We're the William H. Douglas Foundation, a California 501(c)(3) helping students attend the college of their choice regardless of socio-economic background. We stay with our scholars from application through the first year, and we keep learning that where a student lives can decide whether they stay. So we're extending our mission into student housing as a nonprofit sponsor and owner, and we're looking for experienced developers to build it with us.
Illustrative photography: our first projects are what this page is for.
Affordability, designed in from day one
Affordability for scholars and low-income students is a commitment we design into a project at the start, not a concession negotiated at the end. If a building can't keep its rents within reach of the students it exists for, it isn't one of ours.
Close to campus, close to class
Distance is its own cost: in hours, in fares, in missed office hours. We will pursue sites near the institutions our scholars attend, so that where a student lives shortens the road to a degree instead of lengthening it.
Scholar support under the same roof
The same advising, mentoring, and advocacy that define our programs will move into the building as a resident-services layer, not a leasing amenity. It is a large part of what makes this housing charitable in character, rather than simply housing near a campus.
Why housing, why us
We keep meeting the same obstacle. We intend to build past it.
Our advocates walk beside scholars through the whole arc of getting to college: the applications, the aid forms, the offer letters, and the first year on campus. It's patient work. We sit with families until an award letter makes sense. We put scholars on campuses through our Xploration Tours, match them with working professionals through our Fellows internships, and stay reachable when the first semester gets hard. That staying power is the point; it's what helps turn a student who applies into a scholar who enrolls, persists, and graduates.
And in all of that work, one obstacle keeps coming back: where a scholar will live, and what it will cost. Housing is one of the largest costs in a student budget, and often the least predictable. We've watched it shape decisions at every step, from which colleges a scholar applies to, to whether an offer is affordable enough to accept, to whether a long commute or an overcrowded apartment slowly wears down a first-year student who did everything else right. A bed near campus, at a rent a family can carry, is not a luxury attached to college. For many students it is the condition of going at all.
The rest of a student budget bends. Books can be borrowed, meal plans trimmed, a laptop bought used. Rent does not bend, and when it stops fitting, everything else a scholar has built starts to come apart: the course load, the internship, the sleep, the grades. No amount of good advising fixes a lease a student cannot afford. At some point the honest response to a problem you keep meeting is to go stand where it is.
Said plainly
We want to be plain about something: we have not built housing before. This is a new initiative, and we won't dress it up as a track record. We know the difference between ambition and expertise, and we are not confusing the two. What we bring is the other half of the problem: the mission, a working knowledge of what scholars need from the places they live, the advising and mentoring that belong inside these buildings, and the discipline of a charitable owner whose board answers for the purpose of every project. What we're looking for is the half we don't have: developers, builders, and capital partners who have done this work well and want a reason beyond the pro forma to do it again.
So here is the shape of what we're proposing. The Foundation participates in student-housing development as a mission-driven principal, a nonprofit sponsor and owner, and only where a project demonstrably furthers our charitable purpose of college access and affordability. We keep control of the charitable aspects of any joint arrangement: who the housing serves, what it costs them, and the services that reach them there. Our partners bring the entitlement, design, construction, and management expertise that turns that purpose into a building, and where a partner manages the property, it does so under affordability and service standards we set and our board holds it to. Structures built for exactly this pairing already exist: nonprofit-owner public-private partnerships, ground leases with educational institutions, fee-development and design-build engagements. The rest of this page explains how we approach them.
How we partner
We hold the mission. You build the housing.
The Foundation comes to student housing as a mission-driven principal, not a name on a letterhead and never an accommodation for someone else's deal. We participate in a development project only where it demonstrably furthers our charitable purpose: college access and affordability for students. And in any joint arrangement, we maintain control of the charitable aspects: who the housing serves, what it costs them, and the advising and mentoring that happens inside it. We don't apologize for that line. It is the reason a partnership with us means something.
We also know exactly what we are not. We are advisors, advocates, and tour guides, not builders. Entitlement, design, construction, lease-up, and asset management are your craft, and we want a partner who has practiced it for years. So every model below draws the same division of labor: the Foundation holds the charitable purpose and its governance; the developer holds the drawings, the schedule, and the contracts. Complementary roles, negotiated at arm's length on fair-market terms, reviewed by independent counsel, and approved by our Board of Directors before anything is signed. Our full governance commitments are set out later on this page.
Nonprofit-owner public-private partnership
In a nonprofit-owner P3, the Foundation serves as sponsor and owner; you are the development partner. We hold the ownership role, set the affordability commitments, and operate the resident-services layer: advising, mentoring, an advocate down the hall. You bring the site strategy, the design, the construction, and, where agreed, ongoing management under contract, within the affordability and service standards we set. Each of us does the work we are built for, and the charitable purpose sits where it belongs: with us.
