An Impact Report for H1 2024

New Story supporters,

The first half of 2024 was one of our strongest yet. We grew our team and built a strong pipeline of projects that will serve 4,000 families this year — nearly a 4X increase from 2023. 

Your generosity is accelerating our impact and creating new opportunities — like partnering with MrBeast and connecting with Hernando de Soto, one of the world’s most influential economists. 

During an advisory session with Hernando de Soto, he said, “New Story’s approach helps families move out of poverty. By connecting investments to this sustainable land ownership model, New Story can reduce poverty and inequality in an effective way.” 

Our team is forming on-ground partnerships that have the potential to reach 10,000+ vulnerable families between now and the end of 2025. All of those families consist of people who can reach their full potential when they can secure their own housing. An example is Esmeralda, a single mom we met in April. 

Even though Esmeralda has been a successful stylist for more than a decade, she couldn’t find affordable housing for herself and her son. Our program was the first time she had the opportunity to make affordable monthly payments toward a developed land lot. Thanks to these payments, she’s now a landowner and planning to build her home with the help of an architect. “I hope my home is a place where my son can learn from me, and I can learn from him. A place for us to feel safe.”

Esmeralda is just one of the thousands of stories we will be part of over the next couple of years. Thank you for playing an essential role in the journey.

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Accelerating impact

In the first half of the year, we've made good progress on our path to investing in 4,000 land lots that will serve ~16,000 people in the next year. That’s nearly a 4X increase in the number of people supported compared to last year.

Building with MrBeast

MrBeast, the largest YouTuber in the world (295M subscribers), partnered with us and a few other nonprofits to donate 100 homes to families in five countries. He joined us in El Salvador to donate homes, build a soccer field, give away Messi jerseys to every kid, and more! Watch the video to see how families respond when they become first-time homeowners.

Construction of Casa Next, an affordable housing prototype

Families in Etzatlán, Mexico, are working to finish payments on land they will own. Unfortunately, the current home designs available in the local market are not affordable for their income levels. This will result in longer timelines, unsafe self-builds, and/or families becoming severely cost-burdened. This is an example of why New Story is constantly innovating and testing ways to decrease the cost of land and housing solutions for families. 

Casa Next is our innovative housing prototype that’s making housing more affordable for families.

The home design reduces the sales price of the most affordable home in the market by more than 20%. The design also gives families the flexibility to expand their homes over time.

In Q2, we completed construction for a Casa Next model home. Formal commercial teams will show potential customers the model home.

A special thanks to our corporate partner, Cotopaxi, for funding the R&D of Casa Next. 

Equipping families with financial literacy training

Delivering financial literacy education to families is an essential part of our model. Before families can secure affordable housing, they need the essential knowledge and skills in savings, credit, and budgeting so they can successfully complete their monthly payments for their land titles.

As part of our ongoing partnership with Habitat for Humanity, we co-led three workshops in Q2 so families in Etzatlán can consider all construction costs when designing their homes. We explained how families must first understand their lot size and location before considering how to adapt the construction to their family’s needs. 

Esmeralda, a single mom who purchased land through our program, said, “I wish more people like me had financial education. People are intimidated, but it’s more possible than people think it is to own an asset.” We’re now collecting feedback from participants of the workshops to understand how we can improve our financial literacy programs.

Backed by Hernando de Soto

Hernando de Soto is a world-renowned economist who has worked with more than 20 presidents and advised entire countries on how to serve lower-income populations through market-based solutions. He invited a few of us to visit him in Peru for a private workshop focused on New Story’s strategy. We left our time together inspired by the future of our work and encouraged by what he had to say.

 “New Story’s approach helps families move out of poverty. By connecting investments to this sustainable land ownership model, New Story can reduce poverty and inequality in an effective way.” — Hernando de Soto

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