Making a difference.

• Author: McCormally, Timothy J.
• Position: Tax Executives Institute members' capacity for service

In my last column, I wrote with pride about the efforts of members of the Minnesota Chapter to support AccountaAbility Minnesota, a volunteer tax-preparation organization, as well as the Institute's decision to make a cash grant to the organization under TEI's Social Responsibility Plan. That pride is even more palpable because Karen Piehler-Shaw of Ceridian, the chapter's 2007-2008 Chapter President, recently informed the Institute that the nonprofit organization has selected TEI as the winner of AccountAbility Minnesota's 2009 Corporate Partnership Award. The Corporate Partnership Award is given each year to a private sector organization that has increased AccountAbility Minnesota's capacity for service through volunteers or financial support and thereby promoted the mission of AccountAbility Minnesota to serve those in need with tax and financial services in order to help them reach economic self-sufficiency.

TEI was notified of the award by Elizabeth Albrecht, the charity's Volunteer Director, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in April when the Institute presented its social responsibility grant to AccountAbility Minnesota. Ms. Albrecht's message to the Minnesota Chapter explained her group's reasoning:

I have only worked at AccountAbility Minnesota for six months, but already I am coming to know how invaluable our relationship with TEI is and how much your group has done to help us grow through increased awareness, volunteer outreach, and financial support--and subsequently increase the number of individuals we serve in our community. These words make clear that the Institute's receiving the Corporate Partnership Award was not just owing to its financial contribution, but importantly, to the ever-refreshing cadre of Minnesota Chapter members who provide volunteer services to AccountAbility Minnesota. Given how time pressed many, if not most, of us find ourselves, it is often easier to open our checkbook rather than to roll up our sleeves for a charity, but in this case the Institute and its members were able to do both. I commend every member who has given up as little as one evening or weekend to provide tax preparation assistance to individuals, families, and small businesses in navigating the tax rules and obtaining the much needed benefits that are available in our complicated tax laws. By getting involved, they made a positive difference--one that they, their fellow chapter members, and all of us should be proud of.

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