Ground lease with an educational institution
Many student-housing projects begin with land an educational institution already owns. Here, a college or school system ground-leases a site to a nonprofit owner; the Foundation serves as that owner, or as co-sponsor alongside the institution, and you design and build. The institution keeps its land, students get housing tied to their education, and the project's charitable character rests where it always does: in who the housing serves, what it costs them, and the advising inside it. Institutions tend to be careful about who builds on their land, and rightly so; a nonprofit owner whose whole purpose is their students' success makes that conversation easier. We are glad to approach an institution together. If you have already started that conversation, we will look at it, but we come in as owner and principal from the start of our involvement, shaping the project around our purpose, not added late to ease the ask.
Fee development or design-build for a Foundation-sponsored project
The most direct arrangement. The Foundation sponsors and owns the project, and we engage you as fee developer or design-builder, with a fair-market fee negotiated at arm's length like any other professional contract. You carry responsibility for delivering the building; we carry responsibility for what happens inside it. For a first project with us, this is a natural place to start: clean lines, ordinary contracts, and no ambiguity about whose project it is.
An affordability layer inside a building you own
Sometimes the right answer is an affordability layer inside a project you own. In a conventional development, the Foundation can operate set-aside homes for scholars and low-income students, with on-site advising and mentoring, under a written agreement that gives us control of those charitable elements. Where our money is involved, it follows the students, not the building: we pay no more than fair value for what our scholars receive, and we receive enforceable affordability and access in return. We take this on only where the charitable purpose is real and demonstrable, not decorative. If the mission is a marketing line, we are the wrong partner.
What the Foundation brings
A charitable mission and community trust
Families let us into hard conversations about money and college because we have earned it, one scholar at a time. That trust follows any project we put our name on, which is exactly why we guard the name so carefully.
A resident-services layer for scholars
College-access advising, mentoring, and an advocate who stays with a student through applications, aid, offers, and the first year. Services like these make the housing itself part of a scholar's path to a degree, not just a bed near one.
Relationships with families, schools, and community
Years of daily work with scholars, parents, counselors, and community organizations: the people whose confidence a student-housing project needs long before the first shovel turns.
Board governance and stewardship
An active Board of Directors that must approve every arrangement, independent legal counsel on every structure, and public accountability through our annual Form 990. Slower than a private deal, perhaps. Sturdier, too.
Potential eligibility for tax-exempt conduit financing
Certain qualifying projects with nonprofit ownership may be eligible for tax-exempt conduit bond financing, subject to federal requirements, state issuer approval, and bond counsel review. Eligibility is never assumed and never guaranteed. We name it because it exists, not because it is promised.
A donor and volunteer community
People who already give their money and their Saturdays to our scholars, and who have a habit of showing up for what serves them. A building carried by a community tends to be treated like one.
What we ask of a developer
A demonstrated track record in the asset class
Show us student or multifamily housing you have actually delivered, and let us talk to the people who lived and worked in it.
Financial capacity and transparency
The wherewithal to carry a project of the scale you propose, and openness about it. Our diligence will ask; please have the answers ready.
A structure that leaves the charitable aspects in our control
Affordability commitments, resident services, and the project's charitable purpose stay under Foundation control in any arrangement we join. We will not act as a passive accommodation party, and we will not lend our name or status to a project we do not control. We say this early to save everyone time.
Arm's-length, fair-market terms
Every fee, lease, and contract priced the way it would be between strangers, documented, and reviewed by independent counsel. Good terms survive scrutiny. We intend ours to.
A shared commitment to affordability and student outcomes
We are here to lower the housing barrier for scholars and low-income students, and we need a partner who treats that as the point of the project, not the price of admission.
Patience for nonprofit governance and due diligence
Board approval, counsel review, IRS joint-venture guidance, compliance at every step: our process has more gates than a private deal, and we will not skip one. The partners who respect that are the partners we want.
Project tiers
Three scales. One test.
We evaluate opportunities across three scales, and we're candid about what the number changes: how we work together. A small renovation and a multi-phase community call for different structures, different counsel, and different capital. What the number never changes is the mission test. Every project, at every size, must demonstrably serve scholars and low-income students, with affordability we commit to and services we run. If a project doesn't lighten the housing burden for the students we serve, we don't do it, at any scale.
$1M–$5M
This is where we start small and learn together. Acquisitions and renovations, small-site conversions, shared residences near the campuses our scholars already attend. Projects at this scale are close to the ground: a real building, a known neighborhood, a cohort of students with names.
