By Phyllis Brookshire | President, Allen Tate Realtors
One of the things that I’m most proud of as president of Allen Tate Realtors® is our commitment to the communities we serve. In the past 19 years, our Tate Cares giving initiative has contributed $4.41 million dollars to public education, arts and culture and United Way agencies across the Carolinas.
Public education is of particular importance to Allen Tate. Our schools are the centerpiece of our communities. Every home-buying decision hinges on the quality of the neighborhood school. Even if a buyer doesn’t have children (or has grown children), they understand that the school system is important to property values and future buyers. One of the first questions many buyers ask is “What’s the school district?”
In 2016, Allen Tate contributed nearly $200,000 to public education organizations across the Carolinas, and to date, more than $1.85 million. Many of these recipient organizations are local school systems or foundations supporting public schools. Some, like the WakeEd Partnership, are organizations that help elevate the mission of public schools, inform the community, and advocate for programs to improve the quality of education for every student.
Making a Difference
What attracts Allen Tate to partner with WakeEd is how they make a difference. Teachers receive recognition and grants for innovation in the classroom, and are connected with STEM professionals to help students compete globally. We embrace WakeEd’s commitment to literacy, to ensure elementary school students read at grade-level. Moreover, we support WakeEd as a unified voice to help business, community and political leaders understand what is important to today’s students tomorrow.
Allen Tate supports WakeEd financially through our annual FUNday event each fall. What’s FUNday? It started 19 years ago as a one-location field day where Allen Tate Realtors “paid to play” for activities like golf, tennis and bingo. About six years ago, as the Allen Tate footprint grew, it expanded to two events, and then in 2014, to four events – one in each region of North and South Carolina where Allen Tate does business.
Each regional FUNday event is as unique as the agents and guests it attracts. In the Triangle, we’ve done an indoor tailgate at the Park Alumni Center at NC State; a Mad Men-themed evening at Carolina Country Club, and a roll-up-your-sleeves work day at the Poe Center for Health Education, to name a few.
We invite our vendor and media partners to sponsor each event. This gives attorneys, appraisers, inspectors, builders, home stagers, printers, tech partners and countless others the opportunity to make valued business connections with our Realtors. Our agents pay to attend, bring guests and raise additional monies through silent and live auctions, reverse raffles, casino games, wine pulls, diamond drops and more. It’s a ton of fun, and it’s the children who benefit. All proceeds for each regional FUNday event stays in the local region.
Supporting Our Community
When schools thrive, so do communities. Yes, these are the communities where we sell homes and make a living, but also, where our Realtors and employees and their families make their homes, too.
As compassionate humans, we care. We consider it our privilege to give back in our local communities and see the results. The “why” of Allen Tate’s mission is to make a difference in people’s lives, and we live and breathe this every single day.
Allen Tate is proud to be the Carolinas’ leading real estate company, with 45 offices across North and South Carolina. And one of the smartest things we’ve ever done is invest in public education through our support of organizations like WakeEd.
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