Agents Do Charity - row row row your boat

Welcome to this week’s Agents Do Charity, our chance to salute those who do so much to help others.

If your agency is doing something charitable that we should bring to the attention of the industry, please email press@estateagenttoday.co.uk - and we’ll do the rest! 

Agents Giving: There’s not long to wait until the Agents Giving charity Dragon Boat Race on Sunday 8 September at Fairlop Waters, Ilford, Essex with Landmark Estate Agency Services as headline sponsor.

You can still enter your team to have a wonderful day of fundraising on the water in aid of The Agents Giving Grant Fund which supports you with your fundraising and Magic Moments – the children’s charity dedicated to helping children suffering with life limiting illnesses.

Participants will race in four heats, each around 250m, with the winners going through to the final race. Each team can have up to 17 crew on their boat, including “a drummer”. There are no fitness capabilities required to row, however you must be able to hold a paddle and sit upright in a boat.

Ben Robinson, managing director of Landmark Estate Agency Services, said: “The team at Landmark are thrilled to be working with Agents Giving on the famous Dragon Boat Race. It really is one of the best charity events of the year and we can’t wait to experience the day’s activities with you all and to support these two amazing charities.”

Find out more: https://agentsgiving.org/event/dragon-boat-race/

Building Relations: Property and built environment PR agency Building Relations is set to undertake the Victoria Line challenge next month.

The team will walk the entire 15-mile route of the London Underground’s Victoria Line, from Walthamstow Central to Brixton, to raise vital funds for their charity partner, Housing for Women.

The challenge, organised by the agency’s environmental and social impact team, involves stopping at all 16 stations on the Victoria Line. A team of 11 staff members from Building Relations’ London and Surrey offices will be participating, in what marks the agency’s biggest fundraising event for their charity partner, Housing for Women, to date.

The Brixton based charity is a housing provider dedicated to empowering women and tackling housing inequality. It provides women with affordable housing and specialised support services, such as safe spaces for women who have survived human trafficking and modern slavery, community-based support for victims of domestic abuse and accommodation for women leaving the prison system.

Building Relations announced its partnership with Housing for Women on International Women’s Day in March this year in a bid to support and help make a difference to a local charity aligned with the agency’s own values.

Tallulah Lawson-Cresswell, head of fundraising at Housing for Women, said: “Building Relations’ commitment to fundraising for our cause and raising awareness of our work is invaluable, and we are very grateful for their support. The funds raised from the walk will make a tangible difference to the lives of the women we support, including through our support for women and children escaping domestic violence and abuse our SafeSpace drop-in project for women survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery and our ReConnect+ service providing accommodation-based support for women leaving prison.”

Kathryn Reucroft, managing director at Building Relations PR, added: “The entire Building Relations team is incredibly dedicated to supporting Housing for Women, in their important work. Housing for Women encapsulates Building Relations’ core values with our specialism in property, as a team of mostly women and spending our days promoting home ownership! I’m proud to take on the Victoria Line challenge with lots of our team to and I am especially hopeful that our contributions will help to provide much-needed housing support to women in need.”

Michael Day: Three weeks into the Diabetes UK One Million Step Challenge, industry figure and Integra Property Services boss Michael Day is ahead of target having now completed over 269,371 steps and a distance of 210.07 km. 

This has involved more than a full 40 hours of walking so far.

He has raised £675 in donations but is hoping to match or better last year’s total of £3,465. 

Day said: “To those of you that have already donated, I will have personally directly thanked you but do so collectively again here.

“For those of you who haven’t donated, I know there are lots of demands and requests from all over for lots of good causes but if you could find a way of having a rummage down the back of the sofa or raiding the company accounts – as our friends at Tesco say – every little helps!”
 
Find out more: https://step.diabetes.org.uk/fundraising/michael1249?
 
Middleton Advisors: On Wednesday 26 June, which turned out to be the hottest day of the year, the entire team from Middleton Advisors took a day out from their everyday business to pitch in and support childrens’ charity Camp Mohawk, by working on their woodland centre facilities.

Middleton donated the usual cost of an office summer party to Camp Mohawk and in addition, all 30 of the Middleton team spent the day building benches, constructing fences, installing playground equipment, tidying, painting, lugging, sprucing, odd-jobbing and generally getting their normally well-manicured hands dirty.

Camp Mohawk, in Wargrave, Berkshire, is for children and young people with special needs. As Middleton Advisors managing director Mark Parkinson explained: “With the summer holidays looming, their facilities need to be spick and span for their busiest period of the year.

“We had a lot of fun on the day; Camp Mohawk is a fantastic charity, of which Middleton is an official supporter – but we wanted to do a bit more this year in terms of practical help, and I hope that we have made a really positive contribution.

“From our point of view, it’s been a great team-bonding exercise, and a refreshing change of routine that ensures we understand how fortunate we are in many ways. If they will let us …. we’ll be back.”

Your Move: North East agent Your Move Chris Stonock (YMCS) has launched a fundraising partnership with the Children’s Heart Unit Fund (Chuf) at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.

Initiated in April 2024, this collaboration aims to support one of the UK's most critical paediatric heart units. Your Move Chris Stonock has committed to raising £5,000 in its first year and to help achieve this goal, staff members will participate in various Chuf events, including the Great North Run and the ‘Hadrian for Hearts’ sponsored walk, a 14-mile journey along the UNESCO World Heritage site.

A highlight of the fundraising efforts will be the company’s annual Family Funday in August, alongside numerous initiatives across all 14 branches throughout the year.

The Children’s Heart Unit at the Freeman Hospital is one of only two paediatric heart units in Britain equipped to handle the most complex cases. Chuf’s influence extends across six regional hospitals in the North, providing essential services and opportunities for families beyond hospital care. Chuf funds critical equipment, specialist staffing, holistic services, and practical support for families, all exceeding NHS provisions.