Partnership shape
Typically a single asset with a straightforward structure. The Foundation owns the asset; the developer works in a fee-development or design-build role. Terms are negotiated at arm's length, on fair-market terms, with independent counsel on both sides.
The Foundation's role
We hold ownership, set the affordability commitment, and run the resident-services layer of advising, mentoring, and the advocate relationship inside the building from day one. The services are not an amenity we add later. They are why the housing exists.
Acquisition and renovation of an existing small apartment building near a campus
Conversion of a small residential or commercial site into shared scholar housing
A shared residence for a cohort of scholars attending nearby colleges
A pilot project pairing housing with on-site advising, built to be studied and repeated
$5M–$50M
Purpose-built, mid-size communities designed around student life from the first drawing. Campus-adjacent infill. Phased developments where a service hub (advising offices, study space, room for mentors to actually sit with students) anchors the community rather than decorating it.
Partnership shape
A longer arc and a fuller team. The Foundation serves as nonprofit sponsor and owner; the developer leads design and construction in a fee-development or design-build capacity, often across phases. Where the arrangement is a joint one, the Foundation maintains control over its charitable aspects: the affordability commitments, the services, and the standards that make the housing serve students. That control is not negotiable, because it is what makes the project ours to do.
The Foundation's role
Owner, standard-setter, and operator of the service layer. We set the affordability commitment (homes reserved for scholars and low-income students, consistent with fair-housing and equal-opportunity law) and the support residents find when they move in. In this model, our advocates work where our scholars live.
Ground-up, purpose-built student housing near a campus
Infill development on an underused campus-adjacent parcel
A phased community with the service hub delivered in the first phase, not the last
A mixed community reserving homes for scholars and low-income students at committed affordability
$50M–$100M+
Large public-private partnerships and multi-phase communities, including institution-anchored developments on ground leases with educational institutions. This is patient, complex work measured in years, and it is where a mission-driven nonprofit owner matters most, because at this scale who controls the purpose determines what gets built and who it serves.
Partnership shape
A nonprofit-owner public-private partnership: the Foundation as sponsor and owner, an educational institution as ground lessor or anchor, and the developer and capital partners in defined roles at arm's length. Financing structure is worked out project by project, with counsel and our board, never assumed in advance.
The Foundation's role
A principal at the table from the first conversation, not a name added near the end. We hold ownership, govern the charitable purpose through our Board, and carry the resident-services layer through every phase. We do not join a project we cannot control in this way, and we do not lend our name to one whose purpose we cannot demonstrate.
A nonprofit-owner P3 developed with an educational institution on a long-term ground lease
A multi-phase residential community serving scholars and low-income students
An institution-anchored development where the Foundation holds ownership and runs services throughout
Large communities where affordability commitments and student services are written into the structure, not the brochure
The band shapes the deal. It never shapes the standard. At every scale, the same affordability commitment to scholars and low-income students, and the same service layer that makes the housing worth building. And at every scale, the same governance, set out in full in the next section, applies without exception. That consistency is what we offer a partner, and what we ask of one.
How we decide
How we decide to build
Housing is a new undertaking for us, so we are building the discipline before we build anything else. Every prospective project walks the same six steps, in the same order, and any step can end the conversation. That is not caution for its own sake. Our scholars, their families, our donors, and the regulators who oversee charities all rely on the same thing: that when the Foundation takes on a building, the building genuinely serves students. A developer who approaches us should expect a partner that moves deliberately, asks direct questions, keeps its own lawyers in the room, and is prepared to say no more often than yes. The developers who welcome that are the ones we want to work with.
1
Introduction and inquiry
It starts with a conversation, not a term sheet. Tell us about the site, the concept, where the project stands, and the role you would want us to play in it: nonprofit sponsor and owner, ground-lease partner, or something we have not considered yet. Whatever the form, we come in as a principal, not a name. We will tell you plainly whether it looks close enough to our mission to be worth going further for both of us, and if it does not, we will say so early.
2
Mission screen
Before we look at your numbers, we look at ours. Would this project demonstrably serve scholars and college access: rents that students and low-income families can actually carry, a location that works for the campuses they attend, and room for the advising and mentoring we already do everywhere else? We expect most conversations to end here, and that is by design: we will participate in housing only where the housing itself furthers our charitable purpose, never because a deal is attractive on its own.
3
Due diligence
If the mission case holds, we do the homework. We look at your track record as a developer, the project's financials, the site, and the market it would serve, and we verify rather than assume. We ask for references and we call them. We expect you to run the same diligence on us; neither side should sign anything on charm.
