We love getting our family together. Every year, America’s Preferred Home Warranty (APHW) brings our sales team from all across the United States back to Jackson, Michigan, for a week of presentations, luncheons, entertainment, and learning. But it wouldn’t be an APHW sales meeting if we didn’t give back—and have some competition.
Relay for Life
“We’re continuously on top of Relay for Life fundraisers all year long, but we really try to get the sales teams riled up for bragging rights during the Sales Meeting, to see which region is the most competitive,” said Marketing Systems Coordinator Mindy, who also serves as the company Relay team’s treasurer.
To stoke that competition, APHW’s Relay team developed several fundraisers for the meeting, including our first annual “Quiz Bowl”, using the Kahoot! app. With $25 per entry and prizes provided by the company, the Quiz Bowl raised over $1,100 for Relay.
“You could hear the participants pondering answers in the crowd, and our team came up with some really good questions—we learned some fun tidbits about different employees that gave us a good laugh,” Mindy said. “We had a couple of hiccups in the process, but we had 45 participants, and next year we plan to double that!”
Another big-ticket fundraiser was our 2nd annual bread sale, but not just any bread: This was National Sales Trainer Jeff’s Amish Friendship Bread, famous across the state of Michigan with team members and real estate professionals alike. Just twenty individual-sized loaves brought in nearly $1,400 to Relay!
“Our annual bread auction blew last year’s numbers out of the water,” Mindy said. “And a couple of people who purchased the bread donated it right back to Relay to raise more money!”
A team effort
Several members of APHW’s leadership team often encourage their teams to give as well. One member of the Sales Team leadership, who preferred to remain anonymous, said he likes to match what his team gives in order to encourage more giving. “It’s just a piece of my personal giving plan each year, and I’m grateful to be able to give to various charities,” he said. “This is a way to have fun and drive the numbers higher.”
“This is a deeper sense of fulfillment and satisfaction,” said Bill, the VP of Consumer Marketing. As someone who reads a lot of Catholic periodicals, one of the things Bill commonly sees is to ‘Astonish people with your generosity’. “So that’s what I do,” he said. “It makes me feel good to help others and promote helping others. I try and promote the fun aspect of it, like with the bread—who pays hundreds of dollars for a loaf of bread? It’s just fun, and I think that’s huge!”
All the Sales Meeting Relay fundraisers together brought in over $3,700 for the charity, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg—APHW also uses the annual Sales Meeting to host a team-building event in support of Child and Family Charities (CFC). “Our Sales Team couldn’t wait to play our game; some even started before they were supposed to!” Mindy shared.
Child and Family Charities
This year’s team-building event was modeled off of the idea of “The Price is Right”: Twenty-four teams each started with a basket of items someone would need when starting life in a new home, and worked together to solve four different pricing games to ‘win’ the remaining basket items needed.
“We had an amazing day with America’s Preferred Home Warranty,” CFC shared about the event on their Facebook page. “APHW staff from all over the country worked together to put together start up housing kits for youth and young adults in our programs.”
“There were a lot of laughs, and even when the game was over, all the teams completed their games to get their ‘house essential kits’ completed,” Mindy recalled.
And APHW had one more surprise for CFC, making a donation to support their ongoing operations. CFC called it an ‘amazing donation’ in their Facebook post, adding the hashtags #Thankful, #CommunitySupport, and #GratefulHeart.
Not just an annual thing
While Relay for Life and Child and Family Charities are two of the top ways that APHW gives back, the company is committed to supporting multiple charities throughout the year; and supporting our team members to be able to as well.
“We’re not just letting people do it on company time—we’re encouraging it. We understand that it’s about giving back,” said Mike, the VP of Operations. “Our people take time out of the day to set up our fundraisers, and we still get our work done. I think giving time toward fundraising adds to the work ethic: It’s a recharge, time to spend time with other employees you might not get the chance to talk to. It’s a bunch of different departments all coming together for one cause.”
Simply put, it’s not about the numbers—it’s about the good we can do for our communities.
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