What we do for Non-Profits
Unlock Your Property's Potential—Without Losing Your Mission
Non-profits, faith groups, and charities across Canada own millions of parcels land and aging buildings. These are assets with tremendous potential for creating affordable housing. Development is complex, risky, and outside most organizations’ core mission. That’s where we come in.
The Challenges You Face
Many properties could be redeveloped at higher densities and house more people. You see the need in your community every day. But transforming that vision into reality means navigating obstacles that can feel insurmountable:
Land-Rich, Cash-Poor Your property is valuable, but accessing that value without selling means taking on debt, risk, and complexity most boards aren’t equipped to manage.
Development Expertise Gap Housing development requires specialized knowledge: zoning regulations, construction management, financing structures, and permitting processes. This isn’t what your organization was built to do.
The Displacement Dilemma Redeveloping properties requires the temporary displacement of tenants, creating a significant challenge for housing providers and for-profit developers alike. The dual hurdles of finding suitable interim housing and managing financial constraints make the process complex and, at times, overwhelming. If you have existing tenants, where are they housed during redevelopment? Displacing the people you serve contradicts your mission, but aging buildings need replacement.
Financial Sustainability Even if you build new affordable housing, how do you fund ongoing operations without perpetual government subsidies that may disappear with budget cuts?
Risk and Governance Your board has fiduciary responsibility to protect organizational assets. Large-scale development projects carry risks that can jeopardize your entire mission if things go wrong.
How Four Pillars Supports Non-Profits
We’ve spent 20+ years developing solutions to exactly these challenges. Our model doesn’t just build housing—it builds capacity, manages risk, and creates financial sustainability.
We Provide the Expertise You Need
From feasibility studies to financial modeling, zoning navigation to construction management, we guide you through every phase. You maintain ownership and control while we help manage the complexity.
We Solve the Interim Housing Challenge with Two Innovative Models
The displacement challenge is real, but we’ve developed two complementary solutions that ensure no one is left without housing during redevelopment:
Interim Residence: Purpose-Built Sustainability
Our Interim Residence model creates purpose-built, multi-family, mixed-income developments designed to be financially self-sustaining, moving away from dependency on uncertain government funding. These developments combine:
- Deeply affordable housing units for those most in need
- Moderate-rate units for working families
- Revenue-generating components including commercial retail units, office space, hospitality suites, and near-market rentals
This mixed-income, mixed-use approach creates the financial foundation that sustains affordable housing operations long-term, without requiring perpetual subsidies.
Distributed Interim Residence: Neighborhood-Integrated Solutions
For organizations concerned about community displacement, we offer an innovative distributed model. Four Pillars canvases the local neighborhood where your redevelopment will take place and partners with homeowners to create interim housing right in the community. The non-profit offers to finance (target 2%), build, and manage ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units)and/or Multiplexes for a 5-year term in exchange for the units being rented at affordable rates aligned with CMHC guidelines.
This approach keeps displaced residents in their own neighborhoods, maintains community connections, and creates new affordable housing stock that benefits the area long after your redevelopment is complete.
We Make Projects Financially Viable
Using our Four Pillars approach, we help you access below-market financing through Community Housing Bonds and Social Purpose REITs, expedite delivery through modular construction, and most importantly, design revenue-generating components that create long-term sustainability. Mixed-income developments with social enterprises mean your housing doesn’t depend on uncertain government funding.
We Structure Partnerships That Work
Whether through redevelopment of existing sites, long-term leases, joint ventures, or redevelopment partnerships, we help design and create structures that protect your assets while unlocking their potential. And because we’re a Community Contribution Company committed to giving 60% of distributed profits to housing charities, our success directly benefits the broader housing ecosystem.
You are not alone
You’re not in this alone. We bring financing partners, development expertise, and proven models that reduce your organization’s risk while maximizing community impact. When projects succeed, the returns flow back into affordable housing, including to your organization.
What Success Looks Like
Imagine transforming your aging building or underutilized parking lot into a thriving mixed-income community development. One-third of units provide affordable housing for those most in need. One-third at moderate rates for working families. One-third generating revenue through market housing or social enterprises, creating the financial foundation that sustains it all.
Your organization maintains its mission, serves more people, and creates a legacy asset that will house community members for generations. No government subsidy dependency. No mission drift. Just sustainable, community-driven housing that works.
Let's Explore What's Possible for Your Property
Every organization’s situation is unique. We start with a conversation about your property, your mission, and your community’s needs, then develop a customized approach that works for you. No obligations, no pressure. Just an honest assessment of potential and partnership.