Family business a boon for community
2 per cent of gross income goes to deserving causes
As a small, local business we believe it’s important to give back to our community and those in need. Paul Overwater
QSPlus is a Te Awamutu family-run business at 1010 Kihikihi Rd. It was founded and owned by Paul Overwater, who performs building inspections, pre-purchase checks for potential buyers, healthy home tests, meth testing, and plan estimations.
It has recently begun an initiative called Helping Hands Deserving Causes because it wanted to do something for the community.
“My father has always donated to and supported charities, and we decided it would be a nice thing that benefits — us because we have the opportunity to do so,” says Paul’s daughter, Brittany Williams, who is the operations co-ordinator.
Paul founded QSPlus on a simple observation; people look for reliable, independent home inspections and quoting solutions.
Paul’s wife, Cathy, does some of the admin work and their other daughter, Tara Langman, does all their marketing.
“As a small, local business we believe it’s important to give back to our community and those in need. So, we are committing 2 per cent of the company’s gross income to deserving local causes.
“This means a portion of the cost of every report goes directly to a deserving cause,” says Paul.
“The more work we have, the more we are able to donate to charity,” says Brittany.
The three deserving causes change every three months, and all its clients, plus those following it on social media, get the chance to suggest a cause they think deserves a helping hand.
They look at three areas when choosing a cause, these are disability areas “because that means a lot to the company, as founder Paul has had a stroke and other disabilities are in the family, so we pick something that supports that area”, says Brittany.
Other areas they look for are supporting tamariki, as the wellbeing of tamariki means a lot to the company. They also try to find one that supports a local charity.
Every report will be allocated several tokens that the client can then give to whichever causes they want donations to go to. At the end of every quarter, they calculate the percentage for each deserving cause and let them know the total amount.
“We generally just split the money evenly, however, if someone allocates their money to a group, that group will end up with more of a donation,” adds Brittany.
This quarter Te Awamutu Volunteer Fire Brigade, Multiple Sclerosis Waikato, and Heart Kids Waikato have been selected.
The first time running this cause was last quarter, when they donated to Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter, Te Awamutu RSA, and StarJam; $729 was raised and split across the three charities.
“It’s nice for the members of the community to play a part in donating to charities, by suggesting causes and deciding where their money is going through allocating tokens,” says Brittany.
Follow their Facebook page for regular updates on our Helping Hands Deserving Causes initiative, how the three deserving causes are going, and who the new causes are each quarter.
“If there is any deserving cause, they do not even have to be a charity, they can be anything you believe deserves some funding and places that benefit the community.
“We want to be able to support those who do amazing work in the community, but don’t necessarily have the resources to host fundraisers,” says Brittany.