St. Johnsbury has been on the upswing. The largest town in the Northeast Kingdom, it’s now home to a newly reopened arts center, Catamount Arts; Dog Mountain, known for its Dog Chapel, which attracts passionate pooch lovers from around the globe; the recently expanded Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium; and the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, a distinctive library and art gallery; as well as a distillery, a thriving farmers market and cozy cafés. In short, it’s become a place where people want to live. Unfortunately, housing infrastructure is in short supply.
Rob Riley, president of the Northern Forest Center, which helps rural towns across northern New England and the Adirondack region of New York grow, said he’s heard from businesses in the St. Johnsbury area that can’t hire new employees because of the lack of housing. “Folks at Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital shared they’ve had candidates turn down positions because there was nowhere for them to rent or buy,” he said.
The Northern Forest Center has been involved in St. Johnsbury for more than a decade, providing grants to assist with mountain bike trails, partnering with downtown association Discover St. Johnsbury to promote tourism, and offering assistance and training to companies such as Lyndon Furniture.
The Northern Forest Center just completed its biggest project in Vermont yet: a refurbished apartment building at 560 Railroad Street, on the northern edge of downtown St. Johnsbury. Just three years ago, the 15,000-square-foot building was largely empty; now it’s home to nine apartments and two commercial businesses: a bookstore that will open soon and a gallery space affiliated with Catamount Arts. It will lease a studio apartment to artists-in-residence who will rotate throughout the year.
“We’re developing housing for the missing middle — teachers, nurses, nonprofit and municipal workers — so that they can live in safe, quality housing to raise families and, long-term, buy these places as their homes,” Riley said.
But developing this kind of housing isn’t cheap: This project cost $5.5 million. That’s a lot of money for a small, rural community.
The Northern Forest Center got started with the complicated process of planning this project supported by a $50,000 regional and local impact grant from the Vermont Community Foundation, a public charity that’s home to hundreds of funds and individual giving accounts created by Vermonters to serve charitable goals.
With strong plans in place, the financing for this project came together with support from many partners, including a $500,000 mission investment from the Vermont Community Foundation into the center’s Northern Forest Fund. One of the community foundation’s tools is what’s called “mission investing.” This is a process in which charitable dollars are invested — not just granted — to support things that matter to Vermonters, such as building affordable housing, supporting small businesses and working lands, revitalizing downtowns, fostering entrepreneurship, and creating welcoming community spaces. That’s what supported the project in St. Johnsbury.
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It’s just one of the ways the community foundation is able to connect fundholders and donors to projects that make a difference. Its knowledgeable staff of philanthropic advisers work with fundholders to direct money to impactful projects that will align with fundholders’ priorities and have the greatest possible impact. Together, the community foundation’s family of funds puts more than $70 million into the community each year.
“The Vermont Community Foundation came to us and asked how to help. That is very different from a lot of processes where you just apply for a grant and see if you get it,” Riley said. “The Vermont Community Foundation came to the table willing, open and flexible.”
Seeing Vermont’s Potential
As president and CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation, Dan Smith puts it this way: “Making a grant says, ‘I see the need.’ Making an investment says, ‘I see your potential.’”
The foundation’s mission investing approach recognizes that returns are not only financial; they are also measured in lives changed and communities strengthened. While mission investing carries risk, it also creates the opportunity for deep, lasting impact.
The Vermont Community Foundation was one of the earliest adopters of mission investing. In 2001, VCF began allocating 5 percent of its assets to Vermont-based companies and organizations. Now, Smith says, this model has widespread interest, and he advises other foundations on how to make it work. VCF inspired and was a major contributor to the Community Foundation Field Guide to Impact Investing, which is now a resource for community foundations nationwide.
“One of the most engaging things about mission investing is that the money is recyclable,” explained Jeffrey Smith, director of finance at the Vermont Community Foundation. “So, with the Northern Forest Fund, we provided a loan. Then, when it is repaid, we can keep reusing that money over and over again in different projects. It expands the impact of those dollars.”
