Royal LePage Real Estate Services has been named the 2015 Outstanding Corporate Citizen by the Canadian Franchise Association.

Royal LePage, Canada’s largest and oldest real estate firm, received this award for demonstrating sustained support for the local communities through its network of over 600 brokerage offices from coast to coast, and for philanthropic innovation on a national scale. The company’s 16,000 realtors have raised over $20 million through the Shelter Foundation, the largest public foundation in Canada committed to ending violence in the home, and providing support to the women and children who fall victim to it.

In establishing the Shelter Foundation in 1998, Royal LePage – the only national real estate company with its own branded charity – set out to create an engaged, philanthropic culture across the company, where management, agents, staff and clients joined together to support shelters for women and their children within their communities. Hundreds of thousands of women and children have been helped by this initiative – safely escaping domestic violence. The foundation has also funded major research projects that have led to the development of national educational programs aimed at helping youth develop healthy relationships.