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Wow - it's really fantastic to see so many firms embedding charity work and giving-back within the firm's purpose, rather than just a bolt-on CSR project. At Tayabali Tomlin we believe in transforming the lives of our clients, team and those less fortunate around the world. This purpose has become embedded within our culture and frames everything that we do.
The firm and team are involved with numerous local projects such as wrapping Christmas presents and summer BBQs to raise funds for CCP, sponsoring the Cheltenham Guinness World Jive Record attempt for Winston’s Wish, hosting celebrity chef dinners for Gloucestershire Community Foundation etc This is really great from a local perspective and the team choose projects that they connect with.
However, what really inspires the team and clients alike is our partnership with B1G1 – the global giving initiative based in Singapore and founded by Masami Sato and Paul Dunn (AccountingWEB Practice Excellence Lifetime Achievement winner 2015) and the impact that we have created with them over the last few years.
Every time we take on a new client and hopefully transform their lives from a financial perspective, we either give a goat to support a family in Kenya or we provide transformative eye surgery in Mumbai. And when we run events/workshops and help entrepreneurs better understand business and their numbers, we provide education to under privileged children around the world. But it’s the giving during the year that really excites the team. They meet on a monthly basis to decide what projects they will support from around the world and each team reports back on their chosen projects. You can find out more here http://www.tayabalitomlin.com/giving/
Members of the firm have also been on various study tours to Cambodia and India over the past three years, to see how the projects operate on the ground, connect with various other like-mined small business owners and see the impact that the worthy causes and businesses have created together. On those tours specifically we have built playgrounds, renovated schools and helped install eLearning systems.
We do all of this of course because we really believe in giving back and making a difference. It’s who we are and it’s what attracts team members and clients – but that’s not why we do it.
Over the past number of years we have created 1.1m giving impacts via B1G1. It’s amazing that Raffingers have their own charity and I can’t praise them enough for doing so. Many small businesses can’t do the same but still want to give to credible charities they connect with and in a sustainable way. B1G1 provides a really simple platform that enables 100% of your giving to go direct to people in need you choose. We even got a local charity The Wiggly Worm (whose purpose is to end food poverty in Gloucestershire) approved on the B1G1 list of projects and a few more in the pipeline. Since becoming involved with B1G1, I have joined the board of Free To Shine (with fellow accountant Steve Pipe). This B1G1 worthy cause is based in Siem Reap, Cambodia and provides girls at risk of sex trafficking with an education to protect them. Steve and I met the founder of this incredible organisation at the B1G1 100 Million Impacts Summit in Bali this summer.
Sorry if this sounds like an advert for B1G1 – it’s just that I am really passionate about it. I know that if every business made a tiny difference, together we could make a massive impact.
Embedding charitable giving of any description within a business’ purpose is great for the soul, helps create a powerful culture and community and builds a sense of loyalty and belonging from the team and clients. It has to be authentic though – otherwise people will easily sniff out a cynical marketing ploy.
It's great to see firms doing this. It is something that I would probably aspire towards in the future when developing my own firm so interesting to read how others have done it.
I too applaud Raffingers. They are a great example of what can be done.
And happily they are not an isolated example either.
In fact, as I did the research for my recent book "The world's most inspiring accountants" it was extraordinary to discover how many of them were actively involved in worthy causes.
In the book we focused on 57 accountancy practices in eight countries. While they were predominantly small firms, with 71% having one or two partners or teams of less than 10 people, collectively their impact was profound.
Specifically, between them they had:
► Raised almost £1million of cash for worthy causes
► Provided 225,000 hours of help on a pro bono basis
► Founded at least two charities – one of which has already saved 550 young girls in Cambodia from sex trafficking, and which I am proud to now work alongside Aynsley in supporting
► Raised £280,000 of grant funding to prevent a much needed community facility closing, and
► Made life a little bit better for 9,653,329 people in need by using www.b1g1.com to connect with, and “micro-give” to, causes that resonate with them
And remember, all of those impacts have been made by a very small number of firms with a very small number of clients.
Imagine how staggeringly large the impact is when the numbers above are multiplied many thousands of times over to reflect what hundreds of thousands of accountants are doing for many millions of their clients.
It make you proud to be an accountant, doesn't it?!
Since Aynsley is too modest to tell you himself, I have just checked the numbers and can tell you that his practice (Tayabali Tomlin) has already made life a little bit better for 1,108,729 people in need.
Isn’t that an amazing thought?
And yet more evidence of the profound difference accountants can and do make.
NB: You can see the exact number, and exactly how it’s made up, by clicking here https://www.b1g1.com/business-account-profile/593