that a program can solve every challenge. We believe that a safe repair, done right by honest workers, can keep a person in their home and out of the hospital.

Products & Services

Safe Foundations Adult Home Repair Program gives low-income homeowners who are older or have disabilities a safe, welcoming place to stay safe in their own homes.

How the program works.
1. Application. Homeowners apply by phone or with help from a volunteer, and we verify ownership and income.
2. Assessment. A crew lead visits, assesses safety hazards and writes a simple plan with the homeowner.
3. Priorities. We prioritize hazards that could cause injury, illness or loss of the home.
4. Repairs. Licensed contractors and trained volunteers complete repairs, with permits and inspections as required.
5. Safety features. We install ramps, grab bars, railings and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
6. Follow-up. We check on each homeowner after the work is done and again at six months.
7. Referrals. We connect homeowners with weatherization and other programs.

What a typical session looks like. Participants arrive and check in with a staff member, settle in together, work on the day's activity in small groups and finish with a short talk about what went well. Staff praise effort, correct mistakes kindly and make sure no one is left out.

Staff. Our crew lead is a licensed contractor who passes a background check, completes our training and is paid for their time. Volunteers receive training in safety and respectful work.

Access and fairness. Programs are free. Repairs are free to eligible homeowners. We welcome every eligible household and communicate in English and Spanish.

Market Analysis

Who we serve. Low-income homeowners ages 60 and over or with disabilities who own and live in their homes in our service area. Eligibility is based on homeowner status, age or disability and income guidelines our board sets, and no household is turned away without a referral.

How we estimate need. We cannot count every young person who could benefit, so we plan from what we can see. In our monthly volunteer weekends we repaired homes as fast as we could and kept a waiting list that grew every month. The county aging office told us that many more homes need work than we can reach. For Year 1 we plan to serve about 60 participants at 1 counties. By Year 5, with more staff and sites, we plan to serve about 140.

Where participants come from.
- The county aging office and area agency.
- Churches, clinics and home health agencies.
- Neighborhood groups and meal programs.
- Homeowners who tell a neighbor.

Who else benefits. Families gain peace of mind. Hospitals gain fewer fall injuries. Neighborhoods keep homes in good condition and homeowners in place.

What the numbers mean. Every number here is a family member who no longer has to worry about the roof. We keep our early counts modest and honest so we can do the work well.

Competitive Landscape

What young people can find today, and how we are different.

1. Government weatherization programs. Strong and focused on energy, with long waits. We address broader safety needs.

2. Habitat-style home repair programs. Excellent and limited by volunteer capacity. We add a paid crew lead and funds.

3. Private contractors. Skilled and costly, and small jobs may not interest them.

4. Charity repair days. Helpful and occasional. We offer a continuous program.

5. Doing without. The most common outcome.

What makes us different.
- Free repairs to eligible homeowners.
- A licensed crew lead and permitted work.
- Ramps and safety features included.
- Honest, accountable workers.
- Follow-up after every job.

Why this gap matters. Existing programs do good work, and most serve people who can already pay or who live close to them. The people we serve are the ones left over: they live in the wrong neighborhood, have the wrong schedule or have no one to ask. We are built to reach them.

We have spoken with the county aging office, weatherization programs and other home repair groups to make sure we are filling a gap and not duplicating services. Their letters of support are in the attachments.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

How young people and partners will find us.

Reaching young people.
- The county aging office and meal programs. We will give staff a short referral form and a named contact.
- Churches and clinics. We will share flyers and talk with leaders.
- Home health agencies and discharge planners. We will share information.
- Neighborhood groups. We will attend meetings.
- Word of mouth. Homeowners tell neighbors.
- A simple website and a phone line with a text option.

Reaching staff and sponsors.
- Recruit volunteers and contractors through trade groups, churches and retired tradespeople.
- Offer an orientation, a background check and training in safety, privacy and respectful practice.
- Give partners a short report each quarter with counts of participants and what they said.

How we decide who joins. We use a simple sign-up form and enroll participants in the order received, with priority for those with the greatest need and for people new to the program. We keep a waiting list when the program is full.

What we watch. Sign-ups, attendance, homes repaired, hazards fixed and how many participants return for a second season.

Operations Plan

How the program will be carried out.

Timeline for Year 1:
- Months 1 and 2 (July and August): Hire the staff, buy equipment and materials, finalize the waiver, consent form and privacy policy with our attorney and sign site agreements.
- Month 3 (September): Hire the crew lead and begin the first assessments.
- Months 4 to 10: Assess homes, complete repairs and follow up with homeowners.
- Months 11 and 12: Survey homeowners, report to funders and plan Year 2.

Space. We work at homeowners' homes and store tools and materials in a donated warehouse.

