Ross Levin, a 50-year-old financial advisor in Minneapolis, also wanted to help those who are less fortunate. About ten years ago, he started giving his 35 employees five personal days a year to do something charitable. He also has two firmwide all-day charity events where he and his co-workers go somewhere like a food shelter or a Habitat for Humanity site and volunteer their time.
They usually go somewhere local in Minneapolis, but two years ago they went down to New Orleans to help build houses for people whose lives were upended by Hurricane Katrina. They invited some of their clients-about 14 came along-and closed the office from Wednesday through Saturday.
Levin, the founding principal of Accredited Investors, says his firm's charitable activities have numerous benefits. Not only do they create a sense of community among his workforce, but they remind the volunteers how fortunate they are.
"It might help them with their own perspective about what their work is for, and what the purpose of their life is for," Levin says. "It also takes our minds off the day-to-day stuff we're struggling with. It broadens all of our perspectives."
Levin says most of his employees have taken to the program, particularly the 20 who are under the age of 30 and may not have lived long enough to focus away from money and onto loftier goals, like giving. The only resistance came when the firm spent the day with an organization that turned out to be more religious than expected, and some volunteers chafed.
"We try to be nondenominational in our charities, but one time, we went to a charity that unbeknownst to us was not nondenominational, and some of the staffers were unhappy about the proselytizing. We've been very careful about that since then," Levin says.
Levin planned to speak publicly about his firm's trip to New Orleans, but then had a conversation with the CEO of a Fortune 500 company who said his company's philanthropic endeavors were part of its marketing budget.
"They were using philanthropy to market their firm rather than using it for philanthropic sake. So we decided not to promote our own trip," Levin says. "It just felt awkward."
Levin takes his giving seriously, as anyone who reads his monthly column in the Minneapolis Star Tribune would know. He writes about money and values, but the emphasis is on the values and how people allocate their money to causes that really mean something to them.
Ted Waldron, president of the North Shore Advisory Group in Bedford, Mass., says he became interested in charity work after meeting his wife and hearing how she had spent time down in New Orleans helping victims of Hurricane Katrina. Waldron says she lived in an old run-down auto parts store that had been converted into housing.