“Canova” is a house. Mercy Support Services purchased Canova to house needy families. But the neighbors complained, so we decided to use it to house our offices instead. One spring, as we were facing down our usual summer cash-flow shortage, our board suggested we do a quick face-lift and sell Canova. If we could get a chunk of equity out of it, we could meet our cash-flow needs. It felt like a crazy idea, but we thought it was worth a try.

This is where the generosity comes in…the Marquis family, friends, and employees worked tirelessly for two weeks to get it ready for sale. They replaced aging appliances; teenagers learned how to tile and did a beautiful job putting new tile in the entry way and bathrooms; they painted every wall (after taking off loads of wallpaper!), they put new gravel in the driveway; and even bought beautiful new mirrors for the bathrooms! If we had to put a price on the labor alone, it would be forty to fifty thousand dollars!

We had buyers interested right away and sold Canova for $275,000 – after buying it for $150,000 just two years earlier! After paying off the materials costs for the renovation and some real-estate transaction fees, Mercy Support Services put $103,000 in the bank! No more summer cash-flow shortage!!

When this whole idea first came up, I was thinking ‘paint job, move some furniture.’ I had no idea. I was not expecting the magnitude of what was done and the generosity of the 50 people who helped in those two weeks. To witness the transformation in such a short time was absolutely amazing! AND – having those funds from the sale has helped Mercy grow and serve so many more people. One family’s generosity toward Mercy has allowed us to guide hundreds more individuals and families from a temporary crisis to permanent self-sufficiency (Mercy’s mission statement). Generosity has transformative ripple effects!