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Success Story: Habitat for Humanity Monroe County

Read more about how this community came together to generate much needed funding amid rising construction costs.

Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County

Generates funding for a home construction project with HundredX Causes™

A black and white logo for habitat for humanity of monroe county

Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County (HHMC) is a nonprofit organization based in Monroe, Michigan that focuses on helping families escape poverty by building affordable homes for those in need.


The organization uses volunteer labor and tax-deductible donations to finance construction projects and requires eventual homeowners to put 200 hours of sweat equity into Habitat projects, participate in workshops, and save at least $1,000 to qualify.

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    The Reinhardt Family

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    The Reinhardt Family Home in Progress - Habitat for Humanity Monroe County

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Struggling to raise money during the pandemic

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, HHMC was forced to cancel its major fundraising event for 2021. Since the organization couldn’t hold an in-person event, it began looking for ways to raise money virtually.


Making matters worse, the cost of building materials — lumber, in particular — was surging, which meant that the nonprofit needed to raise more money than before to fulfill its mission.

Finding a unique virtual funding solution that engaged the community

To overcome these challenges, HHMC began exploring virtual options to generate funding. During this time, another nonprofit asked HHMC to participate in a HundredX Causes™ program, and the HHMC team obliged. That experience was exceptional — to the point HHMC immediately thought about using the program for their own needs.


“After realizing what an innovative and unique opportunity this was, we asked about having a campaign for Habitat,” explains Kristin Johnson, director of development at HHMC. “At first, we thought it was too good to be true. But we were wrong. The impact that HundredX made on our organization was profound.”

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“HundredX took away all those barriers, and in the end, we raised more money than we were ever able to raise at our event."

Kristin Johnson,

Director of Development, HHMC



Engaging their community and building more houses

The decision to use HundredX Causes to overcome the financial challenges associated with the pandemic proved to be a wise one. Here are some of the benefits HHMC experienced thanks to HundredX Causes.

In the HHMC team’s experience, there are a number of good virtual options to generate funding. But the bulk of them had many barriers that prevented the nonprofit from raising as much money as they needed to absorb skyrocketing building expenses.

“HundredX took away all those barriers, and in the end, we raised more money than we were ever able to raise at our event,” Johnson explains.


HHMC ran a HundredX Causes campaign in March 2021. During this time, they were able to engage more than 650 participants, who together helped HHMC generate more than $36,000 by sharing feedback about the brands and businesses they use every day. 

With HundredX Causes, nonprofits are able to leverage a brand-new way of generating financial resources. Instead of asking the support community for money directly, HHMC asked them to opt in to the HundredX program and share feedback on brands and businesses they use across 75+ industries.


For example, supporters might choose to provide feedback about a national restaurant chain’s food quality, value, taste, and appearance, among other criteria, which takes about 60 seconds to complete. With each piece of quality feedback submitted, HundredX paid HHMC up to $2. 


“This was a refreshing opportunity for us to engage with our support community in a way that didn’t ask for their money — just their time,” Johnson continues. Each HHMC supporter could generate up to $150 of funding to support the cause. 


Members of the HHMC support community share the sentiment.


“I think that this format is very simple and enjoyable,” explains one program participant. “The emojis make the process more engaging, and I’m even more willing to provide consumer data and participate to help an amazing nonprofit organization.”

Due to COVID-19, not every HHMC supporter was able to volunteer on job sites. Thanks to HundredX Causes, hundreds of volunteers and former recipients of Habitat homes were still able to get involved in the project, allowing them to support a critical nonprofit while maintaining social distancing and keeping the community safe.

Putting a roof over a family’s head

Perhaps most importantly, HHMC’s decision to use HundredX Causes™ enabled it to give a family in need a place to call home — permanently. The importance of this can’t be overstated, particularly during the pandemic where there’s so much uncertainty.


“We are so thrilled to become Habitat’s next homeowners,” Nickole Reinhardt said in a video posted to Facebook in April 2021, during the HundredX Causes program. “We look forward to this dream finally coming true, and every day we get a little bit closer. A lot of it has to do with all of you and your help making this effort so successful. We appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts.”

Learn how to fund your cause using a HundredX Causes™ program

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