Mortgage Pledge - Real Estate Professionals Giving Back

I believe that Community Leadership drives Local Business.

I believe that the primary display of community leadership is giving - giving time and money.

I believe that many people would like to give more today, to enhance their community and business today, but don't have the resources to give as much as they would like today.

I created Mortgage Pledge as a simple means for Real Estate Professionals to give back on each and every transaction today, what they can afford today, to enhance their communities and their businesses now. Mortgage Pledge is a network of real estate professionals giving back to their client's charity of choice on each transaction to enhance their community and their businesses. The client gets a FREE donation, the charity gets 100% of the donation (less credit card fees), the community gets the added social and economic value, and the members of the network get referrals from within the network and from their communities.

I am building the network one community at a time. Each community consists of 1 title company, 10 mortgage companies, and 100 realtors. In addition, other real estate professionals, non-profits, and industry partners supplement the network. We ask each professional to try to give back 10% of their fees to their clients charity of choice. We aggregate all the donations into 1 large pledge and deliver it to the client's charity of choice. We are partnered with the Omaha Community Foundation to handle all of the non-profit transactions and charity vetting nationwide.

We then work with the individiual Pledge Parters (real estate professionals) on each transaction to create Cause Marketing campaigns surrounding the giving using traditional advertising and media as well as Web 2.0 social media. Cause Marketing is the 2nd fastest growing type of marketing in the US right behind Sports Marketing. 8 out of 10 people surveyed would choose to do business with a company that supported a cause over one that didn't. 48% of all consumers have actually participated in a cause marketing purchase. Cause Marketing works...see Tomsshoes.com for another example.

I am in the process of growing the network and am in need of feedback from real estate professionals accross the country. I know real estate is a local business driven by local professionals and their spheres of influence. Each community is different. We are allowing the local communities to manage and run their networks with a peer leadership counsel in each community. This leadership counsel helps grow the local network, develops the marketing plan in their community, and is the link to Mortgage Pledge for improvements and feedback on the network.

I would love your feedback on the following:

The concept in general - does giving return? Have you had any experience incorporating giving in your business?

Would it work in your local community - is there something unique or different that would be necessary to make it work?

Would you personally be interested in joining this type of network and what would you pay for exclusivity in your market?

Any other feedback or comments would be much appreciated and be honest, you won't hurt my feelings.

Joe Frost

Chief Go-Giiver