IndustrySelect Data Empowers Operation Tiny Home's Mission to Provide Affordable Housing to Veterans

Photo Credit: Operation Tiny Home

In early March, we were contacted by an organization called Operation Tiny Home, a national nonprofit that addresses housing instability by providing custom high-quality tiny housing solutions and empowerment training programs. The organization was seeking data to help them find corporate contacts and forge new partnerships in their mission to address homelessness in the U.S., including the 1.4 million veterans at risk of becoming homeless.

We were honored that they would reach out to us and we spent some time learning about their highly innovative approach to solving the crisis of homelessness.

The “tiny” houses at the heart of Operation Tiny Home are just that: very small houses that are, on average, 400 square feet, though they can range from 80 square feet to 750. As they are less expensive to build and can be built quickly, the tiny home movement has seen accelerated growth, with more than 10,000 tiny homes and a 67% increase in tiny homes across the U.S. since 2017.

In the process, Operation Tiny Home is helping secure futures for the nation’s veterans.

A central facet of Operation Tiny Home’s mission is to help veterans avoid homelessness by providing the skills and materials needed to build their own “tiny” homes.

The organization provides carpentry and construction skills workshops, enabling veterans with both the skills to make their own homes and to access new employment opportunities. Says Zack Giffin, host of the Tiny Home workshops and the TV series Tiny House Nation, “I see tiny houses as a powerful tool; once a person has a good understanding of how homes are constructed as well as proficient knowledge on the use of the tools required, they not only have a valuable skill-set that can create new job opportunities, but also a pathway to creating one's own affordable housing solution."

Operation Tiny Home Meets IndustrySelect Data

We were proud to provide Operation Tiny Home the data they needed to fulfill their mission, in this case an IndustrySelect national database subscription, which will allow them access to a million executive contacts among 400,000 U.S. manufacturers. IndustrySelect, powered by MNI data, is an industrial database subscription, widely used by sales, marketing and business development professionals to prospect leads.

Frances Manning, Development Coordinator for Operation Tiny Home thought to reach out to us here at MNI based on her experience with IndustrySelect data for fourteen years during her previous role at Habitat for Humanity. “I first discovered Industry Select while researching ways of finding possible companies that might donate product to our ReStores online and found Industry Select, said Ms. Manning. “This source provided valuable details about corporations all over my preferred state. Prior to this I looked under every rock to find prospective donors, website searches, craigslist, driving around the city looking for companies that I don't find listed online--but no matter how many online searches, I did there were corporations that weren't listed anywhere and IndustrySelect provided a lot of those contacts in great detail.”

Ms. Manning described how she used IndustrySelect to fully research a major potential donor, enhancing her proposal with key data provided in the company’s profile.

“One time, I was driving around and came across a huge company in the hardware business. I needed all of their information before I contacted them. I pulled up my IndustrySelect and there was their listing. The information told me everything, major contacts, phone numbers and address, what product they offer and how much money they make. I put together a proposal and submitted it to them. They agreed to donate product to our ReStores and developed into a regular donor. With IndustrySelect, I found companies I didn’t know existed.”

We’ve heard many stories similar to Ms. Manning’s – with our customers discovering prospects with IndustrySelect they wouldn’t have otherwise and we’re proud to know that our data will be helping Operation Tiny Home broaden their support base.

Click here to learn more about Operation Tiny Home. Or, to join us in supporting their mission, click here to learn how you can help.

Want to see how IndustrySelect’s comprehensive industrial database can help your organization fulfill its mission? Try out a free demo.