UWM – ACCOUNTING FOR THE DIFFERENCE
In 2011, Liz Warner – one of the partners at Urquhart Warner Myers Accountants (UWM) – was selected by Virgin Atlantic to be a part of a group that visited Kenya on a fundraising trip. The aim of the charity was to build new classrooms for current and future generations in that region of Africa. Both UWM and their clients got behind the project, and Liz raised over £5,000 – enough to build a whole classroom!
The following summer, all three UWM company Directors met up with B1G1 Chairman Paul Dunn at the AVN National Accountants Conference in the UK. Paul and Liz chatted about her experience in Kenya, and it seemed a natural next step for UWM to partner with B1G1 and support B1G1 projects around the world.
“Now we make a huge impact throughout the year by making giving part of what we do…in excess of 60,000 micro-impacts at last count,” Director Jonathan Myers of Urquhart Warner Myers told us, “That’s over 60,000 lives impacted just by doing what we do on a regular basis, something our team is very proud of.”
“Our contributions on the whole are aligned with causes similar to those that Liz experienced first-hand in Kenya three years ago. We support causes such as bricks for building schools and clean water in Africa. At Christmas, every team member selects a project and we make a B1G1 contribution.” UWM also matches the amount of any client’s contribution with their own, and send out gratitude certificates to each client who participates.
Recently two coincidental comments came from two different clients at about the same time. Jonathan Myers tells the story: “One client who was visiting the office to sign her tax return said how wonderful she thought what we were doing with B1G1 was. She couldn’t understand why more clients weren’t as enthusiastic as her!”
“Then a second client who has been with us for almost 30 years brought his financial books in and said he knew how much we were ‘into doing things for charity’. Again, he thought our involvement with B1G1 was a great thing. He left more than his bookkeeping with us too; he left a cheque, and asked us to do ‘something charitable with it’.
We matched the amount of his contribution with our own, and when deciding what to do with the money, we referred back to Liz Warner’s original trip to Kenya and chose giving bricks to build classrooms in Africa.”
That’s precisely the kind of thing that happens when giving becomes a part of you. It’s called making a difference to others, just by doing what you do.
At B1G1, we call it Business for Good.