Agents Do Charity - don't they know it's time to prep...

We’re always happy to publicise the fund-raising work of agents and others in our industry - even when, as this week, they remind us that Christmas is closer than we would like.

It’s actually around 14 weeks away but expect to hear a lot (and we mean, a lot) more about it on this charity page as time goes on.

Whether it’s got a festive flavour or not, just let us know what you’re doing on press@estateagenttoday.co.uk and we will do the rest.

Now, on to this week’s good causes...

Christmas Shoebox Appeal: Agency Express has launched its 2017 Christmas Shoebox Appeal in association with international relief charity Teams4U.

In 2016 Teams4U distributed over 35,0000 Christmas shoeboxes to children across Romania, Bosnia and Belarus. This year Agency Express are calling out to out to estate agents and industry professional across the country to help boost that number.

Getting involved is easy! Simply head over to the Agency Express Shoebox Appeal web page and from there you can download a guide to packing and sending a shoebox, or make an online donation of just £15 and they’ll pack a box of goodies and send it for you.

The shoeboxes collected will be distributed through schools, nurseries, hospitals and orphanages. Every box makes a difference and they are gratefully received with lots of laughter and smiles.

The Agency Express Shoebox Appeal closes on Friday November 17 so now is a great time to start your planning your gifts. If you would like further details contact naomi.wood@agencyexpress.co.uk or call 01508 579800.

Recycle Week: Managing agent Rendall & Rittner is encouraging its residents to help the environment during this year’s Recycle Week, which runs from September 25 to October 1 through two new eco initiatives with suppliers.

R&R is working with ecological cleaning company Delphis Eco to offer residents’ starter packs of its innovative plant based cleaning products at special discounted rates. Delphis Eco has supplied many of the cleaning products used by the company’s staff and contractors across a number of its property portfolio since 2016, resulting in an estimated annual saving of 477 tons of CO2 emissions.

Estate managers at a number of R&R developments will also be in competition to encourage residents to recycle their unwanted clothes via eco laundry and dry-cleaning service supplier LaundryRepublic. Its clothes recycling and donation scheme helps to raise money for charity Scope, preventing them from going into landfill.

R&R, which manages more than 45,000 residential units throughout London and the UK, puts sustainability as a high priority across all of its operations.

Chestertons: The agency has been announced as the only one in the country to be awarded a Platinum Payroll Giving Quality Mark for the second consecutive year, in recognition of its outstanding implementation of the Payroll Giving fundraising initiative.

Payroll Giving is a scheme which allows anyone paying income tax to give monthly to a charity of their choice. All employers that have the scheme are eligible to get a Quality Mark, a benchmarking system attributed by the Government, recognising the efforts of employers that have supported their employees’ charitable contributions throughout the year. Platinum is presented to companies that have more than 20% of its workforce choosing to give through the scheme and who have also completed several additional criteria.

Some 22 per cent of staff at Chestertons are signed up to the scheme, which benefits 37 different charities.

Giles Milner, marketing director for Chestertons and also chairman of the employee-led ‘Charity Champions’ committee, comments: “We really try and encourage all of our staff to give something back to the community in whatever way they can, whether that is by using their paid volunteer day or by donating to their chosen charity. Payroll Giving is one of the most successful initiatives that we have implemented to help make donating easier for our staff and we are all incredibly proud to be the only estate agent to have achieved the Platinum award two years in row.”