Deloitte Financial Advisory Services

Driving positive change in the community is a hallmark of Deloitte’s culture. Deloitte’s people are truly passionate about making their communities better, but for many years pro bono work was done on people’s own time. It was in the wake of the December 2004 tsunami, however, when a true understanding of the impact of pro bono efforts happened; it was a “tipping point.”

Deloitte’s people and leadership were eager to help following the tsunami, and, through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Deloitte saw an opportunity to make a difference. Deloitte joined forces with the UNDP on Tsunami Reconstruction and provided 14,000 hours of pro bono financial advisory, consulting, and audit and risk work to affected countries, ultimately helping the UN quickly and more efficiently distribute relief funds to affected areas. This pro bono work demonstrated to Deloitte leadership that sharing knowledge and experience with nonprofit organizations can have an immediate and sustainable impact on the communities Deloitte serves.

Since the events of 2004, Deloitte has solidified its commitment to pro bono work, shifting from an ad-hoc approach to one of “business as usual.” This mindset includes an annual financial commitment to pro bono activities, a systematic and deliberate approach where results are measured, and a strategic methodology to select pro bono opportunities that have an impact on the community aligned with Deloitte’s own philanthropic principles. As a result, since 2008, Deloitte has delivered more than 1,000 projects, with more than 4,400 professionals giving close to 365,000 hours.

One example is Deloitte’s work with the Special Olympics. Professionals across Deloitte are delivering a wide range of high-impact work, including budgeting, business and operations planning, and strategic advisory work. This effort will culminate in the largest sports event in the world in 2015 during the Special Olympics World Summer Games.

Another example of Deloitte’s commitment to pro bono work is its collaboration with for-profit and nonprofit entities to identify ways to better leverage professional skills and experience to benefit the community. Case in point, Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP teamed with the Pro Bono Institute on the Pro Bono Measurement Project, an initiative to provide a way for law firms and legal departments to measure the social and business benefits of their pro bono work. The measurement project will demonstrate the impact these firms are having on the community as well as how their own organization is benefitted.While Deloitte’s belief in the importance of pro bono work as part of its business and its culture may have begun on an ad-hoc basis fueled by the passion of its people, it is now an embedded and formal component of how the organization does business.  And given that solving business challenges is what Deloitte does for its clients every day, it only makes sense that one of the nation’s largest professional services organizations will continue to use those skills to help nonprofit organizations serve their communities.