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How gingerbread houses became a cornerstone for charity at Raine & Horne

By Zarah Torrazo
23 December 2022 | 6 minute read
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In line with the festive season, a national real estate brand’s charitable arm has raised funds for several non-profit organisations by whipping up a novelty Christmas confection: gingerbread houses. 

The Raine & Horne Foundation shared that it raised a total of $13,000 in its latest donation drive for Dignity, a charity focused on empowering people who are experiencing homelessness. 

The innovative donation campaign involved sending Christmas gingerbread house kits to Raine & Horne offices across the country and inviting them to decorate the houses in a friendly intra-network competition titled “Build your best listing for Dignity”. 

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Angus Raine, the executive chairman of Raine & Horne, said that the internal incentive campaign attracted entries from almost all of the network’s offices.  

“Not only are Christmas gingerbread house kits a fun activity for our offices, but every kit also purchased will help Dignity with its efforts addressing homelessness this holiday season,” he commented. 

Mr Raine revealed that competing offices received gingerbread house kits, which include an icing mix, baseboard, piping bag and instructions. 

“Each office needed to supply its own additions to make the house a home, which could include using Lego characters, chocolate lollies, decorations, and food dye, but the opportunities were endless!” he said. 

At the end of the competition, Raine & Horne Neutral Bay’s gingerbread house bested other entries, while Raine & Horne Wetherill Park came in second place. 

Alexis Hay, an agent from Raine & Horne Neutral Bay, who organised the winning entry, said that aside from supporting an important cause, the campaign was a great way to “come together as an office and have some fun”. 

“Dignity has a big, audacious goal to end homelessness, and being involved in the campaign by creating something special as an office, especially this close to Christmas, was a no-brainer for us.

“We wanted to do something a bit different. Christmas in Australia is about prawns, the sun and the beach, and we tried to capture this with our entry,” he shared. 

Aside from Dignity, money raised from the event will also go towards other community causes, including Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR) and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. 

The event marks the latest fundraising event the network’s charitable arm launched in partnership with Dignity, which was chosen as the network’s first non-profit partner when the Raine & Horne Foundation was launched in 2021. 

In March, Raine & Horne’s corporate team contributed to Dignity’s corporate volunteering program by organising clothes and goods as the charity prepares for a surge in demand for services during the winter months. 

Dignity also unveiled in July that it has named one of its guesthouses Raine & Horne Foundation House, in a show of appreciation for the network’s continued support of the charity’s crusade against homelessness. 

Over the past 12 months, the Raine & Horne Foundation revealed that it had donated almost $420,000 to several community causes. 

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