Wayfair Hosts Volunteer Day with Habitat for Humanity Chicago

With the opening of our first Wayfair store in Wilmette, Ill. in 2024, we are excited to give back and get involved in our new community. Together, members from both Habitat for Humanity’s local Chicago chapter and Wayfair’s Physical Retail team came together to take part in a volunteer day to work on the construction of a two-home project in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood in South Side Chicago. Throughout the day, Wayfair employees teamed up with Habitat for Humanity community members to cut and install sheathing, and also put up drywall for the two homes.

"We are so excited to be putting down roots in the Chicago area -- first, with our Joss & Main opening this past May, and now looking ahead to our first-ever, large-format Wayfair store in 2024,” shared Karen McKibbin, VP of Physical Retail at Wayfair. “Since embarking on this journey, we have been so appreciative of the warm welcome we've received from the community and we couldn’t think of a better way to show our thanks and appreciation than by giving back. We were honored to have had the opportunity to work alongside our local Habitat for Humanity volunteers to help families build or improve a place they can call home, and look forward to continuing our partnership."

The project that our team supported plays a critical role in the development of the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood, as the community has faced a decrease in population that has made it vulnerable to instability and other factors. Greater Grand Crossing is home to a strong housing stock, easy access to transportation, strong community assets, and a number of new developments in surrounding areas, making the addition of a new, affordable housing project a complimentary investment to the neighborhood.

For more than ten years, Wayfair has been a proud partner of Habitat for Humanity International, a global nonprofit housing organization that helps families build and improve places to call home. Since 2011, Wayfair has partnered with Habitat for Humanity to provide in-kind product donations, volunteer support, and customer engagement through Wayfair’s donate-at-checkout program.

Customers local to Chicago can stay up-to-date on Wayfair’s new store here and can also learn more about Wayfair’s social impact work and partnership with Habitat for Humanity here.