A national network of funders supporting strategic, innovative, and effective solutions to homelessness

Remembering Bob Hohler

From the board and staff of Funders Together

By Funders Together

With great sadness, we announce the death of Robert (Bob) Hohler, chair of the Funders Together to End Homelessness Board of Directors, and executive director of the Melville Charitable Trust. Bob passed away suddenly on June 2 during a family vacation in England.

A man of profound wisdom and deep compassion, Bob was not content with the status quo. He felt the urgency of social and economic injustice and worked tirelessly to create positive change and help lift people into lives of dignity and self-sufficiency.

Bob dedicated more than 25 years to socially conscious and responsible philanthropy and, for the past two decades, focused his efforts on ending homelessness. He recognized that it was only with a stable home that people could be truly self-sufficient.

In his words

“What unites us all, what powers us all, is the vision of a society where everyone has a place that they can call home-safe, decent, affordable places in healthy, economically sound and supportive communities . . . At the center of everything we do is the idea of individual empowerment, of helping people to help themselves by getting access to the tools and means to achieve.”

This vision led Bob, in 2004, to co-found what became Funders Together to End Homelessness-a national movement whose purpose is to mobilize philanthropic leadership to do what works to end homelessness. Funders Together is a legacy to his determination and commitment to making this a better world for all.

As his friends and colleagues, we unite in remembering, with deepest gratitude and affection, Bob Hohler-a man who lived life to the fullest, often on behalf of others. And we take solace in the fact that he died with people he loved, doing something he loved, and in the midst of a life where he missed very few adventures, possibilities, and opportunities for impact.

We extend our sincere condolences and deepest sympathies to his family, especially his wife, Karen.

The Board and Staff of Funders Together to End Homelessness

We joined Funders Together because we believe in the power of philanthropy to play a major role in ending homelessness, and we know we have much to learn from funders across the country.

-Christine Marge, Director of Housing and Financial Stability at United Way of Greater Los Angeles

I am thankful for the local partnerships here in the Pacific Northwest that we’ve been able to create and nurture thanks to the work of Funders Together. Having so many of the right players at the table makes our conversations – and all of our efforts – all the richer and more effective.

-David Wertheimer, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children.

-President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 State of the Union Address

Funders Together has given me a platform to engage the other funders in my community. Our local funding community has improved greatly to support housing first models and align of resources towards ending homelessness.

-Leslie Strnisha, Vice President at Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Our family foundation convenes local funders and key community stakeholders around strategies to end homelessness in Houston. Funders Together members have been invaluable mentors to us in this effort, traveling to our community to share their expertise and examples of best practices from around the nation.

-Nancy Frees Fountain, Managing Director at The Frees Foundation


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