Anne-Marie, I am sending this because I just saw your email about starting a fundraiser and I want to share with you a novel but potent fundraising platform of which I am co-founder. It’s called Investing In Communities® and we’ve distributed $650K+ to a wide range of charities.
IIC is a social enterprise that enables a new way for any consumer, individual or corporate, to utilize the services of any real estate broker or agent of their choice, including one they already know.
The new social good is that a portion of the commission is sent to a charity of the consumer’s choice without increasing or decreasing the respective purchase or sale price for the consumer. (IIC does not increase the commission that seller’s pay.) And broker generosity plays no part in it.
The business benefit for consumers is that we find brokers for them to choose among, based on being a good fit for each consumer’s desired transaction. IIC can also be used by companies with leases for office, retail, and industrial space.
The purchase or sale of a $300,000 property (most often a home) typically results in a little more than $1,300 of unrestricted funding.
The funding formula for purchase and sale transactions yields a little more than 4/10th of 1% of the property price, assuming a 5% commission paid by the seller to their broker split 50/50 with the buyer’s broker and a 25% referral fee paid by the broker to which IIC referred either the buyer or the seller. We remit a little more than 70% of the referral fee to the consumer’s charity. As we scale, we will increase that percentage. (At present, we retain a little less than 30% of the referral fee to help defray our expenses.)
Heather (a real person) sold a home in Boise and bought one in Portland – IIC sent $4,026 to Waters Elementary School in Chicago, where her nieces attend. In both cases, IIC referred her to a broker she already knew.
John and Eva (also real people) sold a home in Chicago and bought a smaller one, for retirement – IIC sent $2,440 to Journey Center of Chicago (established by Eva). For both transactions, they choose a broker that IIC referred to them.
Because commercial leases are so variable in length, I can’t give you a formula for them.
But here are some examples of funding that resulted from individual office leases.
- $6,905 from a 10 year renewal of 4,100sf
Eckhart Kolak was the tenant in Chicago. They chose K.E.L.T. in Maine.
- $20,000 from a 10 yr lease or 8,900sf
Women Employed was the tenant in Chicago and they chose themselves.
- $25,000 from a 15 yr lease of 14,960sf
Shriver Center for Poverty Law was the tenant in Chicago and they chose themselves.
- $30,000 from a 20 yr lease of 16,000sf
PrimeCare Community Health was the tenant in Chicago and they chose themselves.
- $42,000 from a 10 yr lease of 25,000sf
Urban Partnership Bank was the tenant in Chicago and they asked us to make the choice. We held a random drawing to award 15 checks ranging from $10,000-1,000.
IIC is not a marketing platform for agents. They can’t pay us to call them.
Our distributions cost charity supporters not a penny and charities pay no development expense.
I would love to schedule a brief call with you!
In the meantime, please visit:
Homepage https://www.iiconline.org/
FAQs https://www.iiconline.org/faq/
Request Broker Referrals https://www.iiconline.org/broker-referral-request-form-long-form/
Charity Member Application https://www.iiconline.org/application-from-charity/
Company Member Application https://www.iiconline.org/add-a-company/
I hope you and your family are all healthy and calm.
Best, -mp