They say the best things in life are free.

But, it costs money to build a house for a family to call home. A new year is upon us – a time for new beginning and commitments. It is also the time to make good on old commitments.

Last year, the Department of Medicine pledged to raise $60,000 in support of building a home for our Habitat family. The house is built and now the pledge is due. We still need to collect over $40,000. Can you help? If we all pitch in, the individual burden will be light.

The end of the tax year is a particularly good time to donate. And it is easy to donate online. Please be sure to mark your donation DOM, so it will go to our pledge amount.

• Need a birthday or other celebration gift? You can make a donation to Habitat in any amount. Give the gift of giving. Why not make a donation to Habitat in the recipient’s name?

• Habitat recently received a pledge for a matching gift. Every dollar you donate to Project 20 will be matched by this gift, allowing Habitat to help more families achieve success faster. Please include "Project 20" in the memo line of your check or in the special instructions field of the online giving page to ensure your gift qualifies for the match.
  
  

If your family is in the habit of making larger end of year donations, please consider choosing Habitat as your charity. There are special tax benefits in addition to the standard itemized deduction from state and federal taxes of the total amount donated. Any donations over $500 are eligible for special additional state tax credits. The value of the tax credit is equal to 65% of the donation value and gets applied to your state taxes. There may still be time for your gift to go on your last year’s taxes. For more information, please contact Staley Micken, Sponsorship Manager.

A The House that DOM Built t-shirt will be given for all donations over $25. Please consider donating to Habitat for Humanity today.

Thank you for your previous gifts of time and money. You make a difference.