McGladrey Gives Grass-Roots-Style in 2008

First of all, a Happy New Year to everyone!

McGladrey employees across the country were in the giving spirit in 2008, and gave back to their communities in a big way. I was constantly impressed by the quantity of community service activities that occurred over the past several months. A number of those events were documented here at Success starts here.

Most of these activities were locally organized and executed at the grass-roots level, and there were so many of these events that we couldn't possibly keep up with them all. They shouldn't go without mentioning, so here's a list of some more ways that McGladrey gave back in 2008:

• The National Practices Economic Unit (EU) raised money and collected goods to create 143 individual care packages that were sent to more than a dozen military units, most of which were the home units of employees’ family members overseas.


• The Charlotte, NC office collected contributions in the form of cash, gift cards, clothes, electronics, school supplies, toys and more for The Relatives, a local youth shelter.


• The Dubuque and Cedar Rapids, IA office 'adopted' a total of four local needy families, providing them with clothes, gift cards and cash for the holiday season.


• The Des Moines, IA office gave gifts to 25 children through the Adopt-A-Star program.


• The Kansas City, MO and Timonium, MD offices donated toys and cash to Toys For Tots.


• The Phoenix, AZ office collected enough donations to prepare 6,300 meals for the St. Mary's Food Bank.


• The Florida EU raised funds for breast cancer awareness.


• Employees at the Cleveland, OH office donated bags of groceries to the Cleveland Food Bank.


• Offices around the firm raised tens of thousands of dollars for the United Way.


• Numerous office across the firm, including the one in Gaithersburg, MD where I occasionally sit, held 'Jeans Days' to collect donations for local and national charities.

I know I'm probably missing some additional community service activities that took place in 2008, but regardless, everyone's participation was greatly appreciated. The generosity of our employees in terms of time, money and effort is great reflection of our people and their desire to help their communities as well as local and national causes.

McGladrey's 2008 community service efforts are also reflective of the firm listening to it's people. Not long ago, the perception was (evidenced in an employee survey) that the firm was not doing enough to support our local communities and important causes. McGladrey leadership heard this loud and clear, and the increased emphasis on community service this past year is the result. At Success starts here, we look forward to providing you continued coverage of our community service initiatives in 2009 and beyond.