Safety and privacy.
- Licensed contractors do all electrical, plumbing and structural work and we pull permits where required.
- Volunteers wear protective equipment, work in teams of at least two and follow lead-safe rules on older homes.
- Every staff member and volunteer passes a background check and completes safety training.
- Staff work in pairs or in view of others whenever participants are minors or in a vulnerable situation.
- We keep an emergency plan at every site, and participants complete an emergency contact form.
- We keep records private, share them only with a participant's permission or as the law requires and follow a written policy.

Equipment. We buy about $22,000 of equipment once at the start: tools and an equipment trailer ($14,000), ladders, scaffolding and safety gear ($4,000), tablets and a laptop for assessments ($2,000), locking storage for tools and materials ($2,000). Later years replace or add a few items.

Staffing. In Year 1 I serve as Executive Director. The Program Manager, paid $44,000 a year, schedules assessments and crews. The Repair Crew Lead, a licensed contractor paid $48,000, supervises the work. A part-time volunteer coordinator, paid $24,000, manages volunteers. We add a second crew lead in Year 3.

Management & Organization

Robert Caldwell, Executive Director. I lead the organization, report to the board and am responsible for budgets, partnerships and reporting. I came to this work as a retired contractor who kept getting calls from neighbors who could not afford repairs. I will complete the safety training we require of our volunteers so I understand the program from the inside. (Replace this paragraph with your own background.)

Staff. The Program Manager schedules assessments and crews, the Repair Crew Lead supervises the work and a part-time coordinator manages volunteers. Each passes a background check. These positions are part of our grant request.

Board of directors. Our volunteer board includes a retired contractor, a nurse, a homeowner served, a banker who serves as treasurer, an attorney and a pastor. The board meets every other month, approves our budget and reviews our safety plan. No board member is paid, and members with a conflict of interest step out of related decisions.

Advisory partners. A county aging office director, a building inspector and an occupational therapist give guidance twice a year.

Staffing and pay in this plan: Executive Director, paid $52,000 a year; program Manager, paid $44,000 a year; repair Crew Lead, paid $48,000 a year; volunteer Coordinator (part-time), paid $24,000 a year.

Milestones Narrative

Our goals, how we will measure them and when we plan to reach them.

Year 1 outcomes (July 2027 through June 2028):
- Serve about 60 participants at 1 counties.
- Run at least two full seasons and a summer session.
- Have at least 85 percent of participants attend most sessions.
- Have at least 80 percent of participants return for a second season.
- Receive positive feedback from at least 90 percent of families who answer our short survey.

What we count and how.
- Participants enrolled, sessions and games attended, from our records.
- Skills learned and goals met, from the coach's checklist.
- Equipment issued and returned, from our log.
- Participant and family feedback, from a short, confidential form.
We report what we find, including what did not work, and use it to improve.

Growth over five years.
- Year 2: About 80 participants at 1 counties.
- Year 3: About 100 participants at 2 counties.
- Year 4: About 120 participants at 2 counties.
- Year 5: About 140 participants at 3 counties.

Learning along the way. At the end of each quarter, the director and the board review the numbers and decide whether we are on track. If we are behind, we will adjust our outreach, our sites or our schedule before asking for more money.

After the grant. By Year 5, grants make up about 49 percent of our budget, down from about 64 percent in Year 1, as partners and donors give more. We will keep building those relationships every year.

Funding Request

What we are asking for, and how the money will be used. Our request: $80,000 from the Bluegrass Housing Repair Foundation for the Repair Crew Lead and repair materials, for July 2027 through June 2028.

The request is spread across these budget lines:
- Personnel: Repair Crew Lead salary, $48,000.
- Supplies: Repair materials for homes in the program, $32,000.

Other money in the program. This request is about 47% of our Year 1 grant income. Other grants and the income lines below pay for everything it does not cover.

Year 1 budget: about $263,000, planned to balance with a small surplus (about $10,600 after the yearly wear on equipment). Year 1 money coming in: Grant Revenue $169,000; state Housing Funding $60,000; community and Corporate Partners $24,000; individual Donors $10,000. Year 1 costs: executive Director $52,000; program Manager $44,000; repair Crew Lead $48,000; volunteer Coordinator (part-time) $24,000; repair Materials about $40,000; licensed Subcontractors (Electrical and Plumbing) about $18,000; vehicle and Tool Upkeep about $6,000; safety Training about $3,000; permits and Inspections about $3,000; administration and Insurance about $10,000; about $7,200 a year for the wear on equipment.

One-time startup costs. Startup costs of $33,000 are paid once from startup money, not from the yearly budget: $14,000 for tools and an equipment trailer; $4,000 for ladders, scaffolding and safety gear; $2,000 for tablets and a laptop for assessments; $2,000 for locking storage for tools and materials; $2,500 for attorney review of the homeowner consent, volunteer policy and privacy policy; $1,800 for banners, flyers and a simple website; $2,200 for safety training and background checks; $4,500 for first insurance payment and workers compensation.

