Three ways to support affordable housing — whether you want a tax-deductible gift, capital that stays in your name and earns interest, or equity in a social impact fund. Built for people who understand how markets work and believe they can work for communities.
A donor-advised fund that pools charitable capital to accelerate affordable housing development across the KC metro. Your gift is tax-deductible and goes to work immediately.
Open or pledge a certificate of deposit at a CDFI bank partner. The CD serves as collateral for a mission-aligned development loan. Your principal stays yours — and earns interest — while unlocking affordable housing capital.
A Regulation D, Rule 506(b) private placement fund sponsored by The Way Home — for accredited investors seeking direct equity participation in KC affordable housing with mission-aligned returns.
The Kansas City Affordable Housing Accelerator is a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) sponsored by The Way Home — a mechanism that lets individual donors, foundations, and organizations pool charitable capital toward a specific community purpose.
Your donation is fully tax-deductible in the year it's made. Once contributed, the funds are deployed as grants and low-cost capital to support affordable housing development projects across the KC metro — projects like the ones you can explore on our Projects page.
DAF contributions don't require you to specify a single project at the time of your gift. The Way Home's investment committee directs capital to projects where it will have the greatest impact, giving your donation more flexibility and leverage than a project-specific gift.
The Accelerator DAF is one of three capital instruments at the core of The Way Home's model — each designed to cover a different part of the affordable housing capital spectrum, from predevelopment through gap fill.
Contact us to let us know you'd like to contribute to the Kansas City Affordable Housing Accelerator. We'll provide the fund name, DAF sponsor details, and routing instructions specific to your giving situation.
Gifts can be made by check, wire, stock transfer, or directly from an existing DAF account. Contributions of appreciated assets (stock, real estate) may offer additional tax advantages.
You'll receive a written acknowledgment confirming your gift as a tax-deductible charitable contribution to a US 501(c)(3) organization.
Your capital is deployed into the affordable housing ecosystem — supporting construction, predevelopment, and bridge financing for projects serving Kansas City's essential workers: the nurses, teachers, baristas, sanitation workers, and others making 50–80% AMI who make this city run but struggle to afford to live in it.
This isn't a donation. You open or pledge a Certificate of Deposit at a CDFI bank partner, which serves as collateral for a development loan on a project sponsored by The Way Home. In Kansas City, our current CDFI banking partner is Central Bank of Kansas City (CBKC). Your CD stays in your name, continues earning interest, and is released back to you when the loan is repaid. Your capital enables affordable housing without leaving your balance sheet.
Affordable housing developers often can't access conventional development loans because the deals look too risky on paper — even when the project is sound. By pledging your CD as collateral, you reduce the bank's perceived risk, allowing it to lend at a lower rate. The developer saves on financing costs, making the project pencil at affordable price points.
You don't give up your money — the bank simply holds a lien on your CD while the loan is outstanding. When the project sells or refinances, the loan is repaid and the lien is released. Your CD remains intact throughout.
Best for individuals who want to deploy savings or investment capital into affordable housing while continuing to earn a return on their money.
Open a certificate of deposit at a CDFI bank — a Community Development Financial Institution with a mission to serve underbanked communities. In Kansas City, The Way Home’s current CDFI banking partner is Central Bank of Kansas City (CBKC).
You designate the CD as collateral for a development loan sponsored by The Way Home. The bank records a lien against your CD for the duration of the loan.
The CD remains your asset throughout. You continue earning the agreed interest rate on your deposit as normal.
When the development loan is repaid (typically at project completion or refinancing), the bank releases the lien. Your CD is fully accessible again.
Best for foundations, donor-advised funds, or institutional investors that already hold CDs and want to put that capital to work for the community without liquidating it.
Review your organization's existing CD portfolio for instruments that can be pledged as collateral without breaching investment policy constraints.
Work with The Way Home and our CDFI banking partner to structure the pledge. Your organization’s CD remains on your balance sheet as an asset — no cash leaves the organization.
Your collateral enables the bank to lend at 2–3% to the affordable housing developer, making the deal financially viable at affordable price points.
Your CD continues earning its stated interest rate throughout the term. The pledge is released when the development loan is repaid.
Contact The Way Home to learn about current projects seeking CD collateral commitments, minimum amounts, and how to coordinate with our CDFI bank partner.
A Regulation D, Rule 506(b) private placement fund sponsored by The Way Home — designed for accredited investors who want direct equity participation in Kansas City affordable housing, with mission-aligned financial returns.
Unlike the CD collateral model — where your principal stays on your own balance sheet — the 506(b) fund pools investor capital directly into a managed vehicle that The Way Home deploys across a portfolio of affordable housing projects. Investors participate in the returns generated by those projects, proportional to their share of the fund.
The fund is structured under Reg D Rule 506(b), which permits up to 35 non-accredited but sophisticated investors alongside an unlimited number of accredited investors — making it more accessible than a 506(c) offering while maintaining the flexibility to raise from a wide range of mission-aligned capital partners.
This fund complements — rather than replaces — the CD collateral and DAF pathways. Each instrument serves a different investor profile and covers a different part of the capital stack. Together, they form The Way Home’s full capital engine.
506(b) funds require investors to self-certify as accredited (net worth over $1M excluding primary residence, or income over $200K individually / $300K jointly for the past two years). Up to 35 sophisticated non-accredited investors may also participate.
Once the fund launches, you’ll receive a PPM detailing the fund structure, target return profile, investment thesis, risk factors, and the specific affordable housing projects in the initial portfolio.
Complete the subscription agreement and fund your investment. Capital is deployed by The Way Home’s investment committee into vetted affordable housing projects across Kansas City — and eventually other markets.
As projects complete and generate returns, distributions flow back to fund investors. You’ll also receive regular impact reporting — units created, families housed, capital leveraged — alongside financial statements.
A Reg D 506(b) private placement for accredited investors seeking mission-aligned returns in KC affordable housing.
Whether you give, invest, or both — every dollar deployed through The Way Home's capital structure helps more Kansas City families access stable, affordable housing.