CONNECTED ACCOUNTANTS CONNECT BY GIVING

It was definitely no accident that Connected Accountants became proud members of B1G1.

“I come from a family that has always volunteered and supported charities. My mother worked tirelessly as a volunteer for UNICEF for over 30 years,” the firm’s principal owner Amanda Fisher told us.  “When I started my own business I wanted to make sure that my giving went to the recipients, and didn’t get swallowed up in administration and related costs.”

But it was by accident that the team members at Connected Accountants in Australia are all female.  They came to Sydney from near and far…from Europe, North America and Asia in addition to a couple of home-grown Aussies.  Each of them brought their own personality and business experience.

As accountants who work with business owners and help them to grow their business, the team at Connected Accountants decided they wanted to support business owners in other parts of the world with their B1G1 contributions.  They started small, focusing on contributions to the Goats in Kenya project.  Since then they have expanded their contributions to provide business training, bricks to build schools, and safe drinking water where it’s needed most.

At Christmas time last year, the team picked five projects and asked their clients to choose their favourite ones from the list.  Then in January, Connected Accountants contributed to those five projects based on the client choices.

“Our clients appreciate that instead of us sending them a gift which they didn’t need at Christmas, we are together helping others to build their business or improve their business knowledge,” Amanda commented. “The alignment of these types of programs with what we do is magic!”

Connected Accountants link their giving to the number of business transactions, beginning when a client first signs up for their services.  Response has been very positive from most customers, who all received a ‘Thank You Certificate’ from Connected Accountants.  There was one client, mind you, who was a little confused.  They thought they were actually getting a goat, until they re-read the B1G1 Certificate!

Amanda Fisher has nice things to say about B1G1.

“You folks are pretty unique. The B1G1 model makes it possible for 100% of our giving to go to the projects we choose. And as we grow…as our clients grow…so grows our giving and its impact. B1G1 allows our ‘WHY’ to be even larger than we ever imagined, and helps our team to be more purposeful in what we do every day.”