Hello, BG Tom Landwermeyer from Homes For Our Troops here, I'll be by on Tuesday for a Q&A, what questions do you have for me?

Thank you for sharing COL.

That's great

Thanks for sharing!

RP welcomes you

Great questions, Mike! Since we are based in Massachusetts and do not have subordinate “branches” or “chapters” around the country, one of our biggest challenges is awareness -- getting the word out about our mission and organization. In order to maintain a low overhead and ensure we are maximizing our donations -- nearly 90 cents of every dollar goes directly into building homes -- we spend minimal money on advertising, and rely on word of mouth for people to find out about HFOT. We take a ‘grassroots’ approach to awareness. Sponsors and donors tend to find us by looking at Charity rating websites which is a great tool. On the local level, we rely on the local news outlets and communities to spread the word and get people to our events to welcome these heroes home. But, our PR and marketing folks work hard making the most of every opportunity we can. Fox Sports Supports chose us this year as one of six charities they would help advertise. We were featured in May and Jul, where our PSA was on Fox broadcasts, and during the MLB All-Star game we were mentioned and all the announcers were wearing our lapel pin. Last month, “The View” featured one of our builds that they followed from beginning to end. Awareness, though, is still a challenge.

Yes, we are a privately funded 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization, with 70% of our annual revenue coming from donations by the general public. As part of our commitment to supporting our Veterans post home delivery, we continue to expand our network of nonprofits, corporations, and government entities to provide assistance with employment, education, training, health, and other issues. This includes organizations that address PTSD and deal with suicide prevention. Additionally, several of our home recipients have started organizations that address these topics as well. We are constantly updating our resources to help our Veterans: https://www.hfotusa.org/help/#ways

BG Tom Landwermeyer - I hope down the road once you get completed with this mission we could set up a call to discuss how our organizations could potentially help each other. Here is my email address and I hope we can set up a date/time that is convenient for both: [login to see]

Also, BG Tom Landwermeyer have you thought about applying for the Google Grant (worth about $10K per month) in free marketing. Lot's to discuss, when the time is right.

Thanks for a great response to both questions!

Mike, I will absolutely be in touch. We do have the Google Grant. It comes in handy keeping our overhead down.

BG Tom Landwermeyer - Super - we've got a group of veterans that actually manages that grant for us (no charge) and keeps the campaigns alive and well and keeps us compliant - will share contact information with you on that as well. Okay, I'll leave you alone to answer other questions - take care!

A unique aspect of HFOT is that our Veterans choose where they want to live. That drives the biggest challenge we face -- finding and acquiring land. That’s the long pole in the tent here. The process of finding land can take a good bit of time if a Veteran is looking to build in a highly populated area such as California or Florida. Additionally we numerous requirements for the lots, some VA stipulated, others HFOT in order to properly site our one-level 2,650 sqft homes. We have a great land team at HFOT that is always on the lookout for a quality piece of land that we can offer to one of our Veterans. Because this is going to be the Veterans forever home, we want to make sure that they are happy with the location of their property and that it will meet all of their needs. We are currently working with ReMax to develop a method for land search that leverages their national reach to shortens this search time. It is important to note that we do not purchase land until the Veteran approves it.