A new Wellesley-based real estate firm Giving Properties LLC that allows clients to support a cause they believe in while buying a home opened for business this week.

"The process of buying and/or selling a home can be incredibly stressful – yet it can actually be very rewarding by re-engineering the typical commission structure. This orientation is what sets Giving Properties apart in the real estate market," Linda Ramsden, founder, said in a statement. "We allow clients to direct up to one-third of our transactional fees to a charity of their choosing. Not only do clients make a meaningful gift to charity, they additionally get credit for having done so in the form of a tax receipt."

Ramsden is a lawyer who has extensive experience running non-profit organizations. She was previously the managing partner of her downtown Boston law firm and remains on assigned counsel lists for court-appointed mediation and appeals. Ramsden has spent the past 20 years as an avid consumer, buying and renovating older homes.

Giving Properties LLC operates independently, which allows it to redirect the portion of the commission fee that would normally go to "the house" instead to a charitable organization such as the local parent teacher organization or to programs that provide preschool education to homeless children in Boston, according to a press release.