2024 Accomplishments
LTO Ventures had a transformational year in 2024 marked most significantly by our shift from focusing solely on developing communities with our clients across the U.S. to launching our own project - Autumn Hills Village - right here in Boerne, Texas. But before I get into all of our accomplishments in 2024, I want to honor one more time our first board member and my friend, Kim Breitling, who passed away after an incredibly courageous battle with cancer. She leaves behind her husband, John, and three beautiful children. She is deeply missed.
Let’s look at what we achieved last year:
Project Launch Town Hall, March 27th. We went public with our plans for our own mixed-use intentional community - Autumn Hills Village - to a packed room of Boerne Blaze Special Olympics families and athletes in a hybrid webinar and in-person town hall gathering [view webinar on Youtube]. The more than 30 families in attendance rewarded our announcement with thoughtful questions and a warm reception.
Conceptual Site Plan Developed and Published. We’ve always been able to tell our whole story from a single image because, well, people prefer pictures over words. So we worked closely with Groth Design Group in Cedarburg, WI to develop a detailed conceptual site plan which can be viewed at https://www.ltoventures.org/autumn-hills-village. The design is the product of our 15 years of research of more than 100 existing and new communities across the U.S. and our firm’s work with more than 15 client projects.
Community Inclusion Center Floor Plans and Renderings. The impact we want to have in our Boerne community and surrounding region goes well beyond the residents of Autumn Hills Village. In October, we revealed the floor plans and renderings for our planned 40,000sf Community Inclusion Center from which we will operate our educational programs and Enrichment Clubs. More than that, our Center will be the only publicly-accessible community center within 30 miles of Boerne and open for the benefit of residents with and without disabilities in Boerne and the surrounding 7-county region. We also hope to become the home for Boerne Blaze Special Olympics. For more details, visit: https://www.ltoventures.org/community-inclusion-center
Life Academy and Enrichment Clubs Announced. We believe in lifelong learning and social engagement to end isolation and loneliness for adults with IDD of all abilities. Education doesn’t have to stop at 21 when they age out of school. We announced plans to launch our Life Academy and Enrichment Clubs in Fall 2025 beginning with adding a Director of Education and Enrichment to our team which we hope to accomplish in Q1 2025.
Residential Interest List Opened, Tops 80. When we announced our plans in March, we also opened an interest list. It is not a waitlist or priority list, but a way for self-advocates and families to indicate their sincere interest in living at Autumn Hills Village. At the end of 2024, that list had topped 80 families. The list is valuable to us because it helps us understand demand for our community and to be able to demonstrate that demand to prospective donors. Families on our list will receive updates ahead of our broader announcements, and will be invited periodically to provide input into our plans. As we get closer to building our homes, the families on the interest list will be the first to receive invitations to apply.
Record Fundraising. We raised more funding from more individual donors and small businesses in 2024 - almost $72,000 - than any previous year which tells us that our message and mission are connecting with more people. While this is encouraging, we still fell short of our goal for year-end 2024 so Q1 2025 will be an important time to press ahead.
Consulting and Project Management Business Remained Strong. We worked on 9 projects in 5 states in 2024 (not including Autumn Hills Village), including 3 that secured their land through property donations, a major milestone for each project. We began 2025 providing our services on 5 projects, plus our own, with at least 3 more prospects in development.
To read about our 2025 funding priorities, please click here.