“Kirkwood began as a not-for-profit created by the Independent Presbyterian Church to offer continuing care retirement to seniors.”

Not-for-profit: What does that mean? What’s the difference? What are the benefits?

To give a brief summary of our Not-for-profit vs. For-profit retirement communities blog series thus far. Let’s remember what questions we have answered:

In part of one of our blog series, we addressed “What is a Not-for profit retirement community?” And “What’s the Difference?”  We defined an NFP retirement community as an organization that keeps all of its earnings within the organization which is also the main difference between the NFP and FP retirement communities. Because For-profit organizations have obligations to investors and shareholders, before using their funds to re-invest in the community they must first deliver the “bottom line”. A NFP community’s primary commitment and obligation is to its residents.

In part two, we addressed “What are the benefits to choosing a Not-for-profit community?” Some of the benefits we talked about include the organizational and motivational structure as well as the resident voice in the future of the community. Kirkwood by the River’s not-for-profit organizational structure begins with the local church – Independent Presbyterian church – that founded our organization 40 years ago. Next, our CEO, CFO, and Health Administrator who oversee the community’s day-to-day decisions are all onsite. Last, our board of directors are all local to Birmingham and don’t have any monetary investments they are looking to receive a return on in this community. This organizational structure benefits Kirkwood residents because the people who make decisions for the present and future well-being of this organization all reside in town and are focused on our singular community and its residents. The voice of our residents really matters to our leadership – our Kirkwood Residents Association meets to discuss various aspects of the community and work with the administration to develop solutions and ways to better the organization as a whole.

In part three of our series we heard from our CEO, Chad Carter, and asked “Why did you choose to work in Not-for-profit over For-profit retirement communities?” With him, we learned more about the local volunteers who make up our board of directors, our mission to serve and care for the residents in our community, and how the Coronavirus Pandemic has affected our community differently than it would a for-profit community. 

To wrap up this series, there are many things that set Not-for-profit retirement communities apart from the rest and Kirkwood by the River is such a unique and wonderful community to be apart of. We hope you keep these things in mind as you are choosing a place to call home for yourself or a loved one!