RED Day (Renew, Energize and Donate) is an initiative dedicated to celebrating Keller Williams Realty’s year-round commitment to improving local communities. Each year, on the second Thursday in May, tens of thousands of associates from across the United States and Canada participate in a wide range of projects, devoting their time to renewing and energizing aspects of the neighborhoods in which they serve.
This week our VolunteerSpotlight shines on Laura Price, and the local community teams for Keller Williams Red Day of Service, 2011. Keller Williams is an international real estate company, and on May 12, 2011 Keller Williams associates from the US and Canada participated in service activities in their local communities.
---
Please tell us a little bit about RED Day.
RED Day began in 2009 with 25,000 associates giving back more than 125,000 hours of service. In 2010, participation grew to 30,000 associates giving more than 150,000 hours to community service work volunteering.
Recognizing her leadership in guiding the culture of our company, RED Day is held in honor of Mo Anderson, vice chairman of the board, Keller Williams Realty.
This event is an entrenched part of Keller Williams Realty’s culture and displays the extraordinary effect a company can have when individuals come together to work as a team for the greater good of everyone. RED Day isn’t about cleaning up a park. It is a one-day expression of what happens 24/7 in the Keller Williams culture. It is seeing a need, discovering who can meet that need and then getting it done.
What are some examples of RED Day projects?
Red Day initiatives run the gamut: From rebuilding homes through Habitat for Humanity, refurbishing local parks, giving to local food shelters, hosting blood drives, beautifying beaches and so much more. Projects are chosen by each individual market center based on a need they see within their community.
What kind of planning goes into a large event like RED Day?
All of our associates are incredibly passionate about giving back to their communities and RED Day is just a one-day expression of what happens every single day across the United States and Canada. So when it comes to organizing an event like RED Day, many market centers turn to their Culture Committees and RED Day Representatives. These individuals are the keepers of the culture in their market centers and are always interested in streamlining the way they organize their projects. Having VolunteerSpot available made that possible. At the Keller Williams Realty International Support Center in Austin, TX, for instance, we are fortunate to have an extremely talented Events Team on our RED Day Committee who go above and beyond when organizing the event.
First, we ask our employees to recommend places where they might like to volunteer. Sometimes this is a challenge because we have so many people, but we always manage to find a great organization in need of lots of hands for lots of projects. Over the past three years, we have spread out all over the city. We have helped to clean up Lady Bird Lake and the surrounding trail, spent time at the Monte Siesta Nursing Home, revamped and cleaned up at the Williamson County Humane Society, made grounds improvements at the Austin Sunshine Camps, and cleaned up the Austin Biodiversity Greenhouse. We’ve given our time at the Dell Children’s hospital and made huge improvement to the Texas Baptist Children Home in Round Rock, Texas. This year, nearly 250 of our KWRI employees and associates from surrounding market centers came together to revamp the Mary Lee Foundation, which is a center for mentally challenged adults.
On a local level, we break down each big project by activity and then ask that a certain amount of people sign up for that activity. In years past, this has been a very manual process, involving lots of paperwork. This year, we were able to send out two emails to everyone, asking them to sign up right from their computer. From there, our Events Team went to work making sure everyone in those activity groups had the right tools and resources necessary to get the job done!
From an international standpoint, we support our associates by providing customizable marketing materials, press release templates, logos and we send them a RED Day Kit filled with promotional materials so that they can get associates in the market center excited about the big day! We ask that associates get their clients, business alliances and the media involved to make their RED Day the biggest and best possible!
What’s advice do you have for corporate volunteer leaders out there?
There are so many companys today who are choosing to look beyond the bottom line and contribute to their communities. The best advice I can give is to look inside your company’s culture; the mission, vision, values and beliefs and come up with a big goal! Maybe it’s having every department volunteer the equivalent of a work week in one year. Or perhaps you decide to take one day out of the year to close down the office and give back in a really big way.
Create a designated committee with individuals from various departments, or individuals who can contribute their unique talent to making the event a hit. For example, you might want to get someone who likes throwing events involved. If you want to make a big media splash, find someone who has public relations or marketing experience. You might even get a graphic designer or web developer involved if you need a logo or a Website created! However big or small your event may be, volunteering helps build a company's reputation, improves morale and is a great team building opportunity for people working together across the organization. It’s one common task that isn’t related to the bottom line, but to giving back to those in need!
As a real estate company, we see RED Day as an opportunity to give back to the communities that support our agents and offices. With nearly 80,000 associates, we have the numbers to go out into our communities and really make an impact – and there couldn’t be a better time to lend that helping hand given the current economic environment.
Why did you decide to use VolunteerSpot?
The idea to use VolunteerSpot came when Cory Older, Director of Operations, read about the website in the Austin American Statesman. He first introduced the idea of RED Day to Keller Williams Realty’s executives in 2009 and thought that VolunteerSpot would simplify and streamline volunteer coordiation and hours tracking for our local market centers. He was right!
To learn more about KW and Red Day, visit http://www.kw.com/kw/redday.html
---
We salute Laura Price, the Keller Williams Reality volunteers, and all the other volunteers out there making a difference in our world. If you're using VolunteerSpot, write and tell us about what you're doing and give us a chance to shine our Volunteer Spotlight on you!! Just email us at [email protected].
