Nonprofit ‘IPO’ raises $700,000

June 6, 2008

The first nonprofit "IPO," created to resemble the initial public offerings public companies use to raise money, has brought in $700,000 for an affordable-housing center.

Launched a year ago with help from billionaire-investor Warren Buffett, the effort sells "fundraising" shares, priced at $32 each, with proceeds going to Homeward Bound of Marin.

The nonprofit is using the funds to finance The Next Key Center, an affordable-housing and job-training center in Novato, Calif.

The effort, marketed as an "Immediate Public Opportunity ... to end homelessness," sold shares to celebrities, local residents and area groups, including the Novato Girl Scout Troop.

"The IPO has succeeded beyond our dreams in offering people a way to take stock in programs that provide long-term solutions to homelessness," Mary Kay Sweeney, executive director of Homeward Bound, says in a statement.

The effort also helped leverage funding from other sources, says Sweeney, including the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, which provided a grant of $1 million.

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