Moving the Needle: Deloitte's Impact Day 2023
Community change is daunting. My catchphrase when I worked in the nonprofit sector was: this is hard. Because you can’t change the world. Sometimes the enormity of the problems we face can make trying to have a positive community impact seem futile. But no systems-level change on any issue of importance comes from no where. To get from 0 to 100, the speed gauge needle first needs to move from 0 to 5. So the goal is not to change the world. The goal is moving the needle in the right direction: it doesn't matter how much it moves (for now). It just needs to move in the intended direction.
德勤 celebrated Impact Day 2023 on June 9 – which I spent working on financial inclusion research (more on this soon CDFI colleagues!) and volunteering at WAKE Up and Read. WAKE Up is an amazing cross-sector coalition that is working to improve early childhood literacy in Wake County, North Carolina. It’s an issue that matters because disparities in childhood literacy are a primary factor behind so many systemic inequities. ?
But how much of an impact are we really having here – are we moving the needle? I think it’s important to ask ourselves that. As someone who has done research in and around community development issues for more than a decade, I believe you should always critically examine claims about social impact. After all, countless efforts in this space are marred by ulterior motives and organizations who want to be seen as doing the right thing (rather than just doing the right thing). Importantly, Deloitte’s Impact Day started in 1999, a time when there was no social media praise to be gained. And, I would argue, this initiative also started at a time when there was little to no “marketing ROI.”
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Moving the needle requires that community engagement be sustained and backed by resources. Ultimately, the community organizations and nonprofits that we volunteer at need to build capacity: there is no other way to improve the effectiveness of their interventions. Volunteering can build some types of capacity. And because Deloitte’s workforce is large and the employee participation rate in these activities is high, even a single day of volunteering at this scale can make a meaningful impact. ?But I’m proud to work for an organization that recognizes that isn’t enough: there is more to do. Through things like pro bono nonprofit services, skills-based volunteering, corporate citizenship, and philanthropy, Impact Day is just one facet of a sustained community engagement strategy.
I think it’s easy to conclude that these are things all companies do – but they don’t. When I was on the job market last year, I looked at numerous private sector options. I wanted to work at a place that shared my values. But (for example) I didn't find any other company publicly posting extensive DEI data about its workforce – and also publicly tracking its progress on doing better. It is good to work for a leader in this space, but I also look forward to a day when this kind of thing isn’t unusual. Because we can really move the needle together (maybe even all the way to 100!) if we simply acknowledge that inclusive, holistic, and sustainable community development is a shared privilege and responsibility.