With the rising rate and severity of domestic violence in Buncombe County, Helpmate’s crisis shelter for survivors fleeing intimate partner violence is bursting at the seams. The WNC nonprofit has served thousands of local individuals and families over the last 50 years, and expanding its capacity to meet growing need has become an urgent priority.
“It’s a life-saving initiative for us to make sure that our county has enough emergency shelter beds for domestic violence survivors,” explained Helpmate Executive Director April Burgess-Johnson. “Simply put, if people don’t have a place to flee, they don’t flee. They stay. And when they stay, sometimes they die.”
Each year, Helpmate shelters roughly 225 people from about 150 different families. However, nearly 300 additional families routinely call seeking emergency shelter. When Helpmate’s shelter is at full capacity, those individuals are referred to resources and programs in surrounding counties. “In those instances, we’re producing a regional burden,” stressed Burgess-Johnson. “Here we are in Buncombe County, the largest and most resourced county in the region, exporting trauma on a daily basis.”
Facing the Challenge
To tackle this challenge, Helpmate launched a plan in 2015 for a significant capital expansion to more than double occupancy at the crisis shelter, while also allowing for more flexible space to meet the needs of diverse individuals and families. Conceptualizing the $16 million project was not the hard part — finding the money was.
“This was not a small undertaking,” remarked Burgess-Johnson. “While $1 million will come from the sale of our existing shelter, the remaining $15 million needed to be raised from grants and our local community.”
The project gained important momentum when Helpmate received a donated plot of land adjacent to its current shelter for the expansion. A $3 million grant from Dogwood Health Trust’s housing portfolio in 2022 was instrumental early on as well. But progress accelerated rapidly in 2023 when Burgess-Johnson reached out to Dogwood to explore grant opportunities through the Leverage Fund.
A Deeper Bench
Created in 2019, Dogwood’s Leverage Fund offers professional grant writers at no cost to eligible organizations seeking funds from sources outside of Dogwood. Since its inception, the Leverage Fund has helped 150 nonprofits and government organizations in WNC to secure more than $173 million in grant funds from outside funders.
“This was an amazing experience for us because the Leverage Fund support allowed us to hire our own grant writer,” Burgess-Johnson said. “Her deep knowledge of our program and her investment in our success really showed through in what she wrote.”
Over two years of participation with the Leverage Fund, Helpmate was able to secure 12 awards totaling over $3.4 million to put towards shelter expansion, placing the organization even closer to its goal.
Benefits Beyond the Bottom Line
In addition to the financial support made possible through the Leverage Fund, Burgess-Johnson said the resource added bandwidth for staff previously tasked with sourcing and writing time-consuming grant applications. “You can’t do everything perfectly all at the same time. Having this extra help allowed me to maintain oversight with our grants, and it freed up time and energy for me to manage our programs, supervise staff and work on other things that were also important,” she explained.
A broader benefit of the Leverage Fund is helping an organization diversify their funder base. This improves organizational sustainability, reduces financial risk by preventing overreliance on a single funding source, and increases the likelihood of weathering challenges like economic fluctuations and policy changes.
Above all else, the best benefit of the Leverage Fund, according to Burgess-Johnson, is knowing Helpmate will serve more survivors fleeing intimate partner violence. Construction of the new crisis shelter is estimated to be completed in the summer of 2026, with individuals and families able to be served by next fall.
“You shouldn’t have to leave your home county because somebody hurt you,” Burgess-Johnson said. “The Leverage Fund has been so meaningful to us. It has made such a difference.” To learn more about the Leverage Fund and how to apply, visit https://dogwoodhealthtrust.org/beyond-grantmaking/the-leverage-fund/.