4
Structuring with independent counsel
The arrangement takes shape with our own lawyers at the table, never the developer's counsel doing double duty for both sides. Every structure is negotiated at arm's length on fair-market terms, and the Foundation keeps control of the charitable aspects of the arrangement, whatever form it takes. Certain qualifying projects with nonprofit ownership may be eligible for tax-exempt conduit bond financing, subject to federal requirements, state issuer approval, and bond counsel review. Eligibility is never assumed and never guaranteed.
5
Board of Directors review and approval
Nothing binds the Foundation until our Board of Directors has reviewed the full package and voted to approve it. The board can approve a project, send a structure back for changes, or decline it outright, and declining is a real outcome, not a formality. Until that vote, everything that came before is exploration, with no obligation implied on either side.
6
Construction and operations oversight
Approval is the start of our involvement, not the end of it. Through construction we stay engaged on the commitments that made the project charitable in the first place, and once doors open we run the resident-services layer: the advising and mentoring that turn a building into part of a scholar's support. We hold the project to its affordability covenants and to regular reporting.
Any step can end the conversation
A mission screen that most opportunities won't pass, our own counsel at the table, and a board vote that can decline: the gates are the offer. A project that clears them is one everyone involved can defend in public.
Our commitments
These are not aspirations, and they are not open to negotiation, not before a deal and not within one. They are conditions of any arrangement we enter, and a developer should expect to find them written into the documents.
Arm's-length, fair-market terms
Every arrangement is negotiated at arm's length on fair-market terms, with no favored treatment in either direction.
Charitable control
In any joint arrangement, the Foundation maintains control over the charitable aspects of the project, consistent with IRS guidance on nonprofit joint ventures.
No accommodation-party roles
We will not act as a passive accommodation party, and we will not lend our name or our exempt status to a project we do not control and whose charitable purpose we cannot demonstrate. If the students are an afterthought, we are not a fit.
Independent counsel
Our own legal counsel reviews every arrangement, and bond counsel reviews any structure where tax-exempt financing might apply.
Board approval
No project proceeds without review and approval by our Board of Directors, and no conversation before that vote creates an obligation.
No private inurement
No arrangement may result in private inurement or more than incidental private benefit. The benefit of our participation flows to students first.
Public disclosure and UBIT compliance
We file a public Form 990 every year, and we identify unrelated business income and pay tax on it where the law requires.
Fair housing
Any housing we operate complies with fair-housing and equal-opportunity law. Full stop.
The craft we're asking partners to bring.
The destination all of it serves.
Questions, answered plainly
The questions developers will ask, answered plainly
We would rather answer the hard questions here than in a term sheet. If yours isn't below, ask it anyway.
Can our firm use the Foundation's 501(c)(3) status for our project?
No. Our tax-exempt status is not a product, and we don't lend it. The Foundation takes part in student housing only as a mission-driven principal: an owner or sponsor whose charitable purpose of college access and affordability the project demonstrably serves, and whose charitable aspects we control. A real partnership looks like this: we hold the ownership and mission role, you bring the development capability under a negotiated agreement, and the project houses and serves scholars on terms our board can stand behind. If what you need is a nonprofit name on a structure you would run, we are not the right partner.
Who controls the project?
The Foundation maintains control over the charitable aspects of any joint arrangement: the affordability commitments, the resident-services layer, and the mission standards the housing must keep. Those are documented commitments, written into the arrangement itself, not standards that depend on who is in the room. Development execution sits with the developer in a negotiated role, typically fee development or design-build, where your expertise belongs. We structure governance to follow IRS joint-venture guidance for exempt organizations. We will not enter an arrangement in which the charitable purpose can be outvoted.
Does 501(c)(3) involvement make a project tax-exempt?
No. A nonprofit participant does not make a project, its contractors, or anyone's income tax-exempt. Whether any tax treatment applies to a project (federal, state, or local) depends on the facts, the ownership, the use, and the jurisdiction, and it is decided by taxing authorities and your own advisors, not by our involvement. We make no representations about tax treatment. For our part, any income unrelated to our charitable purpose is identified and taxed as unrelated business income where the law requires.
Do you provide tax-exempt bond financing?
No. The Foundation is not a lender, a bond issuer, or an underwriter, and we do not arrange financing for anyone. Certain qualifying projects with nonprofit ownership may be eligible for tax-exempt conduit bond financing, subject to federal requirements, state issuer approval, and bond counsel review. Eligibility is never assumed and never guaranteed. If a project of ours reaches that question, bond counsel answers it, not this page.
