COVER Home Repair wins $25,000 from Entrepreneurs’ Fund

CONCORD, NH (PRESS RELEASE) – COVER Home Repair, which repairs and weatherizes homes for low-income homeowners using volunteer labor, pitched its way to a $25,000 grant during a special pitch competition last night in Hanover. COVER Home Repair was one of five nonprofit organizations making their final three-minute pitches to members and guests of the Entrepreneurs Fund of New Hampshire during the EFNH AMP NH Award Competition last night at Dartmouth’s Black Family Visual Arts Center. EFNH members and guests voted for nonprofit projects in “real-time” based on anticipated “amplified benefits” for the organizations and communities they serve.

With the $25,000 grant, COVER Home Repair will pilot a project to help support the independence of the growing population of frail, elderly homeowners in the Upper Valley by meeting their home safety needs.

“We are genuinely thrilled,” said Rob Schultz, executive director of COVER Home Repair. “This grant will keep more seniors in their homes and in their communities. Thank you to the Entrepreneurs Foundation not only for the funding but also for this incredibly valuable learning opportunity. Our coaches were great at helping us with the discipline and creativity to hone our proposals down to three powerful minutes. It will help with all of my presentations this year.”

EFNH, an initiative of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, channels the expertise, energy and passion of the state’s leading entrepreneurs to strengthen New Hampshire communities through innovative philanthropy.

“EFNH gives entrepreneurs a way to be actively involved in their communities,” said EFNH member Matt Rightmire of Borealis Ventures. “My fundamental belief is the more involvement the better. Not just in terms of ‘many hands make light work,’ but I am a believer that more involvement yields better solutions both to the problems that we face today and the problems that are going to crop up in the future. More involvement by a broader set of community members can only be good.”

To prepare for the AMP NH Award competitions, finalists were paired with EFNH mentors, who worked one-on-one with nonprofits to help craft engaging and persuasive pitches. Finalists took part in “pitch camps” prior to the final event to help put the finishing touches on their pitches.

“I love that we are showcasing a different way to do philanthropy,” said Mary Jo Brown, president of Brown & Company Design and an EFNH member. “The shared learning that happens between the nonprofits and the entrepreneurs is good for New Hampshire. We are building connections between those two sectors in a meaningful way that will be long-lasting.”

Since 2011, 63 nonprofit organizations have participated in pitch camps and AMP Awards Competitions with EFNH, and 13 organizations received grants from EFNH totaling $210,000.

EFNH also hosted pitch competitions in Portsmouth and Manchester this spring. FIRST of Manchester, which provides innovative programs that motivate young people to pursue education and career opportunities in the STEM fields, and Community Toolbox, Inc. of Portsmouth, which uses volunteer labor to provide critical home repair to low- or fix-income homeowners, each took home $25,000 EFNH grants.

Along with COVER Home Repair, finalists and their projects included:

• Soil Carbon Coalition (Enterprise, OR) pitched Climate, Water, Soil and Hope: A Collaborative Curriculum and Climate Mitigation Project in Upper Valley schools.
• Twin Pines Housing Trust (White River Junction, VT) pitched its Home Skill Builders program, a volunteer-based mentoring program to teach basic life skills to the residents of TPHT’s housing units.
• Upper Valley Housing Coalition (Lebanon, NH) pitched its effort to partner with local employers to pre-train volunteers and construction coordinators to create an organized, more skilled resource for homeowners hit by disasters.
• WISE (Lebanon, NH) pitched its initiative to scale its community organizing model (We’re Acting to End Violence/WAEV) to promote a mobilized response to end domestic and sexual violence.

About the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation

The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation was created in 1962 by and for the people of New Hampshire, and is dedicated to strengthening communities across the Granite State. The Foundation manages a growing collection of 1,700 philanthropic funds created by generous families, individuals and businesses, and awards more than $30 million in grants and scholarships every year. The Foundation invests charitable assets for today and tomorrow; works with generous and visionary citizens to maximize the power of their giving; supports critical work happening in New Hampshire communities and leads and collaborates on high-impact initiatives. For more information, please visit www.nhcf.org or call 603-225-6641.