On a cool June day last year, Henry Phillips was all lined up to play a little hooky ”“ until a client call sent him back to the office.
That didn”™t deter Steve Gallucci and most of Phillips”™ other Deloitte colleagues from taking the day off.
Depends on how you define “day off,” of course ”“ Deloitte”™s offices in Stamford, Wilton and elsewhere devote a full day each year to Impact Day, when they block out their calendar to volunteer at area nonprofits, to include lending their organizational expertise.
“I worked with an organization that does horseback riding for special-needs children,” said Gallucci, who earlier this year was named head of Deloitte”™s Fairfield County operations. “Impact Day is one example of some of the things we do in the community, but it doesn”™t just stop there.”
With perhaps the exception of the December holiday season, the spirit of volunteerism seems to bloom best in the spring, as the return of warm weather gets people outdoors for myriad projects and fundraisers, with April”™s Earth Day circled in green on the calendar and other signature events to follow such as the Kayak for a Cause fundraiser across Long Island Sound.
Stamford-based Keep America Beautiful alone is aiming to mobilize 4 million people this year for its annual Great American Cleanup, which would represent an increase of 250,000 people. In Connecticut last year, just more than 3,900 people volunteered with local affiliates of Keep America Beautiful, collecting an estimated 254 tons of litter.
Despite Connecticut”™s status as among the wealthiest states in the nation, it ranks just 17th nationally for volunteerism among its residents, at 32 percent of the population in 2010, according to estimates by the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Fairfield County, meanwhile, only cracks the top third for some 75 similar-size areas in CNS”™s study ”“ despite the efforts of more than 260,000 people who volunteer each year, with their contributions approaching $600 million in value on an annual basis.
Deloitte is a sponsor of A Billion + Change, under which nearly 80 companies to date have volunteered $1.6 billion in pro-bono services for charitable causes. To date, the organization primarily lists large corporations among its participants, including Fairfield-based General Electric Co., Stamford-based Pitney Bowes Inc. and Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp.
For its part, Deloitte is targeting a $50 million impact for A Billion + Change ”“ among other pro-bono contributions, it assigned a consultant full time for a half year to New York City”™s Robin Hood Foundation founded by Paul Tudor Jones, founder of Greenwich-based Tudor Investment Corp.
Most companies lack the ability to send skilled employees on months-long sabbaticals for the public good. But giving a day here or there is another thing ”“ though Phillips admits that is not always easy when clients are taking center stage.
But giving takes a little sacrifice.
“Last year I was (signed up) with Junior Achievement,” Phillips said. “I didn”™t get to go due to a client demand.”
