Each Friday, Robbie Briggs, president and CEO of Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty, writes about luxury, trends, business and more in the advertising pages of the Mansion section of The Wall Street Journal. Below is his letter of August 14, 2020.  From My Perspective Why we help our neighbors I’ve said it before: The agents of Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty are one giving group. This bunch has roots deeply embedded in their communities, all over North Texas, and they are committed to local causes of all kinds. They help these communities by volunteering, organizing, donating and doing. Among many endeavors, our agents have helped serve lunch to the homeless at the Austin Street Shelter in Dallas and have supported OurCalling, a North Texas outreach group that helps with everything from addiction recovery to mentoring, and Bonton Farms, an organic market and two farms that are helping residents thrive in a once-marginalized area of South Dallas. We even have a unique program at the brokerage called Love Your Neighbors, a way of giving back to the communities where we all work, serve and live. It is funded by agents who voluntarily donate a portion of every sales commission they receive. Recently through Love Your Neighbors, we have been able to help the Tarrant Area Food Bank and the North Texas Food Bank. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, these groups have stepped up their already gargantuan efforts to feed the hungry of North Texas. Thanks to our agents’ commission donations, we have been able to send money their way twice this year, already. To honor our benevolent agents, the brokerage gives an additional 50-percent match to New Story, a nonprofit I’ve written about before, where the vision is “to create a world where no human being lives in survival mode.” For about $6,000, New Story builds a house, one that much of the world would consider a modest shelter. But, for the people who move into them — from tents, shacks or worse — they are much more. They are hope, safety and a future. Sotheby’s International Realty® is a partner with New Story, which has built more than 2,300 homes in four countries. New Story has recently made headlines with its new 3D-printed houses. The 500-square-foot homes, made of concrete by a massive, 33-foot-wide printer that is trucked to the building site, are already changing lives in Tabasco, Mexico. I suppose it’s clear that our agents and our brokerage are keenly focused on helping people who need a shelter or a home. In my mind, that’s because we’re all lucky to have one. Robbie Briggs President and CEO Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty rbriggs@briggsfreeman.com