As the owners of Hamish Murray Construction, this article hits home on a very personal level. Often, we are humbled by the extent of the philanthropic spirit of so many people across greater Portland. You continue to inspire us with your goodwill and generosity. During this December holiday season of giving, we want to encourage you with a few new ideas that we have for giving back.
Giving back with construction skills or materials
If you have some home building skills, you’re likely familiar with Habitat for Humanity, where you can not only volunteer your time, you can also donate construction or home goods to their ReStores.
However, you may not know about this smaller nonprofit, REACH Community Development. They do good work for local Portland homeowners who are struggling to build back their lives and need immediate help. Over the last few years, Hamish Murray Construction has donated materials and our employees’ time to complete small projects like wheelchair ramps, front doorstep replacements or bathroom repairs. If you are interested in volunteering, we highly recommend reaching out to them here.
For our home remodels, we like to recycle construction materials and products to the Rebuilding Center, located at 3625 North Mississippi Avenue. If you have construction materials, you can drop them off at their store or even schedule a pick up.
Like many home builders in Portland, we deeply care about the environment.
We make the effort to minimize the environmental impact of our construction projects, so we schedule our debris to be picked up by one of our trade partners, Clean It Up Mark. They will sort through materials and can recycle 80% or more of the debris.
We also purchase carbon offset credits through Terrapass which has a mission to “restore the balance” of the carbon footprint impact. Additionally, we do what we can through our sustainability efforts, such as adding an electric vehicle to our fleet.
If you also share our concern for the environment, you’ll find a list of the most popular Portland environmental nonprofits here. Friends of Trees is particularly interesting because tree canopies can substantially reduce the temperatures as much as 20-45 degrees in the summer, and our summers have recently been dramatically hot.
When giving back, we get the most back.
As a Portlander, you know how strong our community is for volunteerism or donating.
There is so much reward in giving back! Over the years, we have become friends with like-minded volunteers, and through these circles of friends and virtual communities, our lives are enriched. Our story is not unusual; so many people develop close friendships through volunteers.
We each have our special areas of concern and favorite organizations. If you are wondering where to make some final donations before the tax year ends, we recommend using Charity Navigator, which does a good job evaluating the effectiveness of many 501(c)(3) organizations’ ability to pass on your donations to those in need.
Tell us about what’s important to you.
We not only seek to build each project on schedule and on budget, with top-notch quality results, we also strive to be an ethical company that cares about our community. We especially enjoy working with like-minded people who enjoy this season of giving.
Contact us
We’d love to meet you. Contact us or call us at (503) 460-7203 with questions you have, or ask us about our philosophy, experience, or any other question that is on your mind.