Advance Housing Inc. would like to thank Toys for Tots for their special donation! Your generous contribution will help create happy holidays for many of our consumers and their families!!
Due to the challenges, we face in developing and maintaining our programs, the agency is always grateful for contribution, large or small. Your contributions go to the everyday need of affordable housing along with supportive living help.
Your donations will bring hope and truly make a difference in the lives of those we serve.
Donations can be mailed in by check, or here through PayPal.
Please make checks out to The Advance Housing Foundation.
Hope Starts With All of Us
BUY A KEYCHAIN, GIVE A KEYCHAIN
Be part of the experience of someone moving into their permanent home.
For $18, we’ll give them a special Advance Housing Keychain to put their new keys on, and we’ll send you one to match.
Want to buy a keychain for yourself or a friend? Visit our store and purchase one for $10.
GIVE BY DOING:
Purchasing a “Give Back Where It Counts” bag at Acme? Make sure you follow the instructions on the tag and select Advance Housing to support us!
Purchasing a give back bag at Stop and Shop? Make sure you fill in “Advance Housing, Paramus, NJ” in the Tag and return it within 7 days.
Making-it-Home
MAKE A HOME FOR THEM WITH
YOUR GENTLY USED FURNITURE
Making-It-Home is a nonprofit program of Advance
Housing. We deliver gently used furniture to low-income
formerly homeless individuals and families in Bergen County,
veterans, survivors of domestic violence and their children,
seniors, and people with physical and mental challenges who
are moving from emergency shelters to permanent but
unfurnished housing.
WE ACCEPT:
Love seats/Sofas, recliners, coffee tables, end tables, dressers, nightstands, kitchen tables, dining room sets, tv stands, lamps.
All items must be in excellent condition without missing pieces, tears, stains,
fading, or damage of any kind.
Please contact us for more information, you may send pictures of items you wish donate to the email address.
TO DONATE:
Send an email to donatefurniture@advancehousing.org or call 201-498-9140 ext 228
What is Making-It-Home?
Making-It-Home – a public/private partnership and program of the nonprofit Advance Housing, Inc – works with businesses, residents, government, and nonprofit agencies in Bergen County to bring donated furniture to homeless veterans, survivors of domestic violence and their children, seniors, and individuals with physical and mental challenges who are moving from emergency shelters to permanent but unfurnished housing.
Who Are Your Clients?
Our clients have experienced a life-changing event that left them without permanent housing. With a number of supports now in place, they are ready to live independently and move from emergency shelters to new apartments. Making-It-Home provides them with donated furniture to help make their empty apartments feel like home.
How Do You Determine Who Gets the Gently-Used, Donated Furniture?
Each month, Making-It-Home receives referrals from case managers at more than 30 local social service agencies who verify low-income clients that qualify for our services. We typically connect with case managers to discuss the referrals, and also meet with our clients in their new apartments to hear their “furniture wish list” and take the appropriate measurements.
Where Do You Get the Donated Furniture?
We currently pick up new and gently-used, donated furniture in Bergen County only. Furniture is donated by a variety of sources: Bergen County residents who are downsizing, moving, redecorating or cleaning out the home of a loved one; professional organizers or realtors who are assisting their clients; clean-out companies that acquire quality furniture during a service call and movers who obtain unwanted furniture pieces after a move that they are able to donate.
What Types of Donated Furniture Do You Need?
Most of our clients move into small studio or one-bedroom apartments and need basic furniture on which to sit or eat, and storage pieces for clothing. We always need small kitchen tables and chairs, dressers, night tables, small sofas and love seats, club chairs, recliners, end tables, coffee tables, TV stands, and lamps. All donated furniture must be in excellent condition without tears, stains, or damage. See the link on our homepage that describes “How to Donate Furniture.”
Do You Take Household Items, Mattresses/Beds/Sofa Beds, Appliances or Other Furniture?
We are unable to accept donations of housewares, appliances, linens, mattresses, bed frames, sofa beds, headboards, or electronics. In addition, we are unable to take certain items such as very large armoires, dining room breakfronts/china cabinets, and pieces that contain glass. On occasion we will take small desks and bookcases. We have limited storage space and therefore focus on donated furniture that is most needed by our clients and most difficult for them to obtain on their own.
How Can I Donate Furniture?
The most efficient way to inquire about donating furniture is to send an email to donatefurniture@advancehousing.org. Please include photos of each item you’d like to donate, measurements of any sofas and dining tables (without leaves), the address where the furniture is located, your cell phone, and your flexibility or the absolute latest date possible for pick-up. Then we’ll be able to determine if the pieces are appropriate for our clients and schedule a pick-up date (Monday-Friday only, no weekends). Please allow sufficient time for pick-up (ideally 2 to 3 weeks). Staff is present at each pick-up and records the information necessary to provide a receipt for tax purposes.
Where Do You Keep Your Furniture Donations?
Making-It-Home rents storage space at a discount from Westy Self Storage in Hackensack. We keep items there until they are identified for a particular client.
Who Moves the Donated Furniture?
We work with local relocation specialists/moving companies, who assist us at a highly discounted rate, to transport donated furniture from donors and to our clients. They are able to remove donated furniture from inside the home. Residents need to be present but do not need to move anything themselves. Our staff accompanies the movers on every furniture pickup and delivery.
Why Is Making-It-Home Important?
Making-It-Home provides a critical missing “piece” for low-income individuals, children, and families who are leaving emergency shelters, further enabling them to live in a safe environment that improves their quality of life and ability to achieve greater self-sufficiency and a brighter future. This essential ingredient helps complete the picture and “make their house a home.” Our furniture donation program ensures that those who are ready to make a fresh start are able to move into their new apartments knowing they will have the furniture they need and can use their limited funds for necessities such as food, rent, and medical care. It provides a safe, healthy and comfortable home environment that encourages people to secure and hold down a job, their children to achieve in school, and individuals and families to thrive. This security reduces the recurrence of homelessness.
Another unique aspect of our model lies in the way we are working together to solve not only the problems related to housing and homelessness, but also environmental concerns about the disposing of unwanted furniture. Each year we save about 42,000 pounds from entering our landfills. Our constellation of partners includes residents who seek to recycle/donate their unwanted furniture and, most important, give it to people who can truly benefit. In the same fashion, clean out services do their part for the environment by alerting us to furniture they’ve acquired for disposal and often volunteering their time to deliver it to our warehouse.
How Did Making-It-Home Get Started in this Furniture Donation Program?
Making-It-Home began as a small pilot project. In 2014, Making-It-Home founder, Cynthia Massarsky, worked with Rebuilding Together and Bob’s Discount Furniture to furnish a living and dining room for a family in Moonachie whose home had been destroyed by Super Storm Sandy. In 2015, she worked with Bergen County’s United Way to create and run a town-wide fundraising campaign, which included a one-of-a-kind online gift registry, and to provide furniture for the living areas in six apartments and a community room in Tenafly for people with developmental disabilities. From the spring of 2016 through July of 2022, Making-It-Home was with Bergen Volunteers. In November 2022, Making-It-Home became an official program of the nonprofit Advance Housing, to continue its important work in collecting donated furniture and bringing it to formerly homeless individuals and families in Bergen County.
Who Leads the Program?
Cynthia Massarsky runs the Making-It-Home program. She has a long history of work at the intersection of the public and private sectors, where she has been at the forefront of the social enterprise, entrepreneurship, and CSR movement for nearly 50 years.
To donate furniture, please send an email to donatefurniture@advancehousing.org.
For additional information or to become a Making-It-Home sponsor, please contact Cynthia at cmassarsky@advancehousing.org.