Welcome to our capital campaign!
Will you help us with the final phase of moving into our new home, The Hefner Center? YWCA Northeast Indiana is in the final phase of our $16.7 million capital campaign, approaching our goal to completely fund the purchase and renovations of our new building.
Although we aren’t fully funded yet, your help and support thus far has gotten us a long way. YOU ALL are the keys that have helped us open our new doors, and open doors bring hope! We now have partial occupancy of our new building, The Hefner Center! This transition and the new opportunities that come with it provide hope for our clients, hope for our northeast Indiana community, and hope for our future! Your donation towards our capital campaign will help us continue to open the door to a better future for those escaping domestic violence and women seeking addiction recovery.
There is value in the past. Our history at YWCA Northeast Indiana is full of experiences, experiences that have helped develop us into the life-saving agency we are today. However, we were not able to serve the growing demand for our services in the space at our Decatur Road location. And, while there is beauty in the patina, our old keys won’t open new doors.
The time has come when the past is no longer enough.
The time has come to look, not at what could be, but what will be.
It's time to unlock new doors.
Thanks to generous supporters like yourself, we are now operating out of our Washington Center Road location, The Hefner Center!
Although renovations are still underway, we are ecstatic about the opportunities this move will provide. Not only does the location have many benefits, the extra space in the building is a game changer! Extra rooms allow for more clients to utilize our services, and the additional space will accommodate partnerships with local organizations.
We are so proud of our progress and that the doors are being opened, fostering hope for those in need of our services. Thank you for being the key to a safer, stronger, and more educated community. Our future is bright!
Ways to Donate
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$100 Your gift will go a long way in helping to provide homey comforts to our clients, who have fled a traumatic experience to find a safe place to get well. Your gift will provide bedding, towels, and other needed supplies.
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$500 Your gift will provide homey comforts for a family. Often when a parent comes to us, there is more than one more child involved. A gift of $500 will take care of the homey needs, such as bedding, towels, and other needed supplies for the entire family. At this level, you will also receive a VIP invite to our open house event which will include a tour of our newly renovated building.
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$1,000 Your gift will help provide homey comforts along with a bed. Additionally, you will receive a VIP invite to our open house event, including a tour of the newly renovated building. Your name will be also be included on our “Old Keys Won’t Open New Doors” wall of capital campaign supporters.
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$2,500 Your gift will provide a two beds, wardrobe cabinets, and end tables, along with homey comforts. Your name will be included on our wall of campaign supporters, plus you will also be jointly recognized with another donor on a plaque outside of a client room. Client bedrooms provide a safe place for healing.
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$5,000 This gift will double the items listed above, but you will be the sole sponsor of a bedroom our clients will temporarily call home. Your gift for this client bedroom will forever change a person’s life. Your name will appear on a plaque outside of your sponsored room. Additionally, you will also own a piece of nostalgia because with this sponsorship you will receive the actual old Guesthouse key to this room! We have 60 client room naming opportunities.
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Other Please know that no gift is too small. For larger gifts, we have a variety of naming opportunities throughout our building and in our courtyard. To learn more about these opportunities, please contact Paula Hughes-Schuh at 260.424.4908 ext.230 or phughes-schuh@ywcaerew.org.
Gift amounts and their respective naming opportunity are listed below. Please join us as we strive to expand our programming to keep up with the growing demand for our services.
- $1,000 Your name will be included in our “Old Keys Won’t Open New Doors” wall of capital campaign supporters.
- $2,500 You will have an opportunity to jointly sponsor a client room with another donor. Your name, along with the other donor name, will jointly appear on a plaque outside of the sponsored room. These rooms are a safe place for healing.
- $5,000 Be the sole sponsor of a room our clients will temporarily call home. Your gift for this client room will forever change a person’s life. Your name will appear on a plaque outside of your sponsored room. Additionally, you will also own a piece of nostalgia because with this sponsorship you will receive the actual old key to this room! We have 61 client room naming opportunities.
- $10,000 Sponsor our lactation room. YWCA’s mission is to empower women, and we are providing a space for new moms at YWCA to use when pumping milk. Your name will be on a plaque outside of this room.
- $10,000 Our staff work tirelessly to serve our clients. Our staff break room provides an area staff can use to eat lunch, take a break, and recharge their energy level to continue providing top-notch service to our clients. Your name will be on a plaque in the staff break room.
- $15,000 Our intake rooms are the first place our clients visit when coming into our building. We want this experience to be warm and inviting. We will have three intake rooms, one of which has already been named. We have two more opportunities to put your name on a plaque in one of our intake rooms.
- $15,000 We provide three support group room naming opportunities. Our staff will meet with clients in these rooms, as well as groups can meet to support each other, and trainings can take place in these spaces. Your name will go on a plaque outside of one of these three rooms. The first donors will get to pick which room.
- $15,000 The teens that come and stay with their parents in our facility have very different needs than younger children. Our teen room offers a safe place just for them. Your sponsorship of our teen room will offer your name on a plaque inside this space.
- $50,000 Our spacious dining room is a place where our clients and their children can enjoy nutritious meals. But, more than that, families can learn that meal time no longer equates to having to walk on eggshells in an attempt to avoid triggering an explosive situation. Families learn to eat together, chatting around a table, and begin to experience the joy of new family traditions.
YWCA Northeast Indiana is offering unique naming opportunities that we refer to as ‘legacy’ because these are areas of our organizations that are high-profile and long-term. These include a program or significant space in our building. Unique legacy naming opportunities include:
- Youth Advocacy program
- Lobby with stunning grand fireplace
- Courtyard playground
- YW Lofts, which are 14 supportive care apartments
- Health and Wellness Program
- Community-Based Advocacy program
- Community Education program
- Addiction Recovery program
- Racial Justice program
If you are interested in one of the unique legacy naming opportunities, please contact Paula Hughes-Schuh at 260.424.4908 ext.230 or phughes-schuh@ywcaerew.org.
To give via check, please send to:
YWCA Northeast Indiana
Attn: Thanh Riehm
5920 Decatur Road
Fort Wayne, IN 46816
(Please write “capital campaign” on your memo line.)
For assistance with donor advised funds, securities, and planned giving, please contact Paula Hughes-Schuh at phughes-schuh@ywcaerew.org.
Aimee Myers, Executive Director of The William J. and Bonnie L. Hefner Foundation, shares why it is important to support YWCA Northeast Indiana’s capital campaign. She has invested significantly in two of our legacy naming opportunities: 1) our building, now called The Hefner Center, and 2) our domestic violence crisis shelter, now named Bonnie’s House in honor of Aimee’s grandmother, Bonnie Hefner.
"The leaders of YWCA have cast a bold vision that will improve and save lives and the McMillen Foundation is happy to help bring that vision to reality. We are confident The Hefner Center will be an invaluable resource for women escaping domestic violence and women striving for recovery from addiction. We are also impressed with the many steps taken to ensure the facility will be welcoming, safe, and feel like “home” for the women it will serve. We encourage anyone in a position to give to support this important project."
Kristin Giant
(Grants Administrator, McMillen Foundation)
Thank you for supporting YWCA Northeast Indiana.
Funding for the building renovations of YWCA Northeast Indiana has been provided in part by Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction.