Deloitte’s growing impact on sustaining local communities begins each year with Impact Day

Hyderabad|India|June'2010: “Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day; teach him how to fish, and you’ll feed him for a lifetime,” goes a popular Chinese proverb. At Deloitte, Corporate Social Responsibility has evolved over the years from being an act of charity to a deliberate and strategic effort to sustain our local communities. When we say, “Community is our business”, we exemplify our promise to our local communities and commit not just towards helping them in the short term, but making them self-reliant and effective in the long term.

Deeply rooted in our Shared Values (integrity, outstanding value to markets and clients, commitment to each other and strength from cultural diversity), Corporate Social Responsibility forms the core of our culture. We understand that we have a larger social responsibility to the world beyond our people, clients and workplace. Over 50% of our partners and directors serve on non-profits’ boards in the U.S., and in India over 90% of our professionals have been involved in community work through our other programs such as the signature partnership with Junior Achievement India, United Way and Pro Bono.

Deloitte’s year-long commitment to our local communities begins each year with Impact Day, and it reinforces the sustainable nature of our year-round skills-based volunteer projects and the ever-growing impact that we make each year. Hari Kumar, partner, Deloitte LLP, USA says: “Our theme this year for Impact Day is: Think. Invest. Advance. It summarizes the intent of Corporate Social Responsibility at Deloitte. We literally think up strategies based on our skills and invest our time to teach, support and work with our local communities throughout the year, so that the ‘outcomes-focused’ approach that we have helps them to grow and advance in the future. We are proud to say that each year we tap the intellectual capital of over 45,000 Deloitte professionals, in India and the U.S. , so that we can make a long-term difference.”

In line with our long-term view of helping our local communities grow and sustain themselves, recently, our Community Involvement program launched the Deloitte Center for Leadership and Community (DCLC) in Hyderabad . Parag Saigaonkar, Partner, Deloitte LLP, USA says: “Our goal is to bring nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and community leaders together to develop their business knowledge so that they can more effectively manage their organizations. Apart from being a knowledge center, through DCLC we aim to provide an avenue for networking for various organizations, and publishing thought leadership pieces on key social issues.”

Deloitte’s association with Junior Achievement (JA) continues to develop as we strengthen our focus on education in India . Many of our professionals are volunteering for classroom programs, and this year there will be a large number of senior volunteers who will be involved in initiating flagship JA programs on some of the campuses that we recruit from. Another key Community Involvement initiative is our Pro bono program which helps in transforming the way we support charitable organizations. Through this program, our client service professionals can support local NPOs with the same skills they provide to their clients. In November 2009, Deloitte also launched the United Way Employee Giving Program in India for their professionals. Through United Way, India professionals will now be able to substantiate the impact they make on our communities with their financial support. United Way provides a single window to a number of organizations with whom we have worked during the past few years, particularly during IMPACT Day.

Deloitte recognizes the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility. At the heart of Community Involvement in Deloitte is a genuine desire to invest in and advance our communities. On June 11, 2010, Deloitte marked the eleventh IMPACT Day in the U.S. and the eighth IMPACT Day in India with over 45,000 professionals in India and the U.S. , demonstrating their continual commitment to corporate responsibility. Their innovative leadership in the area of Community Involvement is an important measure of Deloitte’s overall commitment to responsible corporate citizenship.

According to Dhananjay Bansod, Chief People Officer, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Private Limited, “Meaningful change cannot be short-term. We have to work at achieving sustainable growth and self-reliance for our local communities. As a professional services organization, the skills and experience that make us successful with our clients are also our greatest means of effecting long-term meaningful change. Skill-based volunteerism is what we do to empower non-profits, so that they can effectively learn to manage and sustain their own organizations in the future.”

IMPACT Day is a celebration of Deloitte’s year-round commitment to workplace volunteerism. It highlights the skill-based contribution of its people to hundreds of non-profits nationwide. It also provides our people with a chance to develop important skills such as leadership, teamwork, and networking. Year on year, we have the opportunity to achieve significant change in our communities that is sustainable and as a result, strengthening for our business and our people.

Last year (2009), Deloitte was recognized for the fourth consecutive year by the Limca Book of Records for breaking their own record for “the most number of community service hours on a single day by any corporate in India .” The number of IMPACT Day volunteers in India has increased from 1,200 in 2004 to 7,200 in 2009. These numbers have had a significant impact on the growing number of lives we touch-- from 7,000 in 2004 to 141,000 in 2009. This year, over 10,000 professionals in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad devoted a full working day to volunteer their time and skills to make a meaningful difference to more than 1,80,000 lives in over 360 locations.

-June'' 2010