Since 2018, Deloitte employees have been a loyal force of NEW volunteers. It all started when Deloitte’s Executive Board Vice Chair, Kristen Grigorescu met NEW’s ED, Wanda Steptoe at a board recruitment fair.
“After speaking with Wanda, I knew right away that NEW was the type of organization I wanted to be a part of and I was confident that others at Deloitte would feel the same,” said Grigorescu. “Deloitte has always participated in Impact Days, so I knew the culture was already geared toward helping people in our communities. And I especially loved NEW’s focus on women.”
After Grigorescu joined the NEW board, she began recruiting other Deloitte employees to help NEW work on a range of projects: running workshops for the women; chaperoning field trips for the kids, organizing staff appreciation days, gardening and strategizing with the NEW administrative team around long-term goals.
“I remember first coming to NEW to speak with some of the staff about how I could help. I think what struck me, and inspired me was the sincerity of the staff,” said Deloiite senior consultant and NEW committee member Jake Hunter. “They seemed to know the clients so well and were honestly concerned about their well-being.”
In 2020 Grigorescu and Hunter applied NEW to Deloitte’s Matching Gifts Program as part of the Deloitte Black Action Council which aims to take a stand and make a difference on important societal issues, which includes championing racial equity and social justice. “The tone from our top leaders empowered us to know that we have a responsibility to support others,” Grigorescu said. “Deloitte’s practitioners agreed that now is the time to help our communities when they need it the most.”
The process of getting Deloitte to choose NEW as one of the nonprofits they would support was not hard, said Grigorescu. But the outcome has been tremendous: More than 1,000 Deloitte employees from all over the country have donated to NEW, totaling $44,000 from individuals. And then Deloitte matched that.
“Deloitte has proven to be one of our best partnerships,” said Steptoe. “Kristen, Jake Tori Cooney, Elizabeth Cooke, Jieru Shu and the whole Deloitte team continue to support NEW in both big and small ways. They are gardening for us one day, and then the next day, they are on the phone strategizing our social media with our Development Team. I just couldn’t be happier that Kristen came to that board recruitment so long ago and brought her passion for NEW to Deloitte. I am so grateful.”