Brokers who usually spend their days underwriting deals were taping up Lightning McQueen posters and arranging decor with Minecraft themes in pediatric hospital rooms as part of JLL's Wave Across America initiative.
The real estate services firm mobilized hundreds of employees to transform more than 200 rooms across 17 U.S. cities into personalized, home-like spaces tailored to each child's interests.
The effort, in partnership with nonprofit Once Upon a Room, paired two-hour volunteer shifts with a fundraising campaign that raised about $75,000 in one day, according to Los Angeles broker lead Charlie Smith. What began as a one-off Los Angeles project in 2014 scaled nationally after associate Ally Doherty pitched expanding it across offices, including in New York, Dallas and Denver.
For JLL, the initiative doubled as a test of how a brokerage workforce can function as social infrastructure, not just dealmakers, while giving brokers a break from pitch decks and tours.
The cause is personal for Smith, who is the first cousin once removed of Once Upon a Room founder Josie Hull, tying him to the nonprofit's Los Angeles roots. Smith's daughter, Juliette, has also been active in the local chapter.
Hull started the organization after her friends decorated her hospital room during a long stay following surgery at UCLA. She has had medical stays over the years after undergoing a procedure to separate her from her conjoined twin at the age of 1, an experience that became the blueprint for the group's mission.
That local connection helped drive early momentum in Los Angeles, where JLL teams raised about $20,000 in prior volunteer days before taking the concept nationwide. Hundreds of JLL volunteers signed up, including in Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles, with employees like Jiean Park, Chelsea Benard and Julia Burdsall helping coordinate the effort.
"We've always got to be bigger than what it is we do at the office," Smith told CoStar News, adding that leaders are now looking at how to expand the Los Angeles-born effort into a repeatable national platform.
This year, Josie and her twin sister, Teresa, celebrate their 25th birthday — an extraordinary milestone, as they are among the few people in the world to be successfully separated after being born conjoined at the head.