Feature article
Community impact: some inspiring approaches to charity and community work
Examples of executions to help you kick off or enhance your own engagement.
Whether you’re looking to get into community work, or thinking about how you could have the biggest impact; the advice all our experts gave is to choose a charity you have a genuine connection with.
The chief executive of Philanthropy New Zealand, Rahul Watson Govindan, recommends these four steps when reviewing your community involvement or when starting your journey.
Understand your why: have a sense of what your values are and how to manifest those values through your giving. What’s the difference you’d like to make that will give you the most pleasure?
Do a scoping exercise: who are the organisations and people making a difference in your area? You might initially think of high profile charities, but if you dig a bit deeper, you could find a smaller, targeted one where you can build a personal relationship.
Talk to your clients about their favourite charities: talk to sellers about what they get up to in their time off, what are their sport clubs, arts clubs, beach clean up projects and more. A charity that aligns with your customers’ worlds as well as your own is a neat sweet spot.
Do your due diligence on organisations you’re considering: look at the charity’s audited annual report, how it operates and how it gives money out. Is the organisation set up to manage volunteers? Volunteering NZ can help with this.
Lowe & Co Managing Director Craig Lowe recommends starting with a philosophy.
“As human beings, we need to have a purpose. It can’t just be about making the next deal and getting your salary. At the end of the day, we all want to be part of something bigger, I think it’s so important for our wellbeing to give back to causes greater than ourselves,” he says.
At Lowe & Co, while agents have freedom on the community projects they choose, the agency itself contributes a per-sale amount to Wellington City Mission.
What Craig likes about the Wellington City Mission is how rational they are about how they use their resources. The Mission has a social supermarket where families book in for a free shop when they need extra food to get them through the week. It’s a phenomenal idea where people are treated with dignity, he says.
When you have to pull back financially
Don’t feel bad if this isn’t the right time for you to contribute financially, says Rahul.
“If you’re doing it tough, it’s very likely others in the community are too – building relationships is as valuable as giving money away,” he says.
Whatever your contribution, it’s a great time when getting ready for the next busy season to ‘till the soil, sharpen the saw and do the outreach’,” he says.
Small time increments can have big impact
Harcourts Cooper & Co agent Ben Gibson is someone who literally tills the soil as part of his community engagement.
On his real estate website, OrewaBeachRealEstate.co.nz, people can apply for his five community hours of free labour a month.
He got the idea when he was helping his elderly father by tidying up outside the house. As he was doing the work, various neighbours stopped by to chat “It was really authentic, I met half the street,’ says Ben.
“It’s so easy for agents to throw money at everything,” he adds. But this isn’t the route he wants to take.
The agent’s done 135 hours of labour over 16 months at about 25 or 26 houses.It’s largely hedge trimming, waterblasting and the like. He reckons he’s gotten maybe one listing out of it but that’s not what it’s about, it’s about giving back. “I don’t even like it when they talk about listing with me. I’m here to do some labour and get to know them.”
He enjoys it, it gives him time to think. “I’m an active relaxer,” he says.
Setting up agents and charities for success within a company
Ben’s North Shore agency, Harcourts Cooper & Co has a very good reputation for its active community engagement and it’s part of why he joined them.
The business has a full time Community Relationship Manager, Nikki Revell, who has a team of 2.5, plus casual staff, and they support 400 events a year.
The agency has its own sponsorship agenda and then the agents come to Nikki and team if they require support for their chosen organisation.
“We don’t just throw money at something, we want to be involved,” she says. For school galas, the large North Shore agency with over 300 agents has a Coffee and Cone van that agents can hire and take to fundraisers or community events. The proceeds go back to the organisation.
“We’re encouraging the agents to be involved, to look at what’s of value versus just signing a cheque. It’s about being in the community. It’s about making a difference and having fun,” says Nikki.
A grant system approach from Ray White Whangārei
Another approach is to offer grants to a wide range of needs in the community. That’s the approach that Ray White Whangārei has taken. Their community involvement is done through their “We Can Help With That” campaign. The agency fund is open all year round and Ray White allocates money to charities every three months.
If they can’t help financially with a cause, they might help in other ways, like social media or marketing, says marketing executive Cheryl Hayes, who came up with the idea.
If the agency can’t support a charity in a round, they open it up to the sales team and ask: ‘Are there any of you who want to champion it?’
It’s rare that each grant is above $1000.“We want the money to go straight to the source and not for fundraising but to achieve something,” says Cheryl. Sometimes, $100 to one person at the right time can make a substantial difference, she adds.
Author
Other articles you might like
