Character-building. The satisfaction of knowing you made a difference. These themes are present in the accounts of three Concierge Auctions employees who spent two April days in El Salvador volunteering as home builders as part of the Concierge Auctions Key For Key® program. Over one weekend, the team built two homes in La Aguja, a tiny village just a stone’s throw from the port city of La Libertad. 

For Charles Russell, business development manager for Concierge Auctions, the best way to register the impact of those two days was the look on Emerson’s face.

“Here was this five-year-old, and by day two he grabbed onto my knee and never left my side,” Russell said of Emerson, the Salvadoran boy he and his co-workers formed a bond with over the course of the trip. Though extremely shy, Emerson’s infectious charm and lively curiosity about Russell and his Concierge Auctions co-workers ensured things never got dull during the long work days.

Though he has done his share of traveling, Russell said that the Key For Key® experience was a personal milestone that will give new meaning—and even urgency—to his work moving forward.

Because Key For Key® homes are funded by proceeds from Concierge Auctions sales and via additional donations from buyers, sellers, and agents, the program supercharges the motivation of Concierge Auctions employees to earn new business, said Derek Hawkins, a luxury sales consultant who also went on the April build trip.

“It was very eye-opening and inspirational to see the work that we do providing homes for families in need from a first-hand perspective,” said Hawkins. “The lady who my particular group built a home for had two teenage daughters who were there working right alongside us the two days we were there, which was pretty impactful for me.”

A Humanitarian Partnership

In 2017, Concierge Auctions launched the Key For Key® giving program in partnership with Giveback Homes™—a social venture that connects real estate professionals with families in need of homes. Since its founding in 2013, Giveback Homes™ has built nearly 400 homes internationally, with Key For Key® accounting for 180 of those homes. The build trips the company organizes is the primary perkare some of the main perks it offers to its members.

“It’s my favorite part of the gig—being able to bring people here who never would have considered travelling to El Salvador or Nicaragua before, and watching them have that experience for the first time,” said Caroline Pinal, co-founder of Giveback Homes™.

Prior to starting Giveback Homes™, Pinal and her co-founder, Blake Andrews worked for TOMS® Shoes, a Los Angeles-based company that pioneered a one-for-one giving model for providing shoes to impoverished people in Nicaragua. Andrews and Pinal had a lightbulb moment: What if that same model could be applied to real estate?

Andrews and Pinal teamed up with a real estate agent friend to build five homes in Nicaragua. From these humble beginnings, Giveback Homes™ has grown into a thriving network of both individual real estate professionals and industry leaders like Concierge Auctions.

With Key For Key® now woven into the Concierge Auctions company culture, participation in its build trips is now a spiritual and emotional touchstone for employees. What began as an innovative way for the largest luxury real estate marketplace in the world to give something back, has grown into a cornerstone of its brand identity.

Emily McMenamin, a marketing account manager at Concierge Auctions, was new to the company in June 2018. At first, she was amazed by how much time she was asked to spend packaging and sending thank-you gifts to agents, buyers, and sellers who contributed to the program. Once she came to fully appreciate the value of the Key For Key® program, she too was inspired to go on her first build trip.

“It honestly is very different when you actually go there and see it for yourself,” said McMenamin. “You meet the people there, and they’re very kind and welcoming.”

Beyond Team Building

The building trips are a chance to connect with coworkers outside an office setting. Every day during mealtime, Caroline Pinal of Giveback Homes™ asks the volunteers to share stories of the day—an exercise that helps to foster group unity. These sharing sessions are an emotional catharsis as well as a powerful bonding activity.

“Every time someone told a story they would burst into tears,” said Russell. “In sharing these stories, everyone was just kind of stripped down to the bone.”

“In my 25-year career I’ve had every team-building-type exercise,” said Russell. “Nothing comes remotely close to this.”

Since returning, Russell and colleagues continue to share memories via an ongoing chat group.

“The team I went with kind of became my family,” said Emily McMenamin. “Going through the experience together linked us in empathy and gratefulness.”

Building for Good

The ultimate reward for Key For Key® participants is the program’s most tangible good: a finished home. Turning over the keys to the families and seeing how visibly moved they were is a memory that Derek Hawkins says he will cherish.

“It really hit home that this work is important and that it is impacting lives,” said Hawkins. “It will be with me for the rest of my life.”

In that way, the Key For Key® program brings full circle what life in the real estate business can mean for those who care about social impact. At one end, to be part of a thriving business that facilitates the sale of luxury homes. And, at the other, reinvesting the fruits of that enterprise in a way that makes the world a little bit more humane and equitable for the Emersons of the world and their families.

Read more about the Key For Key® giving program and join in the movement at ConciergeKeyForKey.com