Do you invest equity or fund construction?
We are not a bank, and we don't write construction checks. What the Foundation contributes is the ownership and mission role, the governance, the resident-services programming, and the long-term stewardship that give a project its charitable character. Capital structure is negotiated project by project, at arm's length, with independent counsel on both sides. Come to us with a project that serves students, not a capital gap that needs a nonprofit.
What makes a project charitable?
Students it demonstrably serves. That means real affordability commitments for scholars and low-income students, kept for the long term, and a resident-services layer (the advising and mentoring we already do) built into how the housing operates. Few costs weigh on a student budget the way housing does, and housing a scholar can actually afford, with support inside the building, furthers the same mission as everything else we do. A market-rate asset with our logo in the lobby does not.
What would disqualify a proposal?
Anything that asks us to be a passive accommodation party, lending our name or status to a project we don't control and whose charitable purpose we can't demonstrate. Anything that would put private gain ahead of the charitable purpose, whether earnings flowing to our insiders or more than incidental private benefit to anyone. Anything pitched to us primarily as a tax outcome rather than as housing for students. And any economics that aren't at fair market value, documented, and defensible in public. We say no to these quickly, which is kinder than saying it slowly.
How would scholars benefit?
Directly. Affordability commitments would mean places to live that don't force a scholar to choose between rent and staying enrolled. The resident-services layer would carry the advising, mentoring, and advocate relationships we already provide into where students live, not just where they apply. A scholar's advocate stays through applications, aid, offers, and the first year; housing would extend the same walk. And because the Foundation would hold ownership and control of the charitable aspects, those benefits would be documented commitments, not features that vanish with a change in management.
What size projects will you consider?
We evaluate proposals in three broad bands: roughly $1M–$5M, $5M–$50M, and $50M–$100M+. The band shapes the structure and the depth of review, not the standard; a small project must serve scholars as demonstrably as a large one. Mission fit matters more to us than deal size.
Do you pay or charge fees?
Every economic term in any arrangement (fees paid, fees received, leases, services) is negotiated at arm's length, at fair market value, disclosed, and documented. Nothing is side-lettered. Our finances are publicly reported each year on Form 990, and we structure every deal so that we're comfortable with it being read there.
Are you working with universities?
We are open to institution-anchored projects, including ground leases with educational institutions. We have no university partners to name on this page, and we won't imply ones we don't have. If your project involves an institution, bring them into the conversation early.
Have you built student housing before?
No, and we won't pretend otherwise. Housing development is a new initiative for the Foundation, an extension of a mission we've carried for years through advising, Xploration Tours, Fellows internships, and advocates who stay with a scholar from application through the first year. We know what we don't know, which is why every arrangement gets independent legal counsel, bond counsel where applicable, and our Board of Directors' approval. What we bring is the mission, the ownership role, and the resident services that give the housing its charitable character; what we're looking for is the building expertise to match it.
How long does evaluation take?
Longer than a commercial letter of intent, and we won't promise a date. A proposal goes through a mission screen, due diligence, review by independent counsel, and approval by our Board of Directors; nonprofit governance is deliberate because it has to be. If your timeline can't absorb a careful process, we're probably not your partner. If it can, we move as steadily as the work allows and tell you where things stand.
Is this an investment offering?
No. Nothing on this page is an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities, and no part of it should be read as one. This page describes how the Foundation approaches mission-driven development partnerships. Any actual arrangement would be negotiated privately, papered by counsel, and approved by our board.
Start the conversation
Bring us a project a scholar could live in
If you build, finance, or plan student housing and the mission above reads like something you'd want your name on, we want to hear from you. We're looking for developers who see affordability and resident services as the point of the project, not a concession in it. The door is open.
The first step is an initial conversation (no forms, no pitch deck required), followed by our mission screen: whether the project can demonstrably serve scholars, on terms our board can approve.
A note on what this page is, and what it isn't
Nothing on this page is legal, tax, investment, or accounting advice, and nothing here is an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities. Statements about structures, financing, or eligibility describe possibilities that depend on facts, counsel review, and third-party approvals; none is assumed and none is guaranteed. All inquiries and proposals are subject to the Foundation's due diligence and the approval of its Board of Directors, and no obligation of any kind is implied by an inquiry, a conversation, or anything written here. Any housing the Foundation operates or sponsors will comply with fair-housing and equal-opportunity laws. The William H. Douglas Foundation is a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit; consult your own advisors before acting on anything you read on this page.
Photography on this page is illustrative stock imagery (Unsplash), not Foundation projects.
