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Introduction
An Amazing Cause
The property industry is not short of an awards ceremony. Most of them are about performance - listings won, offices opened, targets beaten.
The Agents Giving Summer Party is not one of those. It is the one night in the calendar where the whole industry celebrates what it has given away rather than what it has taken in. Agents, lettings teams, suppliers and competitors who spend the rest of the year chasing the same instructions all end up at the same tables, applauding each other for a year of fundraising.
On Friday 3 July, we were there for it, and it was a genuinely great evening.
The Night
Coombe Abbey, and a Room That Filled Up Fast
The setting helped. Coombe Abbey Hotel sits just outside Coventry in a few hundred acres of parkland, and it is the sort of building that makes people arrive early. Doors opened at half six with a sparkling drinks reception over the gardens, which is where the real business of the evening gets done - the handshakes and the "I have not seen you since the last one" conversations that have been running for years.
From there members of the team here at CRE enjoyed a three-course dinner, the awards, a raffle and charity auction, then the Martin Bell Band and a dance floor that did not stay empty for long.
The Award
Calvin Presents the Best Team Fundraising Award
The centrepiece is the Fundraising Champions Awards, and this year our director Calvin was asked to present one of them - Best Team Fundraising.
It is one of the harder categories to make. Individual fundraising rewards one person going after something enormous. Team fundraising means getting a whole office, or a whole network, to keep showing up for it - through the quiet months and the events where six people turn up instead of sixty.
Two winners came out of it. eXp Realty took it for a fundraising effort spread right across their network, having been recognised in five separate categories on the night. National Home Move - Your Move & Reeds Rains took it alongside them, on the back of a year of consistent fundraising across their branches.
Congratulations to both. Worthy winners, and a pleasure to be the ones handing it over.
The Cause and Thank You
Where the Money Went
The evening's fundraising went to YMCA Derbyshire, a charity working in the region since 1847, providing accommodation, guidance, training and support for vulnerable young people. Between the tickets, the raffle and the auction, an entire industry spent a Friday night funding beds and support for young people who would otherwise be without them.
An event like this looks effortless from a table on the night, which is always the sign that a very small number of people have worked hard for months. Thank you to David, Yvonne and Vikki at Agents Giving for another excellent evening, and for everything they do in between.
The property industry is a competitive business fifty-one weeks of the year. It is a better one on nights like this. We will be back next year - and if you are fundraising for something between now and then, we would like to hear about it. Get in touch, or follow the blog to keep up with what we are supporting next.
