Our business model and work philosophy is grounded in the practical ideal that each individual’s self-actualization is brought about when their basic needs – food, water, shelter, and community – are sustainably met.
Non-profits play a significant role in reducing hunger and providing access to clean water locally and globally, however shelter has largely been a tertiary goal and operated in the for-profit sector.
With the world population reaching 7 billion in 2011, and projected to surpass 8 billion by 2024 (and 10 billion by 2056), affordable home-ownership will continue to grow in importance, in need and in tandem with climate change concerns.
npre is a post-traditional business venture designed to address these needs by elegantly and innovatively dovetailing the renewable energy and real estate sectors in a non-profit model, where each transaction compounds the success of the next.
While npre is operated as a non-profit, we take our organizational cue from the National Housing Institute’s 2008-commissioned report that identified non-profits as an underutilized business structure in venturing into traditional real estate related activities, and that advocates for ‘Nonprofits’ to be seen as a tax status rather than a method of operating.
In other words, non-profits should focus on innovating and streamlining their operations in much the same ways that for-profit corporations do, and reinvest their end-of-year profits and success into expanding and accelerating their community-benefiting programs.
We take this approach to heart. It’s not the money, but what one does with the money that counts.
To this end we structure our ambitions widely. We create mutually-beneficial transactions that stack function, and reciprocate, amplify, and accelerate the production of consumer goodwill into ecologically, economically, and communally-sustainable activities.
Additional non-profits operating in this field throughout the United States include: Community Realty (Albany), Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida, Delta Real Estate (New Jersey), Homewise (Santa Fe), and NHS Silicon Valley.