A new ‘club’ for estate agents has unveiled an initiative to help community projects around the UK.
The Karma Club, launched last month, aims to donate at least £500 a month from fees for articles used by members of the Estate Agent Content Club.
Former journalist turned agency content creator Jerry Lyons is the founder of the EACC, which provides weekly content marketing articles for non-competing independent estate agents.
Each month the Karma Club donates £5 from each of its members’ monthly subscriptions into a ‘pay it forward pot’.
The amounts are then tallied up and donated to a different charity or grassroots organisation.
Agents pay £99 per month for four sales-only articles, and £199 for eight articles, including lettings pieces.
Agents who join the club register per postcode, and use the articles under licence from Lyons, who retains the copyright. The articles are used on social media or in email campaigns to help agents get in front of their local audiences.
In its first few weeks, the Karma Club has purchased kit for a girls’ football team in Seaford, East Sussex, and given £300 to Agents for Aus, the appeal set up by Simon Whale to support victims of the Australian bushfires.
In March and April, the Karma Club will donate to a support group for parents of children with autism and special needs, and a youth boxing club.
Lyons says: “There is so much negativity in the world right now, but through the Karma Club we’re doing something positive and our members have been very enthusiastic about the donations.”
The Karma Club’s emphasis is on helping small organisations that don’t have a huge fund-raising machine behind them, says Lyons.
He launched the EACC around 18 months ago and it now has about 65 members.
Comments (2)
Jerry’s one of the good guys of our industry
Good to see the caring side of the estate agency world evident.
Success and greed aren’t necessarily bedfellows. All very worthwhile but maybe charity out to start a little closer to home .
“Experience is a hard school but fools will learn no other ”
A phrase perhaps harsh but apt .
There have been those who have presented a picture of the industry as there for the taking .The public have been pitched on the basis that any “butcher,baker or candlestick maker” can just haul up. All you need is a cheque book and a pulse ,a couple of weeks training .a handhold, enthusiasm and the world is your lobster.
This is with a background of ever increasing compliance and a push for more qualifications
Within 12 months a £100k pa income is yours,5 years a £500k business where there will be a ready market of buyers to make your golden exit.
Unfortuantely that hasn’t been the case for the many .EYE has been provided with numerous examples of individuals carrying tens if not hundreds of thousands of debts incurred with their brief flirtation with the industry .
They will be carrying that burden for many years after dipping their toe into the estate agency waters. Some late career changers where they aren’t blessed with enough time to get back on their feet before retirement .
Maybe an industry whip for them ? The equivalent of the RICS Benevolent Society