Warren Buffett Kicks Off Oma Village Nonprofit IPO

Renowned investor Warren Buffett has helped Homeward Bound launch a ‘nonprofit IPO’ to support the new Oma Village family housing site on Nave Drive, which will provide a model for green, affordable housing for families transitioning out of homelessness.

Rather than an “Initial Public Offering” of shares in a for-profit company, this IPO represents an “Immediate Public Opportunity … to end homelessness.” Up to 15,000 “fundraising shares” have been made available at $50 each.

Proceeds will finance construction of Oma Village, which will offer 14 small rental homes affordable to families entering the job market. Homeward Bound already has raised $3 million of the expected $5 million development cost.

Release of the shares coincides with Affordable Housing Week (May 4-11, 2013) in Marin County, a place that consistently tops the National Low-Income Housing Coalition’s list for most expensive rental housing in the country.

A devoted philanthropist, Mr. Buffett agreed to kick off the Oma Village IPO campaign to raise awareness of this opportunity to create a new model for affordable family housing for the future. He shared his thoughts recently on economic disparity: "It behooves this very rich country to have less inequality than we have."

The Oma Village development is being designed by Blu Homes, an innovative  manufacturer of energy-efficient, precision-engineered homes and creator of the 2012 Sunset Magazine Idea House in Healdsburg, Calif.

“This IPO offers the chance for people, groups or businesses to invest at the same level as Mr. Buffett,” says Mary Kay Sweeney, executive director of Homeward Bound. “Like most of his investments, this one will have significant long-lasting value and lead the way into the future re-imagining affordable housing.”

Investors can follow Warren Buffett’s lead by purchasing shares online at www.razoo.com/story/Homeward-Bound-Of-Marin-Non-Profit-IPO or by calling (415) 382-3363.

Every IPO investor will receive a share certificate, an Annual Shareholder Report and an invitation to the exclusive Annual Shareholder Meeting.

Homeward Bound of Marin pioneered the “nonprofit IPO” as a fundraising technique while building the Next Key Center, the housing and job-training campus that opened in 2008 in Novato. Mr. Buffett also bought the inaugural share of that issue, which raised more than $1 million.

Homeward Bound  has helped several other nonprofits launch fundraising IPOs. The Canadian Women's Foundation's Girls Growth Fund and Florida's Take Stock in Children both took advice from Homeward Bound and raised over $500,000 by utilizing this concept.