Every few months, employees at KPMG’s Orange County office trade in their crisp suits and smart outfits for jeans and comfy shirts, turning a workplace full of accountants and tax specialists into a group of folks who look ready to head to a ballgame. And each happily pays $5 to do it.
The money is used to support what employees consider one of its most important missions: providing life-long learning opportunities for future generations, starting with tools like literacy. The mission is woven through everything the staff does, executives say, and is also the reason KPMG is winner of the Orange County Business Journal’s first annual Civic 50 award in the medium-size business category.
Combating Illiteracy
Literacy is a cornerstone of KPMG’s civic engagement because it’s “one of the biggest indications of future success,” Partner Mark Thomas said.
“The highest indicator for literacy is the number of books in the home. Many children in Orange County, especially lower income kids, just don’t have access to books in the home.”
Partner Tina Stoliar said, “Our goal is to put new books in the hands of kids that they can take home and enjoy. Hopefully this will help them break the cycle of illiteracy.”
KPMG wants to deliver 2,000 books to Orange County children this year and 2,500 next year. The goal may sound a bit daunting, but thanks to a program put in place in 2008, it’s not only reachable but likely can even be surpassed.
The Family for Literacy program is a companywide initiative that provides children from low-income families with new books. It’s set up in collaboration with First Book, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit organization that distributes new books and learning materials to children in need across the country.
Giving in Community
Each of KPMG’s 82 market offices is responsible for obtaining books for underprivileged children in their communities. Stoliar heads the program in Orange County. She said donated books are provided by KMPG employees and that the program is fully self-funded. “We either buy the books ourselves, or raise money to buy books. We hold lots of fundraisers. Remember those jeans days?”
KPMG recently held a firmwide virtual auction. Each office put up an auction item for colleagues around the country to bid on.
“Of course, our auction item was a Disneyland package—hotel, airfare, the works,” Thomas said. “That package brought in outrageous money.”
Each year, Stoliar meets with colleagues to review the program’s budget and determine what they want to accomplish. The team actively seeks partnerships with local schools and charities.
“Literacy aligns with the goals of many of these nonprofits,” she said. “We are able to do something for them as long as it’s geared towards literacy for economically disadvantaged or homeless kids.”
Office Managing Partner Mark Clemens said his travels around Orange County give him ideas for collaboration. “I’m always thinking, could we be partnering with this nonprofit? Pretend City is a great example. Discovery Cube—they bring a lot of lower-income kids through the science center. We’re looking for those kinds of opportunities.”
KPMG has partnered with those organizations and numerous others that serve children, including Taft Elementary School in Santa Ana, Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Olive Crest, the Assistance League of Newport Beach and the Illumination Foundation.
While the program is primarily focused on providing books, another key component is company volunteers’ engagement with the children who receive the books. They read to them, help them select titles and work on art projects, and spend time with them exploring the world of imagination.
Emotional Connection
Stoliar said the experience can be extremely moving.
“I was a volunteer at an after-school program run by the Illumination Foundation,” she recalled. “Most kids are shy. But there was this one boy, about 7 years old, very smart. He just took command. He was explaining the situation in the book to the other kids, helping them understand. Watching him with the other children, I was just transformed by the experience.”
Thomas described the emotional impact he experienced: “I’m involved with Olive Crest Safe Families for Children,” he said. “When a child is taken out of their home in an emergency situation, they need a place to stay. My family takes in the kids in this situation. One of the children who showed up came just with this little backpack. One of the few things in it was a book from the [literacy] program. It had the little sticker in it. It was one of his most treasured possessions.”
Foundation for Life
The program also has an impact in other areas as the foundation of a KPMG lifelong learning continuum for people of every age in the community. The firm calls it a “value chain.”
“Our whole citizen effort at KPMG is about life-long learning,” Clemens said. “It starts at the elementary school level, goes into middle school and high school. We’re active at university levels.”
The program focuses on prekindergarten through fifth grade. The next link in the chain is partnerships with Junior Achievement concentrated on financial literacy for middle-school students. And the relationship goes beyond that: Volunteers from KMPG also teach Junior Achievement classes on everything from work ethic to financial literacy and how to start a business. And the KPMG Foundation gave the organization a $1.5 million grant to help it research and rewrite its curriculum.
Other links in the value chain include programs designed to inspire interest in the accounting profession among high school and college students and help doctoral students through school, then become mentors to the next generation. Finally, the firm supports business professionals through its Women’s Leadership and Women Corporate Directors.
“Giving back to the community has been part of KMPG since the day I started 27 years ago,” Thomas said. “We want to give our employees the opportunity to find what they want to do. If they’re interested in healthcare, let’s get you on the board of Red Cross. If you’re interested in underprivileged kids, let’s get you involved with Orangewood Foundation.”
KPMG gives its employees 12 paid hours off each year to volunteer and discover their passions. But most volunteer far more hours because, as Coffie puts it, “We get so much more back than we give.”
