Jim Killoran, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Westchester Inc., has a Rolodex that would make the most seasoned businessman jealous.
Last week, Killoran and the Habitat staff were joined by a group volunteers from MasterCard Inc. at a site in lower Westchester. The week before, it was Goldman Sachs Group Inc. President and COO Gary Cohn and a group of his employees.
Two weeks prior, it was a group of more than 100 volunteers from the likes of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Cisco. Later this summer, Killoran is expecting a team of volunteers from Citigroup Inc. And Heineken USA Inc. has pledged a group of employees for the fall.
“We”™re teaching people to build again,” Killoran said with a chuckle. “We need to bring victory gardens back, and whether you”™re a GED or a PhD, everyone should learn how to build.”
Of course, that is only a side effect, an added benefit, of what Killoran has dubbed “habititis.” The real goal, he said, is to “end the face of poverty in this county in a way that”™s unprecedented.”
Helped in large part by the generosity of Habitat”™s corporate partners and volunteers, Killoran has presided over the revitalization of down-and-out neighborhoods across Westchester ”“ something government, with tax revenue down and budgets at a breaking point, has been largely unable to do.
“To me, the crisis is the opportunity,” he said.
From Yonkers and Mount Vernon to White Plains to Peekskill, Habitat has rebuilt and renovated homes, cleared cluttered and overgrown lots, painted buildings, pruned parks and even formed a community marching band to give kids an after-school activity.
Just last month, Habitat celebrated the completion of a zero-energy home on Orchard Avenue in Yonkers.
“My goal is to have 500 people a week in this county volunteering,” Killoran said. “Some Habitat (branches) won”™t take more than 10 a day on one house. I”™m waiting for a company to call me and say, ”˜We want 400 on this day,”™ because with that I can change the whole face of a neighborhood in one day.”
Many Westchester and New York City companies have longstanding relationships with Killoran”™s group.
Habitat for Humanity of Westchester was one of the original nonprofits Goldman Sachs partnered with when the financial giant launched its Community TeamWorks program in 1997. In the time since, 26,500 Goldman employees have contributed more than 150,000 volunteer hours to various causes worldwide.
Cisco has partnered with Habitat since 1998, working with 100 of the nonprofit”™s U.S. affiliates and 50 international branches. The company matches all of its employees”™ donations to Habitat, up to $1,000 a year per employee, and will donate $10 for each hour an employee volunteers with Habitat. Over the past 12 years, that has amounted to more than $9 million in financial support.
And it”™s not only the big names who are getting involved.
For the past 15 years, HyperLink Inc., a cell phone provider based in Mount Vernon, has asked each employee to volunteer one day a year, on company time, at the charity of their choice.
This year, HyperLink owner and President David Simkins said the company instead divided its 40 employees into three groups, entrusting each of the groups to Killoran and his staff for a day.
“The residual for (my wife and co-owner) Lucy and I was these people came back sparked up the next day and the next week and the next month,” Simkins said. “To actually endure a little bit of physical pain ”“ to wake some muscles up where sitting at your desk you don”™t get that ”“ they were glowing.”
Simkins said it was a win-win for Habitat, his employees and his company”™s productivity.
“To force people to go to work in crummy conditions and physically exert themselves and to come back and thank Jim and thank Lucy and I for allowing them to do these things, that”™s a win,” Simkins said. “It really does come back to the bottom line. If our staff are more engaged, they”™re going to come back and do better work.”
Killoran says he hopes to be able to take advantage of Habitat”™s partners”™ “human capital in addition to their physical capital.”
“What we”™re beginning to do is ”¦ to encourage them to think with me on how to use their educational capital to say, ”˜Okay, how could you be a mentor to our friend,”™ or ”˜Could you help consider how I could finance a larger project?”™” Killoran said.
