Agents Do Charity - time to nominate your top fundraisers

Fundraising frolics by agents and property professionals this week include bike rides and triathlon challenges, plus the charity award season returns.

Remember, if you have charitable exploits you want the rest of the industry to know about, email press@estateagenttoday.co.uk, or contact us on social media, and we’ll do the rest.

Agents Giving: Agents can now submit entries for the coveted Fundraising Champions of the Year Awards 2022.

The winner will be announced at the Agents Giving Charity Ball, sponsored by Callwell and supported by Nurtur and Atlas Displays, on 15 July at the Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surrey.

You can enter the awards or nominate someone you know who has carried out some extraordinary good deeds for charitable causes in their local community or has undertaken a fundraising challenge for charity on the Agents Giving website.

The award categories are:
Best Team Fundraising – Sponsored by National Home Move

Best Company Fundraising – Sponsored by Stephen J Brown Consultancy in memory of his wife Sam Brown

Best Individual Fundraising – Sponsored by The Property Franchise Group

Best Creative Fundraising – Sponsored by Valpal

Best Community Fundraising – Sponsored by Zoopla

Best Industry Supplier Fundraising – Sponsored by Mint Insurance Brokers Ltd

Best Fundraising Campaign – Sponsored by PayProp

Special Fundraising Award – Sponsored by Deverellsmith

Best Social Media Campaign Award – Sponsored by J P Gardner & Associates

Best Agency Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Award – Sponsored by ESTAS

Outstanding Contribution Award – Sponsored by Propertymark

David Newnes, chairman of Agents Giving, said: “We have seen so many wonderful fundraising events taking place by agents so far this year. This once again highlights that there are so many of you doing some fantastic charity, fundraising and community work.”

It also marks the return of the Agents Strictly Dancing Competition.

The Strictly Agents dancing stars will be:

Kristjan Byfield – Base Property Specialists and The Depositary

John Young – Drivers & Norris

Suzanna Mavity – Acaboom

Danielle Lanthier – Paramount

Katy Poore – Thomas Morris

Bernadette Sheridan – PayProp

Jason Kelly – X1 Lettings

Natasha Sugerman – Drivers & Norris

Robert May – Rummage Property

Manuela Daniels– Thomas Morris

- Find out more about the amazing dancers
The ball was a sellout last year.

Bookings for tables are at £1,500 per table of 10 or £160 for an individual ticket. 

- Book your tickets

Cambridge Building Society: The Cambridge Building Society donated £1,100 to Cambridge Women’s Aid (CWA) at its annual general meeting on Monday 25 April.

The money was raised from donations the Society made for each vote it received from its customers’ feedback on its resolutions – 30p for online and 25p postal votes.

This year’s AGM – its 172nd - was held at the Society’s newly refurbished Cambridge city centre Head Office in Newmarket Road, and virtually for those unable to attend in person.

Almost 4,000 votes were cast by members and all resolutions were passed.

Peter Burrows, chief executive of The Cambridge, said: “This donation kicks off our support for Women’s Aid, which our staff voted unanimously to have as our charity of the year.

“Last year our people donated more than 1,000 hours for a variety of charities, and they are already looking at ways to spend their charity day to raise money for CWA this year, which we will fund match.”

CWA is part of the national Women’s Aid network that offers advice and support to women and children experiencing domestic abuse, as well as raising awareness of abuse issues among professions working with survivors and those seeking refuge and support.

Angie Stewart, chief executive at Cambridge Women’s Aid, received the cheque from Burrows and The Cambridge’s chairman John Spence.

She said: “We’re delighted to receive this donation, which helps go the extra mile for a woman at a vulnerable moment in her life, increasing her resources, resilience and capacity to rebuild an independent life for herself and her children, free from fear.

“Attending the Cambridge’s AGM also gave us an interesting insight into the business and the kind of support it offers our local community through savings and mortgages, but also as an employer and charity supporter.”

Eddisons: A team of 25 colleagues from Eddisons’ building and project consultancy division are taking on yet another charity challenge this weekend, their sixth fundraiser in as many years. 

They will compete in the Harrogate Sprint Triathlon this Sunday 8 May, with the aim of raising £7,500 for the British Heart Foundation in support of a colleague whose father died this year due to a heart complication.

The triathlon challenge consists of a gruelling 420m pool swim, a 24km cycle sprint and a 4.6km run, which the team aims to complete in under two hours.

Joseph Fitszsimmons, building and project consultancy director for Eddisons, said: “We have been training hard together whenever we can.

“We set ourselves an ambitious target which we’re determined to reach and are all spurred on by the knowledge that the money we raise will help fund life-saving research into heart and circulatory diseases, which unfortunately are one of the biggest killers in the UK

“It’s been great training together as a team of colleagues and friends, and hopefully our hard work will pay off with a respectable time on the day and a good result for the British Heart Foundation.”

