Trammell Crow Company Commits Half Million to Support Minority Talent in Real Estate
Trammell Crow Company (TCC) has donated $500,000 over two years to the Toigo Foundation to boost the nonprofit’s efforts at recruiting and retaining minority talent within the real estate industry, Commercial Observer has learned.
TCC is also partnering with the foundation on an internship program for MBA students called the TCC Scholars Program. Students who finish the program and accept a full-time job in commercial real estate will get up to $40,000 in scholarship funds. The real estate firm will also work with Toigo in other recruitment and retention programs that the foundation runs.
“As we adjust to a new way of working post-COVID, the real estate arena is undergoing dramatic changes. Having a team that is diverse — across ethnicity, gender, and experiences — coupled with a culture that ensures all talent is poised to contribute and thrive, is essential,” said Adam Weers, chief operating officer of TCC. “Through our work with Toigo, we identified the potential to expand our efforts together to drive change not just in our own organization, but the entire industry. At times of disruption, work around DEI — the exact, highly valuable work of the Toigo Foundation — needs to be amplified.”
“I immediately thought that Toigo would be a great organization to support, because Toigo actually centralizes resources and access for minority MBA students and other graduate students that are interested in breaking in to finance and real estate,” said Travis Melvin, a senior associate with TCC and a Toigo alumnus who participated in the program while earning his master of science in management degree at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Melvin helped champion the TCC and Toigo relationship.
“The commitment of TCC is exemplary — and stands as a model both in and out of real estate. Their trust in Toigo as a partner to drive needed change is humbling” said Nancy Sims, president & CEO of the Toigo Foundation. “The fact a Toigo leader, one of our own, championed our work and sparked this relationship is proof of what one voice and forward-thinking leadership can accomplish together.”
Update: This story originally misattributed source material. This has been corrected. We apologize for the error.
Emily Fu can be reached at efu@commercialobserver.com.
