Our commitment to community investment
At Deloitte Ireland, we are proud to be able to offer our people the opportunity to participate in our firm wide initiative that is Impact Week. Impact Day has been our flagship volunteering day for many years which we have pivoted to Impact Week. This initiative allows our people to give back to local and surrounding communities by providing their time and expertise to the participating organisations. This week is a key part of Deloitte Ireland’s Corporate Responsibility programme and enables our people to activate our purpose of making an impact every day.
Impact Day is Deloitte’s flagship volunteering day in September each year, supporting many charities around the country. Due to COVID 19, and a change in strategy, the Deloitte team had to quickly reimagine the approach for 2020. Hear from Claire Bergin, Corporate Responsibility Lead for Deloitte:
When I think back to the many Impact day’s that we have facilitated over the years, I think of the offices and how they are bustling with activity first thing in the morning. Everyone gets in early to meet their teams and gather materials to get to the organised buses to transport them to their charity sites for their Impact Day projects. At the same time, other charities are arriving to the Deloitte offices to meet their team of volunteers for strategic workshops and consultancy support for the day.
Firstly, we reimagined Impact Day to Impact Week, offering more opportunities for our people to get involved while also providing an opportunity to connect our people across the business and feel connected to the firm’s purpose while we were all working remotely. We wanted the week not just to be about volunteering that particular day, or week, but for people to think about their purpose and really delve deep to consider what matters to them and what gives them energy every day. We wanted to inspire our people to think about how THEY can make an impact that matters in the community for a cause or charity that resonates with THEM and combine that with the power of Deloitte. We did this through a number of internal workshops and charity projects outlined below, in addition to inspiring webinars including Find Your Purpose, WorldClass volunteering and Global CR Insights.
It was a busy week of activities where we activated our purpose of making an impact that matters in our community. We are energised for 2021 and look forward to continuing to roll out similar events into the future and embedding our purpose of making an impact that matters every day.
“The Deloitte team really gave us the opportunity to be an active part of Impact Day. They came with some really wonderful ideas for our Communications Strategy, and about how we can share our story. It was an incredible contribution for what we are trying to achieve. But even outside the amount of time and resources that Deloitte undoubtedly put into the day, these were just really nice human beings to work with. We were blown away by what they were prepared to do for us”.
Marian Carroll, Volunteer CEO, Ronald McDonald House
“Sometimes we can have scepticism about CSR that it will be perfunctory and that it will not make the best use of our time. But Laura and her team made it her priority to work with me, asked intelligent questions, and sowed seeds in my mind about what could be achieved in Impact Day. From the outset, she set a tone of trust and collaboration, managed our expectations, but also provided a safe space where Dublin Simon could air our problems. We sent Deloitte all of the relevant material for them to prepare, and I appreciated the fact Deloitte did that prep ahead of Impact Day so we could hit the ground running on the day. After Impact Day, Deloitte then sent us a comprehensive report to act on and implement.
For Dublin Simon, this was like winning the lottery, in that the help we got we would ordinarily have never been able to afford! I couldn't speak more highly of the Deloitte volunteer project teams. They emphasised how the challenges we have are also shared by large multinationals. As for outcomes, Deloitte have built us a report and a plan with short, medium and long-term actions and recommendations ... and Deloitte made it all sound achievable”.
Senior Human Resources Manager, Dublin Simon Community
“Genuinely one of my favourite things we do as an organisation. A unique opportunity to work with an organisation that I might never have had the opportunity to work with otherwise. I also enjoyed the experience of trying to deliver a lot in a compressed time space, while conscious that everything we do is making a positive impact.”
Lee Murray, Deloitte Project Leader for National Council for the Blind (NCBI)