The Thousand Dollar Breakfast Club is bringing together friends and business associates in the community association world and changing lives.
Formed in early 2023, the club meets for breakfast every three or four months at a local restaurant. Each member is asked to bring $100 in cash to the event. The best part: After they eat, the group pools the cash and presents the server with a grand $1,000+ tip.
The club started with a Facebook post inviting others to join Richard Brooks, an attorney with Marcus, Errico, Emmer & Brooks in Braintree, Mass., for breakfast. At first, the club had approximately 12 members. Everyone enjoyed the first breakfast so much that word spread, and now the club has more than 40 members.
Each server is pleasantly surprised with tips ranging from $1,300 to over $2,000. A local TV station featured the story. So did The Washington Post. The club also has appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show, The Today Show, Inside Edition, The Kelly Clarkson Show, and numerous other radio shows and newspaper publications.
Each server can spend the tip as they wish. The server who gained the most attention used the $1,600 tip he received to buy his mother a hearing aid. Able to hear more clearly, his mother passed her driver’s test and is now more independent.
The breakfast club is a good way for industry professionals to give back to the community in a direct manner and is just one example of how community associations, CAI chapters, community association managers, and business partners make a difference.
>>For information on how to start your own breakfast club, contact Richard Brooks at rbrooks@meeb.com. Follow the club on Instagram @ThousandDollarBreakfastClub.
