corner
corner
corner
corner
Get Involved

Get Involved

Invest with us

  • Becoming an Equity Trust Loan Fund lender is a great way to participate in our work. Your investment will be used to support community-based projects that are changing the way people own and use land and other resources. When you loan to us, we then have more funds to loan to Community Land Trusts providing permanently affordable housing; CSA farms providing healthy, local food; and non-profit and grassroots organizations strengthening their communities. Learn more about making a social investment loan here.

Volunteer

  • Offer a skill: Are you a designer who can help with print or on-line publications? Do you have fundraising skills? Are you a lawyer or accountant or other skilled professional willing to offer pro bono advice? Are you a writer or editor, artist, photographer? Do you have a particular interest in one of the properties we steward? If you have energy, some time, and an interest in contributing, get in touch so we can talk about it.
  • Come to a mailing party: If you live near our office, we always welcome volunteers to help with two to three mailings each year. It’s a fun way to meet other friends of Equity Trust and you’ll be among the first to read our updates. Let us know if you’d like to be added to the list of wonderful willing volunteers who we can call for help.
  • Host a talk / Give a talk: Are you part of an organization whose members might be interested in learning more about Equity Trust and the work we do? Do you know potential lenders to the Equity Trust Fund (individuals or organizations)? Are you a contributor, lender, or partner with Equity Trust who would like to tell others about the projects that inspire you? If you would like to help us reach more people, either by hosting a talk or perhaps by giving one, please let us know. We have a small staff serving a broad geographic area, so we can’t promise that we can always offer a visit, but we do have many friends, partners, collaborators spread across the country. When possible, we’d love make visits and offer talks to interested groups; in other cases, we can create connections so those who want to learn about our work can hear from friends who know us.

Support our work financially

  • You can make a donation with an online gift, or you can send a check to:
    Equity Trust, Inc., P.O. Box 746, Amherst, MA 01004.
  • We also welcome gifts of stock. Please contact us to discuss details.
    Donate Stock to Equity Trust, Inc
  • Make an equity pledge. We invite property owners pledge a percentage of the “social appreciation” in your property, payable at the time you sell the property. Social appreciation in a property is the portion of its increased value attributable to the community’s investment (e.g. schools, roads, etc) and/or to intangibles from being in a desirable neighborhood or community, rather than from improvements made by the individual property owner. Pledges can be any percentage you choose, from 1 to 100%, of the increased value of your property. Equity Trust commits to redistribute that social equity to communities which lack sufficient investment. If you are interested in learning more about making an equity pledge, please call, write or email us, and we will send you a packet of information, and discuss your questions about this program.
  • We accept land gifts of present or future interests in real estate of any kind. We’ll arrange for local stewardship to maintain the property for appropriate charitable or conservation purposes. If that is not possible, the equity will be used to achieve similar goals in your own or other communities. If you are interested in making gift of land, you can call our office and discuss your idea with a staff person.

Feel free to call our office (413) 256-6161 to request more information about any of these options.

Equity Trust, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization; donations to our work are tax exempt.