Photo Credit: Kevin Schlatt Photography
Our season of giving is year-round at Village. This month, we celebrated an incredible milestone of giving $2.2 million back to our community through Village Fund grants. It’s proof that 22 years of giving a little can become a lot.
Village is social responsible business. We use real estate as a tool for making a positive difference in the world and to support important causes in our community. As a team of change agents, we give a little of our money and time on an ongoing basis and continue to make a collective impact.
I first learned about socially responsible business through my friend Joel Solomon, who was a founding member of the Social Venture Network. The group consists of more than 400 successful business owners across the country committed to a “just and sustainable economy” and using their businesses for social change. I was inspired to do the same with my real estate business.
When I started my real estate firm in 1996, I also established the Village Fund to benefit from the Village family’s collective success and prosperity. Each year the fund gets five percent of the company profits and ongoing support from staff, agents and vendors.
The first few years of the fund, we could only give out a hundred dollars to a handful of groups. As the company grew, we were able to give more money and to more social profits. In 2014, we celebrated the Village Fund surpassing the $1 million mark of moving funds back into the community. This year we reached another new milestone and celebration was in order.
What started as a little fund has now given $2.2 million to hundreds of local social profits working to enrich and strengthen our neighborhoods.
More than 450 social profit representatives, Village agents, staff and vendors gathered for a VaudeVillage-themed celebration with juggling, live music and drawings for Village Fund grants. At the end of the hour, we had awarded 25 grants totaling $54,000 to local social profits.
I’m proud and humbled by the partnerships the Village family has created with many of these local social profits. These organizations are doing the heavy lifting and good work in our community. We are supporting them with money, passionate volunteers and board members. It’s a wonderful and virtuous circle.
What are you doing to extend your season of giving and influence on your one-mile radius?