Charity turns to reno market to boost funds
THE Cerebral Palsy Society has turned to the booming renovation market to help raise funds.
Cerebral Investment Ltd, the charity’s investment arm, bought a three-bedroom home in Auckland’s popular Whangaparaoa last year, did it up and now hope to reap the rewards of their renovation.
The 1980s three-bedroom home in Monyash Rd has been given a fourth bedroom and master ensuite, a new family bathroom, a new open-plan kitchen and living area, and glass railings along the balcony, which has uninhibited views across Polkinghornes Bay to the Mahurangi Peninsula.
CIL director Anthony Smith, who has a 25-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy, said his team spent months looking for the right house to renovate before ending up in Whangaparaoa – and it could spell the start of a fresh way to raise funds. They’re already going through consent to build two new homes in the same area.
‘‘It’s a long-term strategy. We saw property as something that was logical to be part of and we’re looking to add value, not just to buy a property and sell it the next day,’’ he said.
The society did not rely on Government assistance, which was why it felt free to put some seed funding it had been given to commercial use.
The society had always had ‘‘a hardy culture of selfsufficiency,’’ he said.
The agent handling the sale of the home, Darren Grant of Bayleys Whangaparaoa, estimated the house’s new value was in the $900,000 bracket and feedback from viewings had been promising.
‘‘People are really intrigued by the story,’’ he said.
David Irving, chief executive of the Fundraising Institute of New Zealand, applauded CIL’s efforts, saying it demonstrated a novel trend of charities turning to the property market. A group of apprentices in Masterton annually built a house with help from the local Mitre 10 and divided the funds between LifeFlight and a local charity, he said.
‘‘We live in reasonably tight economic times and charities are finding it difficult to capture people’s imagination,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s not that there’s not a large sum of money being given to charity, there is ... it’s, if you’re running a charity, how do you attract the attention of those donors so they give a chunk of it to you?’’