Deloitte’s Documentary Film Series Showcases the Power of Skills-Based Volunteerism to Help Nonprofits Achieve Long-term Social Impact

(3BL Media / theCSRfeed) New York - Jan. 6, 2011 - Deloitte has released a powerful documentary film series, “Making A Difference…Differently,” that dramatically illustrates the impact that can be realized when people and companies contribute business skills to help nonprofit organizations achieve their goals. This documentary series is available for viewing at Deloitte.com.

Told through the personal lens of professionals who have worked pro bono on issues such as urban poverty, college access for low-income students, disaster response and the paralympics movement, Deloitte’s film series exemplifies how resource-constrained nonprofits can achieve much more when given the resources to address the operational and capacity challenges they invariably face. 

“We made these films primarily to help our own people recognize just how much they have to offer, and to encourage others in the business community to embrace skills-based volunteerism,” said Evan Hochberg, national director of community involvement, Deloitte Services LP. “Deloitte is committed to helping advance the field of community involvement by focusing on volunteerism that achieves very tangible outcomes, and this film series is an opportunity for us to spark dialogue that makes people think about the value of their professional skills in a different way.”

Each of the four short films, “Fellowship, Skills, Ready and Empower,” offers a compelling story of volunteers affecting social change through the contribution of business skills and acumen, to help a nonprofit organization deal with tough business issues: 

• Fellowship – Deloitte’s Nick Rengel spent six months working pro bono for the U.S. Paralympics division of the U.S. Olympic Committee. During that time, he helped develop a strategy to increase the number of rehabilitation institutes that offer paralympic sports as part of their rehabilitation programs for wounded war veterans.

• Skills – Deloitte’s Nick Cirignano spent six months working pro bono for the Robin Hood Foundation, using his private sector skills to assist some of the Foundations’ grantees with the development of national expansion strategies.  He also supported Robin Hood’s efforts to track the return on investment of each dollar the Foundation grants to anti-poverty nonprofits.

• Ready – Deloitte’s Julie Quinn directed a pro bono project for CaliforniaVolunteers, helping to define the vision for the CaliforniaVolunteers Disaster Corps program and providing project management, stakeholder analysis and communications support.  Further, Quinn’s team identified and customized a web-based technology tool that can quickly match the skill set of trained and registered volunteers, when every second counts. Now, this state agency of 30 people can use technology to mobilize up to seven million volunteers statewide to help in handling disaster relief, response and recovery situations at a moment’s notice.

• Empower – College Summit represents Deloitte’s most comprehensive relationship with a pro bono client. Barry Salzberg, chief executive officer of  Deloitte LLP,  leads College Summit’s board to help define overall strategy and direction, while our people contribute their professional skills to implement a variety of strategic projects on an ongoing basis. One of the most critical has been the implementation of a “data warehouse,” which helped College Summit cut its data reporting time from three weeks to three seconds. This project doubled the number of schools that receive crucial, time-sensitive information about which high school seniors are falling behind in the college application process so they can be kept on track. Deloitte also provides more volunteers for College Summit college application writing workshops than any other source in the country.

The films illustrate the enduring role community involvement plays in Deloitte’s culture, and its place in the organization’s business strategy. Though the professional service organization has done pro bono work for many years, Deloitte made a formal three-year commitment in 2008 to support up to $50 million in work for eligible nonprofit organizations. Now, well on its way to accomplishing its goal, Deloitte has completed more than 200 pro bono projects, with many more in the pipeline. The program is the embodiment of Deloitte’s approach to community involvement, which focuses on contributing the best thinking of Deloitte’s people to strengthen the nonprofit sector, and is emblematic of the organization’s commitment to service.   

About Deloitte Community Involvement

Deloitte helps people and communities thrive in three ways:

• We leverage our best thinking to strengthen nonprofit capacity by helping with strategic, operational and financial challenges, so nonprofits can help more people and communities faster and better.  

• We complement our best thinking with financial resources through large-scale grants and regional donations.  

• We create and share new research, content and insights on ways corporations can leverage skills-based volunteerism.  

As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries.

Volunteering is CSR highlights the Deloitte documentary film series and highlights the benefits of pro bono service.