Our Crowdfunding Groups
Although this project has concluded, if you would still like to make a donation to support Habitat for Humanity at Pitt, you may always do so here
Get To Know Us!
We are Habitat for Humanity at Pitt and our mission is to work towards affordable housing in the Pittsburgh area. During the fall and spring semesters we are going on workdays, fundraising, hosting social events, and spreading the word through tabling. When spring break rolls around, we get the opportunity to participate in the Collegiate Challenge, a program Habitat for Humanity offers where we travel to another out-of-state Habitat organization. The tasks on these trips can vary from roofing, framing, painting, and so on depending on the various stages of the house. Unlike our workdays during the regular school year, a lot of the houses on spring break are being built from the ground up. This means getting to do new things and use fun new tools that we don’t have the chance to when renovating the old homes of Pittsburgh. During the trip, we are able to work alongside the future homeowners and their families, and we are lucky enough to have the opportunity to get to know who they are and their story. Creating personal connections with them truly makes the trip more meaningful, and we are very grateful for this opportunity.
Our Additional Fundraising Efforts
In addition to this EngagePitt project, we have fundraised for the trip this year by hosting restaurant fundraisers and holding canning events. For the restaurant fundraisers, we have partnered with a variety of restaurants to both promote their businesses and raise money for our trip. We completed one with Rita’s Italian Ice in September, at the time of writing this, have an ongoing week-long fundraiser with Piada Italian Street Food, and have upcoming fundraisers in November and December with Atarshi Sushi and Chipotle. All of these fundraisers are at their local Oakland, Pittsburgh locations. In addition to these restaurant fundraisers we have canning events where we have members go to a variety of sporting events including but not limited to Steelers games, Penguins games, and Pitt Football games. We have these events rain or shine and often have multiple in a week. Every club member who goes on our spring break trip will have attended at least three of these and as of October, despite having many more months of canning events, we have already had multiple members go on more than the required three! While we have an ample amount of fundraising opportunities, we still need your help to make this trip possible for every member.
How You Can Help
Your donations will go a long way towards making our trip happen. Not only do they help cover our fees for transportation to Wilmington, North Carolina, but they will cover housing, safety equipment, food, and fees for working with our Habitat affiliate! We’re relying heavily on our own fundraising from events, but with your support we can make that final push towards giving our members the experience of helping a family across the country. We want to make sure that every member who wants to come doesn’t miss out due to financial ability. If you cannot donate, even sharing our project or telling your friends to get the word out would mean the world to us. Thank you!
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Contributions received for this project shall be used in accordance with the purpose described herein, the terms in the FAQs and applicable law. For questions that cannot be answered in the FAQs, please call 412-648-4658 or email engage@pitt.edu.
Every dollar counts! Each dollar adds up for transportation on the trip. Transportation is vital to ensure volunteers make it to and from the work site. This donation will aid in funding transportation for Habitat for Humanity members.
Gloves are an important part of personal protective equipment. Gloves ensure that every member is safe while carrying lumber and various other materials.
Nails are vital for the structural integrity of the house. They attach pieces of lumber to form walls and hold the trusses together to make the roof. Every nail is important and without nails, the house would fall apart.
Tools such as hammers, tape measures, pencils, pry bars, chalk lines, and knives are essential for building a Habitat Home. Tool belts help to keep all of these tools together with each of the builders so they can make progress on the construction without having to stop and locate a tool.
The circular saw is an important tool on the build site. Particle board and lumber needs to be cut to the correct size so all the components of the house fit together correctly without any gaps or overhangs.
The safety of builders is one of the most important factors on the build site. Safety equipment such as goggles, gloves, and hard hats are imperative in keeping the volunteers safe.
Habitat relies heavily on volunteers for not only building the actual house, but also for food and drink donations, and supply donations. This donation will pay for the participation fee of one volunteer.
Lumber is the skeleton that holds the house together. Without a sturdy frame, the walls and roof would collapse upon their own weight. Lumber is essential for maintaining structural integrity of the house. A donation at this level will help pay for a volunteer's housing during the trip.
