Three Eastside women have formed the real estate team Your Giving Group, with the goal of giving back to the community. Real estate agents Elayne Beyer, Patricia Love and Kathryn Bell explained that the idea came about with a group of friends organizing around a common goal.
“We were asking, ‘What can we do?’” said Bell. “We feel very blessed … and we wanted to find a way to use our talents to give back.”
And, with a combined 70 years experience in real estate, these women found a way.
After the process of buying or selling a house with Your Giving Group, the agent involved donates a percentage of her commission to the charity of the client’s choice. If the client doesn’t have one in mind, he can choose from the group’s list of mostly child-focused charities in the area.
The women were enthusiastic about the community’s response.
“It’s going really well,” said Bell. Added Beyer, “People seem to be really excited about it.”
They are certainly not territorial about the idea, though. The women say that they hope other Eastside businesses will find ways to give as well, or donate to Your Giving Group. Love even encouraged them to the same thing — “Copy us!” she said, while Bell and Beyer nodded.
Your Giving Group works with Displaced Orphans International, Art With Heart, Purrfect Pals (a sanctuary for cats), and the Eastside Domestic Violence Program, for which the group hosted a diaper drive on Feb. 27.
“Our goal at the end of 2010,” Bell said, is that “Your Giving Group Real Estate Team will have been fortunate enough to work with clients that are passionate about their particular charities and assist us in donating $50,000 back to the community, no matter the charity or foundation.”
By hosting donation drives and giving a portion of their own earnings, the women of Your Giving Group hope to provide a way for people to give, even in a recession.
“Not everyone is in a place to be giving right now,” said Bell. “But if someone is going to be buying a house anyway, that’s one way for people to do that.”
Chelsea Randall is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.
