Honoring the Past & Building the Future – From The Executive Director

As I look back at Restoration Exchange, I am thankful to the visionaries who came together and sparked new life into the preservation movement in Omaha. REO’s leadership and volunteers sustained pre-established and time-honored enterprises including a conference for restoration lovers, a historic neighborhood home tour, walking tours of historic streets, and launched efforts to save historic properties through landmark designations and rallies.

However, because our income relied on two major public events each year, the pandemic affected our ability to earn money, keep our amazing volunteer workforce engaged, and pay our employees.

But, as bad as that was, it was not the biggest problem!

The worst setback came from the Internal Revenue Service which failed to process our tax returns for several years. As a result, we were removed as a tax-exempt organization; however, never added to the revocation list. Until recently, because our status was unclear, we kept a low profile and quit asking for donations.

It took almost two years to resolve the issue. After months and months of silence, we finally heard from the IRS in a letter that stated, “We erroneously placed you on our auto-revocation list.”  (Click below to read the IRS letter) At this time, we are working to restore all the systems that were bound to our non-profit status (email domains, website, matching gift sites, Amazon smile, etc.) so please bear with us as we rebuild.

Although it has been suspenseful and challenging, during this an uncertain time we continued to work behind the scenes on the three key areas that were identified as highly relevant to our mission

1. Establishing a model which enables us to physically save historic properties
2. Expanding education and training in the preservation trades for all learners
3. Advocating for historical preservation

 As always, we truly appreciate and value your past and future support!