How to get a bank to grant a HELOC when you have no W2 income

[Jacob Tracy]

I have a rather interesting situation that I'm not exactly sure how to handle. So my parents are getting close to retirement and would like to make a few investments to help solidify their retirement future. Now the interesting part. My parents have both been heavily involved in building and maintaining non profit organizations to benefit others. They are amazing with the ability to live very comfortably on very little annual W2 income. In fact they make almost nothing on paper and have almost no cash reserves. But they have NO debt other than a very small amount left on their mortgage. My father would like to use the equity in their primary residence to invest in some other properties but when he has talked to several lending institutions they are unwilling to work with him when they hear that he has almost no W2 income (he does get social security). Even though he has over 800 on his credit score and over 100K in equity in his house. Are there lenders out there that will open a HELOC for them based only on the equity in their home and the fact that they have amazing credit and no debt? They have always helped others and never asked for anything in return. I would really like to put them in a position to live comfortably through their golden years. Thank you for your input in advance!