How to boost your property business with social value work

Property professionals can get a bad rap in the press – but there are many who give a lot back and are creating positive social change in their communities. 

We want to celebrate the developers who are doing good – and suggest some ways that you could get involved in charitable work too (if you’re not already). 

In a recent webinar, we partnered up with LandAid where we heard from Candice Matthews, COO at Cushman and Wakefield UK and John Mindham, Programmes & Impact Manager at LandAid, about how getting involved in pro bono work can not only be good for the soul, but good for business too. 

What is LandAid’s pro bono programme? 

LandAid is the property industry charity, and their mission is to unite the industry towards the goal of ending youth homelessness. 

They are working towards this in two main ways – grant making, and via their pro bono programme, where they match charitable requests with offers of professional support. 

LandAid works with a wide range of charities and property professionals – here are some examples of current projects they’ve helped facilitate: 

• Converting a double-decker bus into a mobile food bank – Ryder Architecture are helping church groups in South Tyneside with the design and conversion of a bus, enabling them to serve vulnerable members of the local community. 
• Undertaking stock-condition surveys – Centrepoint (a leading youth homelessness charity) received support from Knight Frank and Paragon to carry out stock-condition surveys for all 460 of their residential properties across the UK.
• Renovating and remodelling a derelict council building – East Street Mews is a Bristol-based initiative that aims to create 11 studio flats for young homeless people.

If there isn’t a specific pro bono project that fits your expertise, LandAid is happy to proactively work with you to identify social value projects in your region. 

Business growth reasons to invest in pro bono

Getting involved in pro bono work obviously has tangible impacts for the charity you’re supporting, but there are also benefits for your business too, such as: 

• Strengthening tender responses – public sector and larger private employers are placing greater importance on social value work when assessing tenders and adding companies to their preferred supplier lists
• Building your brand – there’s the potential for local and national PR exposure, helping you to grow and solidify your brand image
• Finding talent – a company’s social and environmental commitments are now a priority for many professionals and a big factor when choosing where they want to work
• Providing networking opportunities – the work gives you an opportunity to network and collaborate with like-minded professionals and potential clients

“It really is the case that doing good can boost your business. It contributes towards professional growth, enhances your network and can help to convert them into additional clients and increase revenues.” - John Mindham

Embedding pro bono in your business

Internal buy-in can be a challenge, as pro bono is often done in lieu of profit-generating work. Tracking and measuring the social and business impact of pro bono work can help build your case for getting (or staying) involved. 

As part of Cushman and Wakefield’s journey to embed pro bono in their business, they’ve been working to centralise how they manage opportunities to improve results tracking. 

Candice also explained how they’ve “made the decision to do this on a very targeted basis – picking out a handful of opportunities from [LandAid’s] emails which come in each month which we know we have the coverage and the capability to fulfil those requirements.” 

How can you get involved?  

You can get involved in a number of ways. 

Signing up to LandAid’s pro bono programme will mean that you’ll be notified monthly about current projects and can offer support for any that match your capabilities. 

Register your interest here if you’d like to get involved in LandAid’s pro bono scheme.

Here at LandTech, we’re keen to promote any customers of ours that are actively involved in pro bono work. We’ll also be launching a new campaign in Community called Developers Doing Good – a space where property professionals can share and celebrate the positive impacts they are having on the industry. 

Plus there’s also the chance to feature in our upcoming video series that showcases the social value work of our Community members. 

Send Franki a message in Community or email her at Franki@land.tech if you’d like to take part. 

Catch up on the on-demand webinar

Candice and John shared loads more tips for getting started with pro bono work and how it really can boost your business. 

Catch up on all their insights in the on-demand version of the webinar.