A safe place to call home

By helping local nonprofits, Nancy Osborn is hoping to end homelessness in her neighborhood and beyond

Like a lot of young people with big dreams in the 1980s, Nancy Osborn moved to New York City seeking opportunity and excitement. Her enthusiasm, however, quickly turned into fear when she found herself in her apartment face to face with a giant rat.

“I got so scared that I rode the subway all night,” she recalls. “Imagine feeling safer riding around the subway in Manhattan than sleeping in your own apartment.” The cherry on top of Osborn’s Big Apple sundae is that it wasn’t, in fact, her apartment: She had been rooming with a friend who feared that her rent would rise. And when it didn’t, she kicked Osborn out.

To make matters worse, a dried-up economy meant few job openings, and Osborn couldn’t land a position. She found another friend who could take her in, but without a job she was living dollar to dollar. “I was one cut above being homeless,” Osborn says.

Thankfully, The Door was always open in lower Manhattan. The youth services organization offered Osborn 25-cent hot dinners, free basic medical care, subway tokens, and even game nights. When she got back on her feet, she began to send donations to The Door. “That might have been the beginning of my philanthropy,” she says.

Opening the door for others

It took years for Osborn and her family to buy a home, and despite working full-time she didn’t start feeling financially secure until her 40s, bolstered by the long bull run of the stock market.

Now, she says, “I live a charmed life. I have my house paid off, and what’s left is more than I could ever use for myself. I can afford to share, so why not?”

Osborn worked with a financial advisor to meet her charitable goals in retirement—namely giving toward homelessness, children’s services, and the arts—and created the Nancy Lynn Osborn Charitable Fund. She says the tax savings alone have allowed her to grant five times the amount to her preferred organizations, compared to the amount she was donating before she started her Giving Account.

Homelessness is an especially critical issue. Since the pandemic, homelessness in Arizona has risen by 25%, according to the Arizona Department of Economic Security. As a long-time resident, Osborn can testify to that. “It used to be mostly single men who were homeless, but now it’s whole families who are living on the street. People are working multiple jobs to make ends meet, but one big medical bill or accident can devastate their lives.”

To make matters worse, summers in Arizona are notoriously hot, with temperatures well above 100 degrees for months at a time. Cooling stations and free air-conditioned public spaces like libraries and malls are available, but they’re a Band-Aid, Osborn says. “It’s not the same as having your own safe spot.”

Local nonprofits are some of her favorite organizations because she knows the people behind the work and can see the impact in real time. “My dream is a world that doesn’t need charity for homelessness,” she says. “You donate to community theaters and enrichment programs because all of the basics are covered.”

Until that time comes, Osborn is committed to continuing to open the door to relief—and giving others the same leg up she once got. “A lot of times,” she adds, “that’s all people need.”