As winter arrives and the holidays roll in, it becomes a time for everyone to count their blessings, be with those they love, and take one more moment to give back. The Greene Realty Group is no different, which is why the Greene Giving Fund is so important to the agents and staff.
Greene Giving was started in 2015 with one goal in mind - helping our community.
To date, the agents and staff at the Greene Realty Group have granted more than $60,000 to two dozen local nonprofits through a thriving partnership with the Community Foundation of the South Puget Sound.
"The Community Foundation has been great," founder Jim Greene says. "We rely on their advice to us."
The Greene Giving Fund focuses on helping in the areas of housing, services for children and families, and charities assisting veterans. Some of the nonprofits the fund has granted donations to include the Thurston County Food Bank, the Boys & Girls Club of Thurston County, Sidewalk, and Homes First.
For Jim, giving back to the community has been a part of his values since he was a kid.
"I remember I was eight years old, sitting on my grandfather's lap," Jim reminisces. "And he told me I needed to look at life like an apple tree. If I didn't fertilize that apple tree, then it wouldn't give good apples. It took me a while, but I finally got it. If you want to build on something and produce good fruit, you have to nurture it. That's always stuck with me."
So when he began his own company, Jim Greene knew that philanthropy would be one of the foundations of the way he and his agents did their business.
"I just wanted to be able to create something we could leave as a group," he says. "Because I believe, even when we're not here, we want to support the community that supported us."
For him, there is nothing more important than giving back to the community that has given him so much, and the agents at Greene Realty Group have come to believe the same.
"Greene Realty has been known as this local, independent company here in Olympia, and we need to support it," Jim says. "That's kind of what I proposed to the agents, and they all bought in."
Even though the holidays are a time for each of us to pass along the blessings that have been given to us, Jim believes his company can make an impact beyond this season.
"We hope we act and behave like this all year long," he says. "We don't want this just to be about the giving season. We want to set an example that, all year long, this is what we do."
