Charitable Giving
At Davis & Hodgdon Advisory Group the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is part of our fabric. A multi-year development of a CSR policy has enabled the firm to practice what it preaches and facilitate the same for interested parties. The entrepreneurial spirit of this CPA firm is evidenced by its actions locally and statewide.
Part one of our series on CSR outlined the importance of a formal yet “reasonable” CSR policy for businesses of ALL sizes; not just corporate giants.
Click here to read Part One: The Triple Bottom Line for Small Business.
Part two focused on promoting the ‘people’ in “People, Planet, Profit” through a cohesive employee volunteer program.
Click here to read Part Two: Promoting the ‘People’ in “People, Planet, Profit” – Employee Volunteer Program.
Part three continues that focus on the CSR policy’s “Community Works” section and the belief that a business’ relationship with the community is the solid foundation of its success. By contributing to a vibrant local economy, we can support a generation of like-minded entrepreneurs and a sustainable business community.
Davis & Hodgdon’s Community Works CSR policy’s efforts are organized into three categories:
- Employee Volunteer Program
- Charitable Giving
- Signature Partnership
This post in our series of five focuses on the Charitable Giving component of our Community Works efforts.
Charitable Giving is made up of these four categories:
- Event Sponsorship
- Firm-initiated Donations
- Client-inspired
- Employee Match
Every January, the Community Works Charitable Giving budget is identified by segment:
| Giving Program | Maximum Contribution | Approximate number of recipients |
| Event Sponsorship | $XXXX | X |
| Firm Initiated Donations | $XXXX | X |
| Client Inspired Donations | $XXXX | X |
| Employee Matching Gift | $XXXX | X |
For now, we’ll examine donations and matching gifts.
While “Event Sponsorship” will be the focus of the next post in our series, here we focus on donations and matching gifts.
Firm Initiated Donations:
Davis & Hodgdon takes a proactive approach to selecting organizations to support with charitable contributions. We target our giving to defined “cause areas,” which, for us, are financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and Vermont’s green economy. We are most interested in giving to organizations where we can also leverage our expertise and skills through our pro-bono capacity building work and employee volunteer program. For this reason, much of our annual Firm Initiated Donations budget goes towards the organization selected as the firm’s “Signature Partner,” which will be explained in more detail in the fifth and final in our series on CSR for Small Business.
Client Inspired Donations:
We support our clients’ philanthropy by making contributions to organizations and causes that they care about. These donations, requested by or made in honor of our clients, are one way we demonstrate our commitment to being an engaged community partner. At the beginning of the year we determine the total amount to be categorized as Client-inspired as well as the maximum amount of donation per client.
We create simple tracking spreadsheets to record each type of donation to ensure that policy guidelines are followed and our respective budgets are not exceeded.
Employee Matching Gifts:
Aligned with our Employee Volunteer Program (EVP) portion (click here to view the EVP summary) of the CSR policy, the Employee Matching Gift program is in place to support employee generosity by matching their contributions to nonprofit organizations dollar for dollar, up to $100 annually per employee.
After making a contribution, employees apply for matching gift contributions by completing a simple “Employee Matching Gift” form, which is reviewed, approved and paid by management. As with all forms of donations, the matching gifts are tracked within a spreadsheet by designated administrative staff.
Each of the Firm’s charitable efforts are detailed within the formal policy and include:
- Criteria and eligibility
- Process
- Administrative plan
- Tools and resources (forms and tracking reports)
Next up in our series of five highlights “Event Sponsorship” as a key element within the CSR policy’s Community Works efforts.
