KW Cares

How the KW Cares Committee Works in the Market Center

Read about how the KW Cares Committee works in the Market Center.

2008 Accomplishments

Would you like more information on what KW Cares does and how your donations make a difference?

Check Out Our 2008 Happenings

KW Cares Emergency Contact Card

Click here to download a contact card that you may carry in your wallet with all the KW Cares contact information.

How KW Cares is Helping Others

In 2007, KW Cares provided substantive financial assistance to 58 Keller Williams associates and their immediate families. We helped victims of flood, wildfires, house fires, life altering accidents and serious medical illnesses. In each case, KW Cares assistance augmented assistance already provided from within the associate’s market center. Working together, market centers, regions and KW Cares are providing much needed emotional and financial support to those in dire need.

One tenth of KW Cares’ proceeds are divided annually between three causes: Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust whose mission is to build better lives for our nation's disabled veterans and their families. Ryan’s Well builds wells in third world countries so children everywhere can have access to clean, safe drinking water. Because so many KW Cares grants are to assist with the high cost of paying for cancer treatments and therapies, KW Cares donates to the three top-rated Cancer Research centers in the United States: the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. These centers conduct cutting-edge research in search of a cure for all types of cancer.

KW Cares Provides Grant to Assist with Kidney Disease Costs

Rodney Noble’s real estate career was on the way up. After working as a front-desk associate at the Studio City (Calif.) market center for two years, Noble had obtained his real estate license in 2005 and began conducting business as a real estate agent. His 2007 year was successful, but towards the end of the year he began feeling weak and ill. He was diagnosed with stage two kidney disease in January 2008.

Noble sought medical care at the county hospital, where he waited for treatments that always seemed to take a long time to receive. “I knew I had to do something else, because I wasn’t getting any better,” he recalls. “I was always tired and nauseous, but the shortness of breath was the worst of it. You always feel like you are dying.” Noble determined to consult with a specialist and applied for Medi-Cal assistance in order to do so. By May he was receiving specialized medical care and undergoing surgery that would ultimately enable him to begin receiving dialysis treatments.

“I’ve been on dialysis ever since,” says Noble, “but this entire time I have been unable to work. I had no income – none whatsoever – so I finally went to speak with my team leader, Gary Reavis.” After revealing his illness and the challenges he had been facing, Noble was encouraged by Reavis’s response.

Atlanta Associate Fights Breast Cancer with help from KW Cares Grant

In September 2004, Christa Michael was excited about having joined the Atlanta-Canton market center. After eight years in real estate with another company in Atlanta, Christa realized that her financial opportunities would be greater with Keller Williams Realty and she had plans to invest as an owner of a new market center.

Those plans changed quickly. Two months later, Christa was diagnosed with breast cancer. By January 2005, after two rounds of chemotherapy, she had become extremely ill and was hospitalized. With her parents and 18-year-old son, Jay, by her side, the doctor told her that she had only weeks to live.

“I looked at my son’s face,” Christa recalled. Jay was mid-way through his senior year of high school. “I didn’t want to be responsible for him dropping out of school, and I didn’t want him to come home one day and find me dead. It was like a switch went off in my head and I just made up my mind right then that it was not going to happen like this.”

After two years of radical treatment, it was clear that it wouldn’t be enough. Her medical insurance had capped out by then. “We had nothing, but I was too embarrassed to tell anyone.” The only option left for Christa was a very rare, specialized surgery on her left arm and shoulder to remove the cancer; in fact, her entire arm was at risk of amputation. With nowhere else to turn, Christa applied for a KW Cares grant. “I just didn’t want to lose my house,” she said. “It was the only thing I had left to give my son.”

Within days of sending her grant request, Christa received an envelope containing a KW Cares check that helped cover the surgery and medical expenses.

KW Cares Helps New Hampshire Associate Return Home

Less than a month after joining the Portsmouth, NH market center, Joshua Matthews was flooded out of his riverfront property, as water levels rose by 12 feet within a span of 90 minutes.

A few days after the emergency evacuation, Matthews learned that his property was just over the line of the county that had been declared a Federal disaster area – meaning that he was not eligible for financial assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA).

As one of the market center’s newer faces, Matthews had few expectations that existing associates would pay much attention to his plight. He was in for a surprise. Nathan Dickey, operating principal, encouraged Matthews to contact KW Cares and request a grant the financial damages resulting from the flood.

In May of 2006, Chad Burnett, a Keller Williams associate at the Denver Tech Market Center, received a Keller Williams Realty Cares grant in response to a series of medical trials that seemed to touch almost every member in his family, but particularly his young daughter.

Maddie was found to have a debilitating disease called reflex sympathetic dystrophy for which there is no cure and can be completely crippling. The Burnett's decided to take a very aggressive, broad spectrum approach to Maddie’s treatment. In April 2007 KW Cares received this heartening update from Chad:

Show Your Support of KW Cares with These Great New Items!

Sport your support under a new umbrella, note cards or with a red or black "IncREDible" t-shirt! The new video presentation Take it to Heart! is a great way for Market Centers to share with associates how their donations make such an important difference in the lives others. A number of inspiring stories of hope, caring and support are presented in the DVD!