Today marks the kick-off of the KPMG Volunteers initiative, a 10-day sprint during which all 500 employees of KPMG in Montreal will donate their work time to ten Montreal organizations. KPMG Volunteers involves hundreds of employees who will donate more than 2,000 hours of their time to help ten organisations in the Montreal region: Moisson Montréal, Quebec Breakfast Club, Old Brewery Mission, Share the Warmth Foundation, Accueil Bonneau, Chaînon, Little Brothers of the Poor, Welcome Hall Mission, Maison d’Hérelle and Sercan Foundation. “KPMG employees are proud of their major contribution to organizations that face the daily challenge of responding to the needs of the most destitute people in the Montreal community,” said Michael Baratta, Senior Director of KPMG. KPMG is one of the first firms to have instigated this practice nation-wide, which aims at creating a novel community event. The KPMG initiative has mobilized more than 2,700 people in recent years, including senior partners, full-time and part-time employees, and co-op students. These people have come together with the community to build houses, to feed the homeless and to clean parks. Over 20,000 hours of paid time were donated to local charities. “Employees tell us that part of what makes KPMG a great place to work is our organization’s support of their volunteer efforts,” said Jean-Pierre Desrosiers, Managing Partner of KPMG Montreal. “KPMG Volunteers is our way of continuing to support our employees in these efforts, while re-enforcing the rewarding aspect that volunteering brings to both our communities and our people.” KPMG Volunteers was developed in conjunction with the firm’s existing Community Care program. Community Care supports employee volunteer efforts by accommodating their need for volunteer time, by providing financial support for volunteering, and through the CEO Community Excellence Awards which recognize the volunteer efforts of up to 20 employees every year.
This is a fantastic community venture on the part of KPMG – and I think they should quite rightly be pretty chuffed about their approach to this. In most situations Staff Volunteering programs allow staff memebrs one day at a time to go out and volunteer – not really a good length of time to achieve anything. KPMG however are giving it a complete stretch of 10 days…and not just some of thier staff – all of the Montreal based KPMG staff of 500 will be donating their time over 10 days to 10 organisations such as <em><b>The Little Brothers of the Poor, and the Share the Warmth Foundation </em></b> I think congratulations are in order for KPMG.
Now if we can get something like that happening in regional centres in Australia…