Annie Penfield, a fundholder at the Vermont Community Foundation, is a strong supporter of mission investing and uses her fund to uplift Vermont’s workforce. That’s because Penfield knows firsthand how hard it can be to run your own business. She owned Strafford Saddlery and sold equipment for horses for 22 years. She closed her business in 2023, though she continues to work as a mobile saddle fitter.
She set up her fund with the Vermont Community Foundation in 2022. She chose to work with the community foundation because she wanted to find a way to help out in her own backyard.
“Strafford is a small town, which means everyone has to do their part to keep things going. That’s important when you choose what to invest in — with your money, your time and your energy,” Penfield explained.
Penfield values the ability to diversify her philanthropy and give to a lot of causes that matter to her. The Vermont Community Foundation makes that possible by providing Penfield with a philanthropic adviser who looks into opportunities that align with her values.
“I really trust the Vermont Community Foundation, so if they bring something to my attention, I feel good about that investment. The VCF has resources beyond funding to help these businesses, like coaching and support, that make a big difference in taking a risk and supporting a startup,” Penfield said.
Backing Local Ideas
Julie Lineberger was on the receiving end of a transformational investment from the Vermont Community Foundation. When her godson Riley Poor broke his neck in 2009, she saw firsthand how the injury completely disrupted his life. He was in a wheelchair, but he had just been offered a job with Nike and was in the process of moving to Portland. With his disability, Poor was unable to find an accessible place to live. He lived in a hotel room for nine months until he found a house.
Lineberger and her husband, Joseph Cincotta, who owns LineSync Architecture in Wilmington, visited Portland to help make accessible changes to their godson’s new house. This gave Cincotta an idea.
“He thought, What if there had been an accessible dwelling so he could have stayed with his family instead of being isolated?” Lineberger said. It was just an idea until 2015, when Lineberger entered the Strolling of the Heifers/BDCC Business Plan competition. She presented her plan for WheelPad, a company that would manufacture accessible home attachments. She saw it as something that could help those with spinal cord injuries, debilitating illnesses such as ALS or multiple sclerosis, or anyone else who might need an accessible living accommodation on an existing property.
Other people saw the vision. Lineberger kept winning awards and was able to get enough funding to build a prototype in 2018. By 2020, she was in business with WheelPad’s first product: the SuitePAD, a bedroom and bathroom attachment.
“By attaching a SuitePAD to someone’s house, they don’t have to leave their nests. We can help someone with an ALS diagnosis stay home and with their family. We can keep people living in the community where they want to live,” she said.
Nothing like WheelPad existed on the market, and customers were grateful for the product. One problem: The demand was more than the small, growing company could keep up with. Lineberger had to turn down people in serious need.
“I had to take a deposit from a customer to build a unit and then send it out. It took four or five months, but the reality is, we need to have the units built three months before someone realizes they need it,” she said. “For every one unit we delivered, we had to say no to six more. It was really hurting our hearts.”
That’s where the Vermont Community Foundation came in.
At the end of 2024, the community foundation provided a $600,000 mission investment that allowed Lineberger to start building her inventory.
The Vermont Community Foundation backed Lineberger’s business because WheelPad does more than just help disabled people stay in their communities: It also helps build the economy of Wilmington, a town in Windham County with a population of fewer than 3,000 people. Lineberger employs a diverse workforce of 15 people in the WheelPad factory.
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“Before WheelPad, there wasn’t any manufacturing in our town,” Lineberger said. “We bring economic viability to this area and the people here.”
When it comes to distributing her product, Lineberger said she sees and hears so many tears of happiness. In Burlington, she spoke with a woman who fell and broke her hip, but because of the SuitePAD, she was able to move in with her daughter. WheelPad also provided a dwelling unit for Hisham Awartani, a Palestinian student paralyzed from the waist down after he was shot in Burlington in 2024. The unit will allow him to continue to visit his grandmother, who lives in the city. At the southern end of the state, the town of Putney changed its zoning laws to allow WheelPad units.
