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Industry leaders and brokers gathered at St Michael’s Golf Club in Sydney yesterday to throw their support behind a worthy cause.
Now in its third year, the Westpac Golf Classic hopes to raise more than $150,000 for the Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter, a critical service that the major bank has been supporting for more than 42 years.
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“Today is all about the Westpac rescue chopper,” said Tony MacRae, general manager of Westpac Group’s broker distribution team.
“We hope to raise over $150,000 this year. Over the past years we have raised over $250,000, so that will be over $400,000 over the three years.
"It is a great privilege to be supporting an organisation like the Westpac rescue choppers,” he said.
Community engagement and sponsorship opportunities are not just for the big corporates, Mr MacRae said, adding that brokers by their very nature are a core part of their communities.
“The work that they do in helping customers fulfil their dreams is already part of the community,” he said, “but to then get involved in broader community activity extends their touch and their appeal.
“It also gives that higher order and higher sense of what you do and why you enjoy what you do.
“The support that we have had for this event for the whole broker industry, whether that be individual brokers or aggregators, has been fantastic. The industry has really stepped up this year – I couldn’t be more delighted with the support,” Mr MacRae said.
Also attending yesterday's event was Connective director Mark Haron, who said brokers looking to get involved with their local communities should pick something near and dear to them.
“A part of your marketing strategy should be what sort of sponsorship activities you are going to engage in and how,” Mr Haron said.
“Interestingly, only last week one of our team met with a broker who is starting up a new business with us and a big part of what he is doing is donating a percentage of his commissions to a specific charity that he wanted to get involved in.”
As well as providing financial support to local charities, Mr Haron encouraged brokers to donate their time and effort to those in need.
“As an aggregator, we tend to get involved a lot more on that level, donating our staff’s time,” he said.
“On a number of occasions [we have] also invited brokers to attend those events with us to be part of that community engagement, which has worked really well.”
[Related: Brokers take to the field for charity]
