Colin Droster
Sara Alvarado, left, and Tiffany Malone, of Own It.
Sara Alvarado, left, and Tiffany Malone, of Own It, which has helped 25 families buy homes.
At a September breakfast event hosted by Lake Ridge Bank and Park Bank, representatives from local community banks gathered to learn about Own It: Building Black Wealth, a Madison-area nonprofit aiming to address racial housing inequities and boost generational wealth for Black and brown families through homeownership.
The two banks co-hosted the breakfast to connect attendees with Sara Alvarado and Tiffany Malone, the co-founders of Own It. At the breakfast, Alvarado and Malone invited attendees to consider joining the group’s ambassador program — made up of real estate professionals, including lenders, insurance agents, brokerages and banks.
The logo for the 2025 Nonprofit Issue.
Since its founding in 2020, Own It has partnered with more than 70 individual ambassadors, who contribute directly to Own It by donating a portion of their earnings from real estate transactions. Now, the organization is looking to expand its ambassador partnerships to more agencies and institutions to drive deeper change.
Ambassador contributions go to Own It’s down payment assistance fund. Capital from the fund is then gifted to eligible families who have completed Own It’s educational courses on wealth building and homeownership, and are affiliated with one of Own It’s community partners, which include Centro Hispano, Anesis Therapy and One City Schools.
Alvarado notes that while Park Bank and Lake Ridge Bank are competitors, they decided to jointly host the breakfast. For Alvarado, this symbolizes the kind of collaboration needed to make institutional impacts on racial housing inequities.
Lake Ridge Bank became Own It’s first agency ambassador in July, pledging monthly contributions based on real estate closings — a partnership that Alvarado calls “a great model that other financial institutions can adopt.”
This August, 12 families received $19,000 in down payment assistance from Own It, totaling $228,000 — the largest grant cycle in the organization’s history. Alvarado and Malone estimate 25% of that funding came from the ambassador program. The other 75% came from community and individual donations. Alvarado says Own It is trying to even out those percentages by increasing ambassador partnerships.
In Dane County, homeownership rates run unequally along racial lines: 64% of white families are homeowners, compared to 13% of Black and brown families. According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Economic Policy, housing inequality across the United States is a result of discriminatory housing practices long embedded in governmental, real estate and financial systems, which continue to shape who has access to build wealth through homeownership today.
Says Alvarado: “The institutions need to be a part of the change if we are going to make change happen.”
Own It provides ambassadors with several options for financial contribution. Realtors can pledge a percentage of their annual commission earnings, or decide to contribute a fixed dollar amount per closing. Brokerages can pledge a percentage of their annual revenue, or match the amount of agent contributions.
Five years after its founding, Own It has raised over $1 million and helped 25 families purchase homes. Alvarado, as director, is currently the only paid staffer, though the group is looking to hire an education program manager.
Malone says the program will continue to spread the word to potential ambassadors through word of mouth, flyers and presentations. For instance, the group hosts monthly happy hours for Black real estate professionals and “we take 10 minutes at the beginning to let all the agents know about Own It and the ambassador program.”