Because of the ability to build inventory, WheelPad is growing. In July, the company will start prototypes for a new unit: the StudioPAD, an attachable studio apartment with a kitchenette.
“Starting a new business is challenging, but the support of organizations like the Vermont Community Foundation have helped us make it,” Lineberger said. “Because of that support, I don’t think I could’ve started this business in any other state but Vermont.”
Supporting Local Communities
Three years ago, Plainfield was in danger of losing one of its most essential businesses. The village center has few shops, but they include what many residents see as the essentials: a bar, a restaurant, a bookstore and a gas station. Off the beaten track behind a difficult-to-navigate intersection is where the grocery store, Plainfield Co-op, used to reside. The location was just one of the many reasons the co-op decided to move to the former Plainfield Hardware building on Route 2.
“The Plainfield Co-op is integral to our community,” said Rose Paul, who became the 53-year-old co-op’s president a year and a half ago; she’s been a customer for more than 30 years. “It sells so many local products from farmers right around here. All of the money goes right back into the local economy.”
Before the co-op made the decision in 2023 to move to a new location, sales were declining year after year. In addition to the lack of foot traffic, the low elevation put it in a flood zone. In 2021, one of the store’s freezers broke, spoiling $7,000 worth of food. The repairs cost another $5,000.
“We needed a change if the co-op was going to survive,” said the co-op’s treasurer, John Cleary, a local farmer. He said Plainfield village and institutions such as Plainfield Co-op are the reason he chose to move to Plainfield and start a family.
When the co-op’s board voted to move locations, something serendipitous happened. Gaye Christiansen, one of the owners of Plainfield Hardware, called Paul to tell her that she and her husband were retiring. They wanted to sell their building to the co-op. Paul said it was perfect because the building was in a location that would drive more foot traffic and they could double their shelf space there, supporting higher sales and buying twice as much from local farms. Plus, keeping the hardware side of the business would allow the co-op to expand its service to the community.
However, the cost was steep: $1.75 million.
The co-op is owned by its 1,400 members. The ownership model gives members a sense of community when they meet regularly to make decisions about the store. But because it’s a for-profit business, the co-op could not apply for many grants.
It was able to secure some funding from two commercial lenders, but the co-op needed to raise a final $500,000 from the community by August 2024 to finalize the sale. Guess who came to the rescue: the Vermont Community Foundation, which was able to provide a $75,000 bridge loan that enabled the co-op to meet its deadline in time to move.
“This wasn’t a situation for a traditional bank, since we had to raise money from the local community and we had a hard deadline. Our fundraising was going well, but we weren’t sure we would make it in time,” Paul said. “The Vermont Community Foundation had the ability to step in and help us out with a bridge loan. Their flexibility was awesome.”
Just after the co-op opened in the new location, Route 2 shut down as a result of earlier flooding. As a newly opened business, foot traffic and sales were affected. Paul worried that the co-op wouldn’t be able to afford the upcoming spring greenhouse season, which is vital to the business. “It’s really popular, and people come in to shop for veggie starts, flowers and all kinds of garden needs. But we didn’t have the cash flow to purchase inventory.”
Want to invest in projects like these?
Learn more about how opening a fund at the VCF can support mission investing across Vermont. Curious about what’s possible?
Start the conversation at 802-388-3355, opt. 5 or email philanthropy@vermontcf.org.
The Vermont Community Foundation stepped up once again with a $150,000 loan that would allow the co-op to stock up on inventory and pay back the money from sales proceeds.
“The people at the Vermont Community Foundation are community members, and they immediately understood our situation,” Paul said. “They understood the social impact of investing in our co-op because they could see our value to the community.”
This article was commissioned and paid for by the Vermont Community Foundation.
