05:48
Faizan
Want more business? Want more money? Want more market share? It's simple: give more. If you remember anything from this article, let it be those two words - give more. Why? Because it works.
I read recently about research by Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, who studied 30,000 American families. Brooks discovered a family giving $100 more to charity earns about $375 more income than a non-giving family that is similar in every other factor. For every dollar they give, they earn nearly $4 more. Who would have thought it? In giving, we receive.
But Realtors shouldn't be giving just because they get something in return. You should give because you earn your living from your community.
But Bob, what should I do? There are so many causes out there.
Let me share some examples. A few months ago NAR highlighted several Realtors making heart-felt differences in their communities:
Bernice and Troy Helman, of Coldwell Banker REALTORS® in Terre Haute, Ind., joined two dozen other business leaders who pledged to live on $4.57 a day for one week (thousands of Hoosiers live on that amount of money every day). It generated tons of local media coverage on the prevalence of hunger. She also launched the "Grillin' and Chillin'" picnic for local real estate pros that raises $10,000 to $15,000 annually for the poor. And as the 2011 fundraising chair for the local United Way, the Helmans led the charity to a record year of donations -- more than $1.8 million.
When Tina McDonough of RE/MAX Select in Renton, Wash., lost her friend, Michelle Brown, to breast cancer in 2008, it touched her deeply. "I watched her 12-year-old daughter and her husband fall apart," McDonough says. "I had to do something, so I started a team to walk in her memory." Today, it's the top fundraising team for the Susan G. Komen organization in the country -- it has raised $1.4 million. McDonough also includes the Komen logo on all of her real estate signs.
Joel Pratt of J.L. Pratt, REALTORS in Canton, Mass., raises money and awareness for MatchingDonors.com, a nonprofit that has saved more than 500 lives by matching kidney donors with recipients. Pratt says every life saved keeps the memory of Lynda, his beloved wife of nearly 25 years, alive. She died in 1998 after a three-year battle with breast cancer.
I read recently about research by Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, who studied 30,000 American families. Brooks discovered a family giving $100 more to charity earns about $375 more income than a non-giving family that is similar in every other factor. For every dollar they give, they earn nearly $4 more. Who would have thought it? In giving, we receive.
But Realtors shouldn't be giving just because they get something in return. You should give because you earn your living from your community.
But Bob, what should I do? There are so many causes out there.
Let me share some examples. A few months ago NAR highlighted several Realtors making heart-felt differences in their communities:
Bernice and Troy Helman, of Coldwell Banker REALTORS® in Terre Haute, Ind., joined two dozen other business leaders who pledged to live on $4.57 a day for one week (thousands of Hoosiers live on that amount of money every day). It generated tons of local media coverage on the prevalence of hunger. She also launched the "Grillin' and Chillin'" picnic for local real estate pros that raises $10,000 to $15,000 annually for the poor. And as the 2011 fundraising chair for the local United Way, the Helmans led the charity to a record year of donations -- more than $1.8 million.
When Tina McDonough of RE/MAX Select in Renton, Wash., lost her friend, Michelle Brown, to breast cancer in 2008, it touched her deeply. "I watched her 12-year-old daughter and her husband fall apart," McDonough says. "I had to do something, so I started a team to walk in her memory." Today, it's the top fundraising team for the Susan G. Komen organization in the country -- it has raised $1.4 million. McDonough also includes the Komen logo on all of her real estate signs.
Joel Pratt of J.L. Pratt, REALTORS in Canton, Mass., raises money and awareness for MatchingDonors.com, a nonprofit that has saved more than 500 lives by matching kidney donors with recipients. Pratt says every life saved keeps the memory of Lynda, his beloved wife of nearly 25 years, alive. She died in 1998 after a three-year battle with breast cancer.
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