Rebuilding Exchange closes up shop: ‘Being a nonprofit today is hard’

The Rebuilding Exchange’s Evanston warehouse, 1245 Hartrey Ave.

Rebuilding Exchange, a nonprofit focused on recycling building materials and training workers for careers in construction, shut down on Friday, citing the “difficult economic environment and loss of key funding sources” faced by many nonprofits.

In an email to supporters sent Friday night, board chair Elizabeth Schuh announced that the organization officially closed that day at 6 p.m., and a message sharing the same information is posted at the top of its website.

Rebuilding Exchange operated two warehouse stores for reclaimed materials and fixtures, one in Evanston at 1245 Hartrey Ave. and the other in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood at 1740 W Webster Ave.

Schuh wrote that although the organization “cannot continue this work today, we believe it is critical to the future” of the area it served and the broader community. She cited that in the 16 years since its incorporation in 2009, Rebuilding Exchange diverted over 4.5 million pounds of reclaimed building materials away from landfills and trained over 150 people in the building trades.

“Being a nonprofit today is hard. It’s only getting harder,” Schuh wrote. “We need more people to roll up their sleeves, volunteer, donate, celebrate and advocate for the causes you care about. Choose today to take action and ensure that other organizations can continue to do good.”

The Evanston operation was originally founded as the “Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse” in 2011, and completed a merger with Chicago operation in March 2021. The organization received a nearly $4 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency in August 2024, but the status of that grant under the current administration of President Donald Trump is unknown, and rising costs led to the org shuttering its public workshop program in January.

Locally, Rebuilding Exchange’s pre-appenticeship training program partnered with both of Northwestern University’s football stadium projects: Workers with the operation helped recover materials and fixtures from the old Ryan Field stadium before its full demolition, and Northwestern hired a transitional employment crew from the organization to help set up its temporary lakefront stadium infrastructure at the existing Martin Stadium on campus.