Through our charitable initiatives, the firm and our staff support the next generation of professionals, strengthen the communities where we live and work, and help people in disadvantaged regions of the world. Our financial contributions align with many of the initiatives and organizations our employees support through their volunteerism.
In 2023, we donated $525,486 to charities and educational organizations, an increase of 42% over the previous year. We continued to provide support to the national ACE Mentor Program and its regional chapters, as well as to the Salvadori Center, Bridges to Prosperity, the Lee Petrella and Daniel A. Cuoco Memorial Scholarships, and the Thornton Tomasetti Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that funds scholarships and philanthropic organizations in the AEC sector.
Thirty-three percent of our giving is decided at the local level. As a result, we provide financial support to a wide range of organizations and initiatives in different regions. In autumn 2023, several of our offices provided free school supplies to children. Among them were our Florida offices, which worked with HandsOn Broward to hold back-to-school drives and donated backpacks containing classroom essentials. Locally, we also supported organizations like St. Francis Food Pantry and Canstruction (New York, New York), the Ride to End Alzheimer’s (Denver, Colorado) and Cycle for Survival (Washington, D.C.).
In 2023, we initiated an ongoing program to match employee contributions to the Red Cross disaster relief campaign, raising $20,680 in the first year. This partnership, which augments our previous practice of sporadically matching donations, was created in response to employees’ desire to help with disaster relief in areas where they live and work. This year, we also initiated a program of donating used laptops that are still in good working order to the ACE Mentor Program for use by participating high school students. This initiative was inspired by our Mumbai, India, office, which had donated used IT equipment to the village school in Karjat.
Our full scope of charitable giving is estimated at more than 1% of our net profits. This accounts for staff donations of more than 3,000 hours for community volunteerism and lecturing at colleges and universities. We also provide pro bono professional services to nonprofit clients.