May 6 Only! With Give4Good and LEAP, your $25 donation can help a family in need save $500 every year on energy costs
What does a lower energy bill mean to you? Homeowners who get a Home Energy Check-up performed by LEAP and basic weatherization work enjoy on average $500 in energy savings. The numbers are even higher when homeowners can afford home energy upgrades like insulation and air sealing.
For some of us that might mean a few extra date nights or airfare for vacation, but for many in the greater Charlottesville community a lower monthly utility bill can be the difference between a well nourished child and one who goes hungry, a child who is prepared for learning with adequate school supplies and one who falls behind in the classroom, a senior who fills a prescription and one who suffers without necessary medication, a family who can afford rent or a mortgage payment and one who struggles to find shelter.
LEAP has helped more than 2,000 area homeowners reduce their energy bills, but just a small 
fraction of these have been the low-income households that struggle the most (More than 1,700 Charlottesville families make $35,000 or less). Lower energy bills shouldn’t be a luxury that only some of us in the Charlottesville area can afford.
Families at or near the poverty level — which some estimates show is a quarter of Charlottesville’s population — often spend 25% of their total income on energy (as opposed to 7% for a non-poor family). That’s part of the whopping 94% of their income that goes to housing, food and home energy, leaving precious little for other basic needs like health care, clothing and transportation. The inability of a family to pay its energy bill is not the result of waste on their part. In fact, low-income households generally use about 20% less energy than middle income families. Home energy improvements are simply outside of what they are able to afford, and financing is not an option.
And on Tuesday May 6 we can change that. As part of the Give4Good Online Day of Giving organized locally by the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, every dollar donated to LEAP (or any of the 145 local nonprofits taking part) will be maximized with $32,000 in matching funds and cash prizes.
Every dime that LEAP raises through Give4Good will seed out just-launched EmPOWERment campaign that will provide a free Home Energy Check-up and basic weatherization (air sealing, weatherstripping doors and windows, pipe and duct sealing and insulation, etc) to 30 area families in need. Each family would receive this package of services valued at $845 and enjoy average energy savings of ~ $500 every year.
Lower their energy bills. Raise our community.Let’s do it together starting with Give4Good.
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