WIN Annual Reports July 2017 Midyear Report | Page 3

ABOUT WIN
Washington Interfaith Network (WIN), founded in 1996, is a broad-based, multi-racial, multi-faith,
strictly non-partisan, District-wide citizens’ power organization, rooted in local congregations
and associations. WIN is committed to training and developing neighborhood leaders to address
community issues and to hold elected and corporate officials accountable in Washington, DC. WIN’s
nearly 40 dues-paying member organizations represent 125,000 members across every section
of the District. WIN’s members reflect the District’s theological, racial, geographic, and economic
diversity.
Over the past 20 years, WIN has organized effectively around the issue of affordable housing. WIN
has been directly involved in getting DC to make available public land and subsidies that led to
building 172 affordable Nehemiah homes for purchase by working families. WIN, through organizing
and its developer affiliate, UrbanMatters, has built or preserved over 850 affordable apartments and
homes.
WIN also organized the historic Neighborhoods First campaign that increased voter turnout in key
neighborhoods by as much as 20%. This political success enabled WIN to successfully pressure the
District’s leaders to create the Neighborhood Investment Fund (NIF). The NIF provided over $120
million in neighborhood investments to rebuild libraries, parks, and community centers in targeted
neighborhoods that were being left behind and for affordable housing.
In the last four years WIN has been a key driver in the fight to build over 270 units of short term
housing for families (a more dignified term than shelter) so that DC General family shelter can be
closed and replaced.
Over the past 20 years, WIN also successfully organized around after school programs,
neighborhood safety, and living wage jobs.
We invite you to learn more about the work we have done and are currently doing throughout our
Midyear Report.
METRO IAF MEMBERSHIP
Did you know that WIN is part of the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation (MetroIAF)? Metro IAF is part
of the nation’s first and largest network of multi-faith grassroots community organizations. Industrial
Areas Foundation (IAF) member organizations can boast of over seven decades of winning tough
political battles across the nation. Metro IAF has local affiliates in Northern Virginia, Montgomery
County, Howard County, and Baltimore, Maryland in addition to others up and down the East Coast
and in the Midwest. Our affiliate BUILD pushed politicians in Baltimore to pass the first living wage
law in the country. In Massachusetts GBIO mobilized a grassroots army for the creation of universal
health care -- both of which became national models for just social policies.
2017 MIDYEAR REPORT
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