The luxury residence fund is donating access to its multi-million dollar homes to children and families with parents suffering from late stage, limited life expectancy cancer.

“At Equity Estates, we have always had a commitment to giving back to the community and when we heard about the Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation, we knew this was a cause we had to get involved with,” said Philip Mekelburg, co-founder of Equity Estates. “Every single staff member at Equity Estates was eager to step up to the plate and make a difference for the families of the Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation.”

The JAJF was founded by Jon Albert in 2006 after his wife, Jill, passed away from Stage IV metastatic breast cancer, leaving behind two young children. Providing “timeouts” for families in order to create positive, healing, lasting memories together as a family while they still can, the Foundation currently receives referrals from 110 oncology hospital in 36 states. Since its inception, the Foundation has provided experiences for more than 300 families. Families are referred by oncologists and Mom or Dad must have late stage cancer, a diagnosis of less than one year to live and children at home between the ages of three and 18.

As a corporate partner, Equity Estates has committed to supporting JAJF through creating awareness of the Foundation and its mission; providing a number of vacation experiences each year through the donation of the management company's usage nights; and encouraging Equity Estates owner members to donate nights that they cannot use to the Foundation.

“The concept of Equity Estates is all about living life to its fullest and that is what the Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation is all about too, making this an ideal partnership,” said Jon Albert, founder of the JAJF. “There honestly could not be a better match than Equity Estates and the Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation, both philosophically and in our endeavor to create memories for families.”

Equity Estates recently completed its first trip for the JAJF, sending a family from the Philadelphia area to their residence in Naples, Florida. The family has a 23 year-old mother with late stage leukemia and three children, ages seven, five and two. The family’s maternal grandmother also joined them. Equity Estates arranged all of the activities and meals for the family, relying on their vendors’ generosity and goodwill to provide a once in a lifetime experience.

“Being part of Equity Estates is realizing that you have to make the most of every moment and that you have to value shared experiences with family and friends. That is exactly what we provide to our owner members and we what we will provide to the families of the Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation.” said Adam Capes, co-founder of Equity Estates.

Many of the destination clubs have donated time at some of their homes and have also put some of this time into charity auctions to raise funds for a variety of good causes. This really works for all concerned. The clubs act as good members of the community, they certainly have space available and they also get some level of visibility at little cost.

Specifically, Ultimate Escapes has raised over $380,000 through its Ultimate Giving program and has partnered with Doc Rivers amongst others to raise money. Quintess has partnered with Greenhouse Scholars to provide funds for high-performing and under-resourced students. Exclusive Resorts has partnered with the Andre Agassi Foundation and the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy amongst others. A & K Residence Clubs parent operates Abercrombie & Kent Philanthropy which supports 50 projects in 27 countries on all seven continents.