The Eddisons building and project consultancy team has raised £26,000 for charity since 2016 with a series of fundraising challenges, the most recent of which saw them raise £7,000 for the Brain Tumour Charity by jointly covering a distance of 5,000 miles in July last year.

To donate to the Eddisons team’s fundraising challenge and help support the British Heart Foundation, visit  www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/britishheartfoundation/eddisons

Convey Law: Lloyd Davies, managing director of Convey Law and chairman of the Conveyancing Foundation, has helped lead the fundraising for a Welsh school wellbeing centre through a mental health charity he started.

He setup The Mindstep Foundation in 2020 following the tragic loss of his son Max who died following a short battle with clinical depression in 2018 age 22.

A group of 18 self-styled Mindstep Trekkers took on the tough 177mile sponsored hike down the Welsh-English border along the famous Offa’s Dyke national trail last summer.

Almost £25,000 was raised and that has now enabled St Alban’s RC School in Pontypool to complete a dream project to open a state of the art health and wellbeing facility.

It is dedicated to Max, who volunteered at the school, and to a former head of sixth form and PE teacher Frances Margerison.

Headmaster Stephen Lord said: “The Mindstep Foundation was the key charity behind the funding of this fantastic resource for the St Alban’s community. 

“The source has sad origins in the untimely loss of Max Davies, who had completed work experience at the school, in the hope of pursuing a career in a similar setting.

“His demise led to the determination of his family and their friends to raise money to support the school where he had made his own contribution. There is a plaque commemorating Max above the door to the suite, which lends it real meaning.

“The health and wellbeing suite is also dedicated to a very special former member of staff, Frances Margerison who devoted herself to the pupils of St Albans for many years. 
“Sadly, Frances passed away in January 2019 at the age of 54. 

“She would be beaming with pride not only at the excellent facility we now have but also, as a former Welsh rugby player herself, at the achievements of former pupil, Sisilia Tuipulotu, who made her debut in the Women's Six Nations for Wales against Ireland last month.

“The facility represents the legacy of these two wonderful people.”

Huntingfield Estates: Becky Edlington and Donna Clegg from Suffolk-based Huntingfield Estates took part in the Women V Cancer Ride the Night challenge last month, raising more than £2,200.

The charity challenge lets participants dress in pink and cycle 50km or 100km through London, taking in iconic landmarks such as Wesminster Abbey, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace and many more iconic landmarks.

The pair will split the funds raised between Breast Cancer Now, Ovarian Cancer Action and Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust.

Becky said: "It was a great experience and we were exceedingly lucky with the weather as it was so mild and frankly the weather made it.

"Cycling conditions were amazing with fabulous marshalls although once we got into Victoria/Westminster the traffic was as busy as the daytime so the cycling was a little more hairy.

"Give me a Suffolk lane through choice but neither of us would have missed it for the world.  The camaraderie of 2,000 women all cycling, for heartfelt reasons, was humbling to say the least."

Find out more and donate at https://join.dream-challenges.com/fundraisers/thehighsocietylovelies

Miles for Ukraine: A group of almost 50 industry figures are embarking on a series of physical challenges this month to raise money for Ukrainian refugees and they are asking others to get involved.

Individuals will choose to carry out one of the following in the month of May as part of the Miles for Ukraine challenge and in the process raise money for the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

Participants can choose from:
Run - 100km

Walk - 150km

Cycle - 250km

The group helped raise £16,026 for the mental health charity Mind last year.

Team captain Alex Willis, director at GOTO Group said: ‘’Just like last year we are looking to use the collective force of more than 40 people from our great property community to raise money for an incredibly important cause. 

“Using exercise as the vehicle to fundraise provides vital physical and mental benefits to those involved and the motivation and camaraderie that is generated from the team WhatsApp group keeps everyone pushing for more miles and more money.

“We are keen to have as many people involved as possible.”

Other participants include Paramount lettings director Spencer Lawrence, Atomic Consultancy founder Lucy Noonan, Moving Works director Mark Worrall and Dezrez managing director Richard Price.

Contact emailalexwillis@gmail.com if you wish to join the fundraising efforts.

Find out more and donate at  https://www.justgiving.com/team/milesforukraine

Dragon Boat Race: Good luck to all teams taking part in The Agents Giving Dragon Boat Race this Sunday 8 May.

The event is sponsored by HomeLet and LetAlliance at Fairlop Water, Ilford.  

Teams include; Caplen Estates, Thomas Morris, Drivers & Norris, Boomin, Acaboom and Do It For Dom, TDS, HomeLet & LetAlliance, Kerfuffle, National Home Move, Propertymark, JP Gardner & Associates, Foxtons, Simply Conveyancing and Genmar IT.

Find out more and donate at https://agentsgiving.org/event/dragon-boat-race-2022/