Deloitte Celebrates Culture of Service; Increases Pro Bono Pledge to $110 Million

"Be back soon…We're volunteering!"

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Jun 08, 2012, 08:00 ET

NEW YORK, June 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Visitors to Deloitte's website should have no doubt about where most of the organization's personnel are spending their time today— they're volunteering. A note has gone up on Deloitte's home page — today's equivalent of the office door — letting people know that its professionals are out contributing their time and talent at more than 800 volunteer events, planned by the organization's 100-plus office locations across the US..

Today is Deloitte's 13th annual IMPACT Day, when everyone at the nation's largest professional services organization is encouraged to set aside their office duties for the day to volunteer for a nonprofit organization. Tens of thousands of Deloitte volunteers are participating in a wide variety of both skills-based and traditional "hands-on" projects — painting, landscaping, renovating, and more.

While IMPACT Day is always seen as a commemoration of year-round community service, this year the people of Deloitte have an extra reason to celebrate: the organization recently announced that its multi-year investment in pro bono services will rise to $110 million by 2015. Through its pro bono program, anyone in the organization can apply for support from any of Deloitte's business subsidiaries — Audit & Enterprise Risk Services, Consulting, Financial Advisory Services, and Tax — to assist a nonprofit. Over the past three years, Deloitte has completed more than 300 such engagements; this work has helped pro bono clients increase organizational efficiencies, allocate resources more effectively, manage risk and strengthen expansion plans, among other outcomes. With the new funding increase, Deloitte personnel have the resources to build substantially on their pro bono accomplishments to date.

"We believe one of the best ways to create positive social change is to do what we do best every day, which is help organizations address their most complex business problems," says Joe Echevarria, chief executive officer, Deloitte LLP. "Contributing high quality services and intellectual capital to nonprofits in need is one very important way that we are helping to make America stronger. We're passionate about making a difference, even if our efforts impact just one community, one group or one person at a time."

Deloitte is also a founding sponsor — and a member of the leadership committee — of A Billion + Change, the growing national campaign to mobilize billions of dollars of pro bono and skills-based volunteer services from corporate America.

Echevarria adds: "In addition to contributing pro bono work ourselves, we're proud to help lead A Billion + Change, which encourages other businesses to make pro bono work a part of their philanthropic portfolios. We can make the case, by our own example, about how contributing skills and knowledge results in a double bottom line return by adding value to our communities and our business."

Among the hundreds of projects on IMPACT Day, Deloitte is collaborating with the Taproot Foundation to host pro bono "Scope-a-thons" in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. At these events, approximately 100 senior executives from a variety of nonprofits will attend workshops — led by Deloitte volunteers — that are focused on how to plan and "scope out" pro bono projects to maximize their chances for success.

At other events today in California, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Washington, Deloitte professionals who are trained in technology risks and information security, will volunteer with more than 2,100 grade school students, teaching them cyber safety and security skills. The volunteers, who are certified cyber security specialists and specially trained to deliver a course called the (ISC)2 Safe and Secure Online Program, will instruct students on such issues as social media risks and protecting their online reputations.

"IMPACT Day is a symbol of all the great work our people do throughout the year in support of our communities," said Evan Hochberg, national leader of Deloitte's community involvement initiative. "This year, IMPACT Day has special significance because we are celebrating a renewed commitment to pro bono work that enables us to help more nonprofits address strategic, operational and financial issues that may limit their ability to achieve their social missions. We are thrilled about the impact those resources will have on the nonprofits we support."

To learn more about pro bono and volunteerism at Deloitte visit: www.deloitte.com/us/community. Additionally, follow @LifeAtDeloitte and @DeloitteUS for news about IMPACT Day events throughout the day.

About Deloitte Community Involvement
Deloitte helps its communities thrive in three ways:

Leveraging innovative thinking to strengthen nonprofit capacity by helping with strategic, operational and financial challenges, so nonprofits can help more people and communities faster and better.
Complementing innovative thinking with an investment of financial resources at the national and regional level.
Creating and sharing new research, content and insights on ways organizations can leverage skills-based volunteerism.

As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.

SOURCE Deloitte