The foundation is laid. Now Northwestern Habitat for Humanity leaders are working to raise the roof.

Although the group never lost sight of its goal of providing affordable housing over the years, in the past nine months group leaders have been looking to revamp the group’s organization and bring its work closer to home.

This year’s Habitat for Humanity executive board has transformed the organization into a highly structured nail-pounding machine by setting specific community involvement, education, fund-raising and member accountability goals.

And on Wednesday, the Habitat for Humanity executive board members will vote on a revised constitution that will make will make the group more efficient, said Co-President Meaghen Foley.

These changes represent the culmination of almost a year’s worth of changes initiated by leaders who recognized the potential of the relatively young and unfocused group.

Foley, an Education senior, said in past years group leaders sometimes focused solely on their specific responsibilities, did not set general goals for the whole group and did not meet regularly.

“In order to have a well-rounded organization, you need to have established goals,” Foley said. “We really hadn’t had those before.”

The 12-person executive board, which now meets weekly, began brainstorming possible changes during the summer.

“We started out setting a group goal and our mission for the year by revamping our exec board and identifying the main areas that we needed to focus on: sites, education and more involvement in our own community,” Foley said.

Proposed changes, which began a month ago, include restructuring the executive board, amendment process, executive board member removal process, fund-raising responsibilities and education programming.

Evanston was the starting point for the new changes. Foley said NU Habitat for Humanity hasn’t worked in the city since 1999.

She said NU Habitat for Humanity now volunteers at weekly sites in nearby Lake County, but wanted to branch out and begin rehabilitating homes and playgrounds in Evanston.

“Why are we going up to Lake County when there are things we can be doing here and developing the relationships with neighbors in this area?” Foley said.

Sites Vice President Laura Cheng said the organization aims to explore the many sides of the Evanston community.

“There’s more to Evanston than Sheridan Road,” Cheng said.

Another goal the group has set for the future is to better educate both members and NU students.

Last quarter, the organization hosted its first town hall meeting, in which four community members spoke to 25 students about Evanston.

Co-President Ann Rodgers said Habitat for Humanity is working with the Evanston Neighborhood Conference to organize a bus tour for NU students on April 21.

The two-hour event will give students a glimpse of the different neighborhoods of Evanston.

“We want the students to have an idea of who they’re helping and why,” said Rodgers, a Weinberg junior.

The executive board is beginning their fund-raising efforts by, for the first time, tapping external sources.

The new activities will be supplemented by a broader range of funding and a decreasing dependence on Associated Student Government, which is reluctant to fund the group because it performs much of its work off campus.

The group received one-third of their more-than-$9,000 request last spring.

Rodgers recently wrote one grant, but said the focus of the remainder of the year is to identify grants for which the group qualifies.

The organization is also planning to host regular fund-raisers, beginning with the Tri-Cycle-a-Thon April 26.

During the event, students will ride tricycles up and down Sheridan Road while canning for donations.

The group also is raising money by selling T-shirts, another first for them.

Now that NU Habitat for Humanity has carved out its future path, leaders said they hope to select able executives for next year in their April 9 elections.

The executive board will focus on engaging more members in volunteering activities because even though more than 1,000 people are on the Habitat listserv, only about 10 volunteer each week.

Though the changes have taken time, leaders say they are well worth it.

“Doing some of the little stuff, although it’s frustrating in the beginning, really makes a difference in the long run,” Rodgers said. “We’re just starting to see the difference.”