Business Community Must Support Nonprofit Organizations

Type_webhead_here In November 2008, when Wall Street and the economy were hitting new lows, our firm, Goodman & Co., announced that it was giving away $300,000.

Now, that sounds either terrifically kind hearted or a little crazy.

Making it even more puzzling is the fact that Goodman & Co. is a CPA firm. We obsess over every penny -- where it's spent and how it's recorded.

But we have some core beliefs, and one of them is the conviction that we owe a lot to the communities where we work. We wanted to contribute to those communities in a way that would have lasting value.

After doing the kind of analysis one would expect from a bunch of accountants, we determined that the organization we wanted to support was the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and the cause we wanted to advance was, simply, our kids' future.

We found that it was hard to come up with an organization that's more important than the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

We like the vision of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation: a restored Bay with healthy rivers and clean water; sustainable populations of crabs, fish, and oysters; thriving water-based and agricultural economies; and a legacy for our children and grandchildren.

That's something that all of our own people at Goodman could get behind.

The $300,000 that we decided to contribute creates "The Goodman & Co. Student Leadership Fund." It supports CBF's Environmental Educational Program -- the largest program of its kind in the United States. The contribution advances CBF's efforts to provide a hands-on learning experience to disadvantaged students who would not typically have this opportunity.

Yes, we get a lot out of this.

We want people to know about our firm. We want to be noticed for doing something for the greater good. We want clients, prospects, potential recruits, and our own employees to associate Goodman & Co. with an organization like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

It's good visibility. It's a good fit for our Mid-Atlantic client base.

And it's great for our employees. More than 120 of our staff from the Richmond area spent this past April 22 sprucing up waterfronts, collecting broken bottles, digging out old tires, and planting seedlings.

Everyone had a chance to get their hands dirty and their feet wet and to help make the Bay even more beautiful than it is. Another 450 of our folks took part in similar activities in Roanoke, Frederick, Md., and Fort Story on that same day.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is all about handing on to generations to come a world that's a little bit better. As a firm, we are "accounting for the future" of our employees and our clients. The synergies between our organizations are unique.

Deborah Barfield Williamson, executive director of the Virginia Network of Nonprofit Organizations, points out yet another reason why it's important to support the nonprofit sector: It's good for the economy. "Employees arrive ready, willing, and able to work," she says, "because they have benefited from myriad nonprofits that provide them and their families education, job training, health care, day care, emergency services, recreation, and cultural and environmental amenities."

Our hope, especially in these very difficult financial times, is that firms around Virginia will support the nonprofits and causes that are important to the greater good. And, if such alliances can advance those companies' own corporate objectives, all the better.

For the community and for the company that makes the commitment, it's a win/win.

And could there ever be a better time than now?

Gary Thomson is the partner in charge of the Richmond office of Goodman & Co. LLP. Contact him at .