In June 2025, in conjunction with the firm’s Global Volunteer Month, over 30 Morgan Stanley employee volunteers will take a week out of their regular work/family lives to embark on a life-changing journey to a rural community in the Dominican Republic. Their mission: to provide each of 4 local families with the security and dignity of a sturdy, welcoming home.
Partnering with the nonprofit organization Bridges to Community, these volunteers will live and work alongside the resilient people of El Yaque, in the mountainous San Juan province of the D.R. Far removed from the glamor and economic vitality of the D.R.’s tourist-filled beaches, this region is sustained by the hard work of its farmers, who scratch a perilous living from this mountainous land. Their struggle doesn’t end in the fields: over 50% of rural residents live in dire housing conditions. Makeshift shacks with dirt floors, leaking roofs, and overcrowded spaces are the heartbreaking reality for too many families.
Bridges to Community is committed to addressing this crisis. By coordinating the efforts of US-based volunteers with its own on-the-ground community presence, Bridges to Community makes it possible for a team of volunteers to build a home from the ground up in just one week— mixing concrete, cutting rebar, pouring the foundation, laying cinder blocks, and more to create a proper house. Our team is planning big, and intends to build FOUR houses that will have a tangible, transformative impact on the lives of four different families!
To make this vision a reality, we need your support. Each of our volunteers is taking a week of their vacation time and covering the cost of their own expenses for the trip, PLUS raising money to pay for the project costs. Each house costs $10,000 to construct. Every donation we raise brings us closer to our $40,000 goal — the amount needed to purchase 3600 cinder blocks, 440 bags of cement, 1000 feet of rebar, and pay the skilled local foremen who will supervise our financially-savvy but not-so construction-wise volunteers. With the generosity of our volunteers’ friends, family and colleagues and business associates, we know we can reach this goal.
Please join us in making a lasting difference. We’ll do the work, with your financial support, and we’ll together turn HOPE into HOMES.
