Jayne Cordes with Coldwell Banker Residential makes her living selling high-end properties, urban and rural – but if you ask her what she’s passionate about, she’ll talk about horses (she owns six) and about cats and dogs (she keeps a pair of each at home in the DTC, and more at the barn in Douglas County). “Itap not about what they do for you, itap what you can do for them,” she says, adding that she feels humans are guardians of animals, put here to protect them. She’s put over the edge by news stories about animals in jeopardy: horses endangered by wildfires in California; or dogs returned to shelters because they’re getting on in years. Now she’s worked up a way to help, and she’s asking other Realtors to come along.
Cordes’ lifelong involvement with four-legged creatures led her to a close association with Animal Aid USA, a volunteer organization that takes credit for a collective 20,000 animal rescues – including around 300 rescues a month in which dogs are transported from substandard shelters to regions where they’re more likely to find new owners and veterinary care. That work has prompted Cordes to launch The Animal Welfare Funding Alliance (TAWFA) to help fund Animal Aid USA and other rescue organizations – with Realtor sales commissions as a vehicle. “When a Realtor closes a transaction, a $50 contribution goes to TAWFA; one house sold, one life saved,” she says.
Cordes says that message will resonate with Realtors looking to expand their customer base. She counts 78 million dog owners and 85 million cat owners among the U.S. population, and says the overwhelming number are so close to their pets that they consider them family. “When those millions of owners shop for homes, their pets’ needs are almost as important as their own needs,” says Cordes. Cordes is asking agents – here and nationally – to join as Realtor Ambassadors for her organization, for $100 and a commitment to the $50-per-closing plan. In return, agents get to use their involvement to help cement permanent relations with their pet-oriented clients.
She’s planning to have a hundred agents signed on as founding ambassadors by Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018, when TAWFA joins Animal Aid USA founders Karen Talbot and entrepreneur Prince Lorenzo Borghese (he was featured on ABC’s The Bachelor) in hosting an event at Denver Polo Club, with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage as a sponsor. Jayne Cordes is at 720-936-6691 or jayne.cordes@coloradohomes.com; or visit www.TAWFA.org.
The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this postap preparation.
