The Island Housing Trust is dramatically increasing its fund-raising as part of its aim to become a self-sufficient organization, after a thorough reexamination of its organization over the past year was prompted by financial fallout at its longtime funding source, the Island Affordable Housing Fund.

The nonprofit trust, which builds and manages perpetually affordable housing on Martha’s Vineyard, has raised about $65,000 from individuals, businesses and foundations to cover its working budget this year, executive director Philippe Jordi said. Its 2011 budget projects a total of $83,500 in grants, sponsorship and donations, according to financial statements presented at the trust’s annual meeting on Saturday; the aim breaks down as $31,000 in grants and $52,500 itemized for donations and sponsorship. The figures represent a substantial increase on the $20,000 in total revenue from such sources in last year’s budget.

Likewise, there is a $10,000 line item for fund-raising costs in the 2011 budget, after previously having none. The plan is for small summer gatherings to raise awareness and support rather than any large fund-raiser, Mr. Jordi said.

For several years before the global financial crisis, the Island Affordable Housing Fund under its previous executive director held large, expensive annual summer galas and a telethon.

In late 2009, the affordable housing fund was no longer able to meet its financial commitments, which included $10,000 a month for the trust’s operations.

The budget the trust presented Saturday reflects significant pivots to adjust to its new financial circumstances. “The problem of affordable housing here demands that what we do, we do for the long haul,” Mr. Jordi said in an interview with the Gazette.

The trust also expects more revenue from ground-lease fees that it collects for managing 42 affordable homes, 12 of which were completed in 2010. It stewards the leases for homes the trust itself developed as well as affordable homes built by the towns and Habitat for Humanity; more houses add up to more revenue.

The trust also is diversifying its funding sources by offering new technical and professional services, expected to generate $12,480 of its roughly $150,000 annual budget this year. For instance, as part of a pilot project, the trust can use a new online data system to track the performance of investments in affordable homes; it will offer these services for a fee to towns that have deed or ground-lease restrictions on properties.

Professionalizing these services means there will be more institutional memory and less duplicate costs in protecting millions of dollars in community investment, Mr. Jordi noted. He also pointed to the trust’s proven record of good oversight, part of the reason foreclosure rates on homes it manages are notably lower than in other places. The trust collects monthly ground lease fees from affordable home owners and works with any financially troubled homeowners in its portfolio to modify mortgages, change payment arrangements, or counsel them on financially sound options.

The trust’s new budget expects revenues from project development fees to decrease this year. After completing 12 homes last year, eight at Eliakim’s Way in West Tisbury and four off Lambert’s Cove Road in Tisbury, the trust has a smaller schedule ahead; six townhouses (three duplexes) slated to begin construction on Lake street in Tisbury in 2011, as well as some fees related to permitting, financing, and construction of three additional rental apartments at Sepiessa in West Tisbury that the trust expects to work with the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority on this year.

The nonprofit trust was a 2004 spinoff of the Island Affordable Housing Fund, which was responsible for raising money for affordable housing since its own inception a decade ago. The trust was created to buy, develop and lease land across the Island for perpetually affordable housing. The two nonprofits augmented a quasi-public body, the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority, which manages subsidized rental housing on the Island, to secure a landscape of affordable housing here.

The Gazette’s revelation of the Island Affordable Housing Fund’s debts was met with intense scrutiny of the governance in both the fund and the trust. The two organizations shared board members and conflict-of-interest questions arose. With the influx of public funds, through towns and their Community Preservation Act funds, the trust’s operations now required more transparency than in a private nonprofit.

So last year the trust asked an ad hoc committee of clerk of courts Joseph Sollitto, Susan Wasserman and Lenny Jason to review its governance.

The review has led to a change in the composition of the trust’s board, which no longer will share any members with the Island Affordable Fund, recently renamed the Martha’s Vineyard Housing Fund. The trust’s board has been slimmed down and new guidelines bar contracts with board members, to ensure there is no conflict of interest issues. The trust also will ensure its meetings are posted and financial information is publicly available.

The trust’s board chairman Richard Leonard praised Mr. Jordi, the trust’s only paid employee, who earns a salary of $83,905 plus benefits.

“We’re in very good condition,” Mr. Leonard said in an interview with the Gazette. “We’ve taken great steps to secure and improve the organization,” he said, citing the results of the governance review, the completion of 12 new homes and the development of new services as part of its five-year business plan to become self-sustaining.

“We have no debt,” he said.

Mr. Jordi noted that the trust brought the Lambert’s Cove project to completion under budget and as a result was able to lower the sale price for two of the qualified buyers who were able to buy their homes after a lottery.

The housing market nationwide and on the Vineyard has fallen substantially since the global financial crisis began, and Mr. Jordi said the trust is shifting to meet the new environment. “All our work now is focussed on [peoplel earning] 80 to 100 per cent” of median income, he said. When the trust was formed five years ago, it aimed to accommodate people up to 140 per cent of median income, who were shut out of the then-overheated real estate market.

“We want to communicate the value we provide in long-term land stewardship,” Mr. Leonard said.