Winter heating relief gets a boost with over $19K from Guys Who Give

KALAMAZOO, MI —  Community Homeworks helps struggling homeowners tackle critical home repair projects — those that threaten the health and safety of the people involved.

It repairs or replaces water heaters, boilers, gas lines, flooring, windows, doors, railings for stairs, some plumbing, and some electrical.

“This time of year, the meat and potatoes of what we’re trying to help out with in the community is no-heat situations in homes,” says Executive Director Chris Praedel. “We’re doing a whole heck of a lot of furnace replacements and repairs, and they’re expensive. ”

So his organization was thrilled to receive $19,300 to help income-qualified homeowners as they face harsh winter weather. On Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, a check for that amount was presented by Guys Who Give, a homegrown “giving circle” that started in 2017.

“We were able to surprise them with our donation,” says Cody Livingston, president and co-founder of Guys Who Give.

He says the member of his organization who nominated Community Homeworks for the fourth-quarter gift “gave a really compelling argument — if you will — for the number of folks in the community at this time of year who aren’t able to pay heating bills or repair their furnace or some of those types of things. So, just the increased amount of need as we come into this time of year in Michigan is just pretty outstanding. That won the group’s vote.”

The gift is an accomplishment that puts Guys Who Give about $10,000 shy of $500,000 in quarterly contributions to local nonprofits since the group was started in 2017. “So certainly at our next quarterly event, we’ll hit that celebratory mark,” Livingston says.

Praedel says, “Our most expensive time of year is right now. When we have colder months, we’re starting to go out and do furnace replacements and repairs, and they’re really expensive. So we have to design ourselves as an organisation to have the cash flow and the ability to serve the community when most nonprofits are struggling financially. And so it (the gift) was the most perfect timing for a major gift like that to come.”

Community Homeworks operates on an annual budget of $2 million. About $850,000 of that goes directly into fixing and buying such things as furnaces.

“We work to keep people in the homes they have,” Praedel says. “So we do it through health and safety home repairs. We do educational workshops to teach people how to do things in their home. And then we have a new tool-lending program too. All three of those things are meant to help support homeowners thrive and remain in their homes.”

Guys Who Give was started in 2017 by Livingston and his brother as a way for time-constrained men to make impactful charitable donations to local organizations, and have a direct hand in deciding where the money goes.

“Any nonprofit that serves Kalamazoo County is eligible to be nominated,” Livingston says. “And then we draw three from the hat, and then each member who does the nominating gets up to five minutes to kind of give a speech.  … No presentation materials or anything like that. It’s meant to be intentionally casual. And made for kind of the everyday Joe from the community.”

Each participant donates $100 per quarter to support the nonprofit organization that is chosen by the group. Any number of potential recipient organizations may be nominated. At the quarterly Impact Events, the names of three nonprofit organizations are pulled from a hat, and the nominating member of Guys Who Give makes a pitch for it. They have up to five minutes to explain what makes that nonprofit a worthy benefactor. Then members vote.

The meetings, which are held in the private meeting area at Revel & Roll West, are also meant to be easy. Doors open at 5 p.m. The meeting is at 6 p.m. It is over by 7 p.m. Participants can stay and socialize for as long as they like afterwards. While there is a fraternal aspect to a group of like-minded men, Livingston says, it’s sort of “an anti-networking networking group.”

“The concept is: one hour; once a quarter; 100 guys; $100 each,” he says. “So in theory we’re giving $10,000 or more to a local nonprofit inside of an hour.”

The largest contribution the group has made to any organization is $28,800. That amount was windswept higher because it coincided with the fifth anniversary celebration of Guys Who Give. Since 2017, membership in the group has grown from 13 to about 170. Of them, about 25 percent make quarterly contributions automatically, Livingston says. Eighty-two members attended a Nov. 12 Impact Event to make contributions for the fourth-quarter gift and to choose the recipient of the contribution. Their in-person giving melded with more than $16,000 in online donations for the fourth quarter.

Praedel says Community Homeworks has seen a record number of requests for help this year and has spent about $300,000 more in home repairs and related costs versus a year ago. He says the gift from Guys Who Give is great. But he reminds that costs are so high that it may be just enough to install four furnaces.

“It’s so exciting because it’s not something you can anticipate,” he says, “and so when it happens, it’s such an amazing, exciting surprise. And we’re just over-the-moon excited.”

The appeal to members of Guys Who Give is the simplicity of the giving concept and “that we get together and drink beer and talk about local nonprofits,” Livingston says with a laugh. But it is also the impact that can be made if people pool their resources.

“I talk a lot about how it’s great for you or I to go and write a $100 check to a local nonprofit,’ Livingston says. “And you should continue to do that. But if we all get together and pool our resources and we all write a $100 check to an organisation, that’s real impact, real change right here in our backyard.”

“Real change right here in our backyard. That’s the goal,” he says.