Family Promise of WNY receives $100,000 from Crossroads Lutheran Church

Largest gift in organization’s history

Family Promise of WNY, a family homeless shelter, is receiving a major gift of $100,000 from Crossroads Lutheran Church this week. The gift comes after Crossroads Lutheran Church – permanently closed in 2020 – sold off property and assets. A press conference to announce the gift is scheduled for Wednesday at Family Promise of WNY, located at 75 Hickory St., Buffalo.

“We want to thank our longtime partner and friend, Crossroads Lutheran Church, for the incredible gift of $100,000 to Family Promise of Western New York!” Executive Director Luanne Firestone said. “The community at Crossroads made the difficult decision last year to permanently close the doors of their church. The sale of their property allowed the Crossroads community, in a final act of generosity and faithfulness, to gift partner organizations in our community who were aligned to their mission. We are so proud that Family Promise of Western New York is one of those organizations!”

With this cornerstone gift of $100,000, Family Promise is announcing the inauguration of its “Keep our Promise” endowment campaign, established to set aside funds for the shelter’s long-term sustainability.

“Our organization is celebrating 25 years of service to our community, and Family Promise of WNY has always been a small-scale, community-based organization,” Firestone said. “There have been lean times over the past 25 years – so lean that, at times, we have not been able to make payroll and have had to turn away guests in our shelter. For this reason, we are thrilled to now be at the point of ensuring the health and longevity of our organization for years to come with our new ‘Keep our Promise’ Endowment Campaign. This gift of $100,000 is Crossroad’s lasting gift to us, and we promise to leverage that support in perpetuity to keep our promise!”

Family Promise of WNY is one of just two emergency family shelters in Erie County that keep families together through the crisis of homelessness. More than 70% of its guests are children.

For more information about Family Promise of WNY, contact Firestone at 716-536-6879 (cell), 716-771-3007 (work), or [email protected].