Catastrophic Hardship Grant - Request to Apply (Leadership)

This form initiates the Catastrophic Hardship Grant application process. A member of the KW Associate’s Market Center or Regional leadership team must complete this form. 

LEADERSHIP TEAM members include:

  • Operating Principal (OP)
  • Team Leader (TL) / Assistant Team Leader (ATL)
  • Market Center Administrator (MCA) / Assistant Market Center Administrator (AMCA)
  • General Manager (GM) / Market Center Leader (ML)
  • Regional Operating Partner (ROP)
  • Regional Director (RD)
  • Regional Operations Manager (ROM)
  • For KWRI/Austin Headquarters employees, this should be completed by a Heart Fund or HR rep.

Please note: a rainmaker/lead of a group or a team should not submit this form. It should only be submitted by an individual with a leadership role within the market center. 

QUALIFYING EVENT:

Catastrophic Hardship Grants can provide up to $30,000* in a rolling 12- month period (amount based on the qualifying event and documented financial need) to assist with:

  • Incurred out-of-pocket medical expenses
  • Travel and/or rehousing expenses necessary to receive essential medical treatment
  • Modifications to home for accessibility
  • Assistive technology, such as a wheelchair accessible van
  • Assistance with deductible and/or shortfall in repair expenses following a housing disaster, such as fire, flood, tornado, etc. Assistance for housing disasters is for primary residence only.

Before completing this form, you and the applicant should discuss the grant amount the applicant will request. 

AMOUNT REQUESTED BY APPLICANT:

Important Notes: KW Cares grants are intended to provide a degree of assistance and not to make an applicant whole. When requesting an amount, please keep the following in mind:  

  • KW Cares can assist with unmet needs. Unmet needs are expenses remaining after other sources have been depleted, such as homeowner's insurance, medical insurance, crowdfunding, etc. 
  • For medical grants, KW Cares calculates the grant amount based on incurred out-of-pocket medical expenses. We are unable to include assistance for projected medical expenses. 
  • KW Cares may assist with up to two months of unmet living expenses when the applicant cannot work due to a medical condition. Unmet living expenses consist of basic living expenses after exhausting other income sources (e.g. spouse's income, retirement benefits, social security, rental property income, governmental assistance, etc.). 
  • KW Cares uses a standard cost of living index to determine the average cost of living based on the county of residence and household size. 

NON-PRODUCING AGENTS:  

If an agent has no production history and requests assistance with living expenses, it is difficult to determine if the lack of income is a result of the event or a result of slow sales/lack of success in real estate. In these situations, KW Cares may only be able to assist with out-of-pocket expenses.  

10% MARKET CENTER SUPPORT:  

It is the expectation that the market center or KWRI Heart Fund provide support to the grant applicant equal to 10% (minimally) of the applicant’s stated need/requested grant amount when submitting a Request to Apply. This is to show support for the request, to ensure the applicant has some form of assistance while KW Cares reviews their application, and to promote the culture of care within KW. This support can be in the form of a check/cash and/or other in-kind assistance (e.g. meals, transportation, childcare, cleaning, yard services, donated PTO, etc.). Market centers may also waive office fees and/or pay for license renewals. Checks should be payable to and given directly to grant applicants. KW Cares staff will not be able to complete a grant application until 10% support has been provided to the applicant, or a detailed fundraising plan has been submitted. Please note: The 10% contribution is a gift to the applicant, not a loan.

Examples of in-kind services include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • meal trains - $60/meal
  • gift card drives - actual cash value
  • attending showings on behalf of the agent - $50/hour
  • rent-free office space while on leave - actual value 
  • reduced or waived office fees - actual value 
  • transaction coordination / covering the agent’s business, allowing the agent to receive the commission for any deals completed in his or her absence - $500/transaction
  • transportation to/from appointments - $25/hour
  • childcare - $20/hour for one child; $25+/hour for two+ children
  • cleaning - $50/hour
  • yard services - $50/visit
  • donated PTO - actual value

PRIMARY GRANT RECIPIENT:

The primary recipient of a grant must be the KW associate themselves, or a spouse/domestic partner or legal dependent of the applicant. We use tax forms to verify spouse and legal dependents. The IRS requires couples who are married (or "considered married” in states where Common Law marriage is legal) to file as married filing jointly, or married filing separately, and KW Cares follows these requirements. Acceptable documentation to prove legal guardianship of dependents includes listing the dependent(s) on the applicant's most recent tax return, OR court documentation listing name(s) of dependent(s) (e.g. custody agreement, guardianship, or similar legal status).


To complete this Request to Apply form, you will need:

  1. KW Associate’s/Grant Applicant's name (exactly as it appears in the KW White Pages or Command) and email address
  2. Market Center Name/Number
  3. The grant amount the Grant Applicant is requesting*
  4. The amount of support provided to the applicant or a detailed fundraising plan.
We use Submittable to accept and review our submissions.
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