How we got our startup number. The Funding Need Calculator in this plan adds the startup costs ($33,000), the cash the program uses before it balances (about $0) and a cash cushion of about $62,000, which is about three months of Year 1 costs. In all, that comes to $95,000. We start with $8,000 from our founding board and $89,000 in startup support from a community foundation and a building supply company, $97,000 in all, which covers that amount with room to spare.

The next five years. Our budget grows from about $263,000 in Year 1 to about $338,000 in Year 5. Grants are planned at $169,000, $155,000, $191,000, $177,500 and $164,000 in Years 1 to 5. Other income grows: state Housing Funding from $60,000 to $100,000; community and Corporate Partners from $24,000 to $48,000; individual Donors from $10,000 to $26,000. Our surplus is planned at about $10,600 in Year 1, about $11,800 in Year 2, about $14,600 in Year 3, about $15,700 in Year 4 and about $16,400 in Year 5. We grow from 1 counties to 3 by Year 5, adding a part-time coach for each new site.

Savings. We plan to keep several months of costs in savings. The lowest year-end balance in the plan is about $79,500, at the end of Year 1. Some grant payments and partner payments arrive after we bill, so we plan for about $10,520 owed to us at the end of Year 1.

Cost per homeowner. In Year 1, our total costs are about $4,207 per homeowner served, which includes setting up the program. By Year 5, with more homeowner served and a trained team in place, that falls to about $2,297 per homeowner.

After the grant. State housing funding, corporate sponsors and individual donors grow every year, so grants become a smaller share of our budget. Participants and families share their stories, and businesses can sponsor a team or a season by name. We will look for partnerships with schools and the city that want a safe, free home repair option for every child.

Risks and how we will handle them:
- An injury. Certified coaches, proper equipment, groups matched by age and skill, a written emergency plan and insurance.
- A site is no longer available. We keep agreements with more than one site and a plan for bad weather.
- A coach leaves. We keep a list of trained backup coaches and share lesson plans.
- Low attendance. We adjust sites, times and rides based on family feedback.
- A privacy problem. We follow a written policy, use secure systems and train every staff member and volunteer.
- A grant ends. We keep savings and grow partner and donor support each year.

If you are just starting. A new organization can begin before it has its own 501(c)(3) status through a fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for you and passes them to your program, usually for a fee (commonly around 5% to 10% of the grant, sometimes more; ask before you agree). Another way is to start smaller: one neighborhood, a handful of homeowners and a small team, tracked carefully. Strong results from a small start make larger grants easier to win.

Appendix Notes

Documents to attach with this proposal:

- Your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter, or your fiscal sponsor agreement.
- Your most recent financial statements and your current year budget.
- A list of your board members and what each one does.
- Signed letters of support from partner schools, agencies and sites.
- Your site agreements and your insurance certificate.
- Your consent, waiver and privacy policy.
- Your safety plan and background check policy.
- Your program outline and schedule.
- Quotes for equipment and materials.
- Resumes for your Executive Director and key staff.
If you don't have any of this yet, no worries - let's continue.

The assumptions behind our numbers (change them in the Financials section to match your own):
- Grant Revenue: $169,000 in Year 1, growing to $164,000 in Year 5.
- State Housing Funding: $60,000 in Year 1, growing to $100,000 in Year 5.
- Community and Corporate Partners: $24,000 in Year 1, growing to $48,000 in Year 5.
- Individual Donors: $10,000 in Year 1, growing to $26,000 in Year 5.
- Pay (a full year, per person, including payroll taxes and workers' compensation): executive Director $52,000; program Manager $44,000; repair Crew Lead $48,000; volunteer Coordinator (part-time) $24,000.
- Other yearly costs in Year 1: repair Materials $40,000; licensed Subcontractors (Electrical and Plumbing) $18,000; vehicle and Tool Upkeep $6,000; safety Training $3,000; permits and Inspections $3,000; administration and Insurance $10,000. These grow between 4% and 6% a year.
- Equipment: $22,000 at the start, then $3,000 to $4,000 a year.
- Startup costs: $33,000, paid once from $97,000 in startup money.
- Participants served: about 60 in Year 1, growing to about 140 in Year 5. Sites: 1 in Year 1, growing to 3 by Year 5. Repairs run year-round, with roofs and exterior work scheduled for dry months.
- About 4% of each year's income is still owed to us at year end.
- Tax: none, as a nonprofit.
- Every dollar amount is an estimate. Replace them with your own quotes and real budget.

Startup Costs