Shami Sandhu, owner and broker of RE/MAX River City Edmonton branch, has taken a corporate mandate and made it office culture. Since Shami bought the branch in January 2008, he has worked to create a spirit of generosity among his staff, and it shows. His office was the top donor to the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation through the Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) last year, and most of those dollars came directly from the agents themselves.
RE/MAX began a partnership with CMN back in 1992 in Calgary. Since then, the organization has expanded its support to benefit its branches across North America through its Miracle Home program.
CMN designates its donations to local children’s hospitals based on the postal code in which the money was given. RE/MAX has a 99 per cent participation rate among agents, with most branches being what CMN refers to as “Miracle Offices.” While most corporate Stollery fundraising campaigns are client-based or ask customers for donations at the point of sale, RE/MAX agents donate directly with each property sale they make.
Proud to be part of the @StolleryKids appreciation with @CMNCanada today! #remax #yegre pic.twitter.com/0V5l95fdUT
— Shami Sandhu (@ShamiSandhu) May 12, 2016
Shami is proud all of his real estate agents donate a portion from every sale to the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, to benefit the Hospital and children’s health.
“We’ve got an amazing culture in our office, and that definitely helps us get everyone on board,” he recently told the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation HEROES Magazine. “We believe in the old saying ‘It takes a village’ to not only raise children, but also to keep them healthy.”
He muses that he does not really give agents an option when he hires them but the money his team raises shows a total buy-in from the branch.
“They do amazing work, and Shami is really involved with the community, too,” says Stacey Johnson, CMN’s director and senior development officer for the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation. “He implements it with all the onboarding of the agents. It’s part of their internal policy. They go through training, and he’ll invite me to come in and explain things to new recruits. He’s really made it a practice and just gets it out of the way and gets buy-in right away. It’s part of their culture.”
The River City team’s support doesn’t end there. About three years ago the branch also opted to turn its in-house golf tournament into a fundraising event. It went from a small staff event of 20 to 30 agents to a full tournament of 130 golfers – made up of agents, friends, business colleagues, suppliers and other service providers connected to their office.
“Our agents are looking for ways to support any initiative,” Shami says. “They’re pushing. It’s to the point where they really want to help.”
To that end, RE/MAX River City is always the first to sign up to answer phones at the annual Corus Radiothon. The biggest fundraising event on the calendar for the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, it brings in about $1.3 million each year.
The RE/MAX River City agents don’t just wait for the radiothon phones to ring either, but instead are actively pursuing donations during the event.
“Shami encourages his agents to bring in a list of people call, just in case,” Stacey says. “When they have their RE/MAX agents in there volunteering, they will actually pick up the phone and call their own client base and ask for donations from them. They started doing that quite a while ago, and we’ve adopted it as a Foundation strategy too. It just kind of speaks to how important it is for them.”
The attitude of philanthropy is something Shami says is reflected throughout the franchise.
“There’s a great sense of corporate citizenship,” he explains. “From our founder and CEO Dave Liniger all the way down through the entire organization, there’s huge support.”
Since 1992, RE/MAX as a whole donated more than $60 million to CMN across Canada. There was more than $4 million donated last year alone.
“RE/MAX is one of our top five donors, and they have been since they started,” says Stacey. “RE/MAX has been fundraising for Edmonton and northern Alberta for longer than we’ve actually had the Stollery. Every year they get just a little bit better regardless of what the current economy is or the current real estate market.”
There are 68 RE/MAX offices in the Stollery zone, within CMN (in Edmonton and northern Alberta). Last year, they raised $498,000 with River City RE/MAX contributing about 20 per cent of the total donations at nearly $110,000.
“Last year was a banner year for us. It was the first year that we raised over $100,000 – and that was directly from our agents,” Shami says.
Shami’s support of the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation is not just business-related. Every year he personally attends the Foundation’s Snowflake Gala, an annual family-oriented black tie event that raised more than $750,000 in 2014-15.
“Shami always buys a table and donates silent auction items,” says Stacey. “He and his partner, Kyla, are very big bidders. They make it a family event.”
Shami thinks his agents at RE/MAX River City are so enthusiastic about the Stollery Children’s Hospital because it’s a cause that connects with everyone.
“I think almost everybody has a story, or knows somebody whose child went through the Stollery and has seen the impact,” he says, noting that a few of his own agents have had sick kids who required care over the years.
Shami’s experience with Stollery is also very close to home. When his second daughter, Zara, was born on June 6, 2008, she had two heart murmurs. One went away with time, but the other murmur persists.
“Some ailments or conditions aren’t fixable, but at least you have that peace of mind that the hospital is nearby and that she’s been properly treated. She’s had great expert care, and that gives you a lot more faith,” he says.
This story was adapted – with permission – from one originally featured in the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation HEROES Magazine.
