CASE STUDIES
Building Better Lives
Since 2000, needy families in Collier and Lee counties have been helped by “Building Better Lives,” an Arthur Rutenberg Homes community fund-raising initiative. From 2000 through 2004, the program has enabled Arthur Rutenberg Homes builders, A.R.B.C. Corp. and Lyons Housing, LLC to donate more than $400,000 to local charities. When an Arthur Rutenberg home is sold locally between Nov. 1 and March 31, the builder donates $1,000 to Building Better Lives -- $2,000 if the home sold is $1 million or more in price. A.R.B.C. Corp. donates half of the funds to the Immokalee Child Care Center; Lyons Housing donates to Partners for Breast Cancer Care.
In past years, other Arthur Rutenberg franchisees participated, making the pool of donations considerably larger, to many other charities. For the 2004-2005 campaign, the two builders took on the initiative by themselves and faced a possible economic slowdown in the industry as a result of an active hurricane season. The pro-bono event planning and publicity services provided by Spiro & Associates were essential, to get out the news regarding the initiative, so that Building Better Lives would raise more money than it has in previous years.
By the end of the campaign, Spiro & Associates collected more than 15 news clips about Building Better Lives in local and statewide publications and Building Better Lives had raised $129,000, $28,000 more than in its 2003/2004 year thanks to increased media coverage and publicity efforts.