PS Employees Volunteer at Rotary First Harvest
January 4, 2011
For the past couple of years, we’ve had a team of employees volunteer at Rotary First Harvest on a weekend day in December. Partner John Smolke, an active Rotary member, spearheads the efforts and enjoys getting everyone involved.
Two years ago we packaged carrots, and last year it was pears. This year everyone was sorting boxes and packaging food boxes for emergency food banks. We had over 20 employees and spouses and everyone had a great time.
Public Accounting Dress Code?
December 22, 2010
Earlier this month, the Swiss Bank UBS released a 43 page dress code guide for its employees. The manual also provides detailed tips on hygiene and personal grooming, ranging from appropriate hair dyes and accessories to underwear and socks! Interested in showy accessories, trendy eyeglasses, and black nail polish? Not if you work at USB.
Here at Peterson Sullivan, our everyday dress code is “Business Casual.” You won’t see a lot of ties and suits unless we are meeting with clients.
Last holiday season, our staff created a Casual With a Cause Campaign. On selected Fridays in November and December, everyone pays $5 to wear jeans to work. The money we raise gets donated to a local charity. This year we picked our client Kindering Center to benefit from our campaign.
Here you can see that Doug, Bob, David and Keaton took the dress code to a new level when they all showed up in argyle sweaters on the same day.
Camp Fire USA Centennial Gala Auction
October 7, 2010
As we mentioned on Tuesday, it’s fundraising season for many nonprofits in the Puget Sound. On Saturday, October 2, Ray Holmdahl, Matt Matson, Jim Schneidmiller, Bob Bowman, Michaela Baylous and Jessica Hewitt attended the Camp Fire USA Centennial Gala Auction.
The event was hosted at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Seattle, and over 200 people came together to raise $161,500 for Camp Fire‘s youth development program. Michaela gives us a first-hand account of what the night was like:
I had the pleasure of attending Camp Fire’s dinner auction. This was my first time attending an event like this, and it was a lot of fun. It made a great excuse to get dressed up for a “date night” (not quite like Steve Carell and Tina Fey’s). The evening started with drinks and a silent auction. I enjoyed a lemon drop while looking at the wide variety of items up for grab while my boyfriend, Michael, started his Christmas shopping. He ending up winning a wooden motorcycle/rocking horse for his nephews.
Then we were seated for the live auction and dinner. The live auction was LIVELY. John Curley, auctioneer, definitely kept the crowd entertained and engaged. The live auction portion started off with a game of “heads or tails”. The auctioneer flipped a coin and the participants guessed if it would be heads or tails. The last person standing won $400 towards their auction purchases. There was some incredible luck. The coin was heads 4 times in a row! What are the chances? I was out the first round when I guessed tails.
Then the auction started. Just about anything you might want could be purchased, including a vasectomy (ha!). Other items, such as weekend getaways were more popular. It was fun watching people bid against each other and watching others place bids just to raise the price to support a great cause.
Dinner was delicious. Guests had the choice of salmon, filet mignon or a vegetarian option. I chose the salmon and it was fantastic. Dessert was a dense chocolate cake with raspberries. Yum!
It was a very enjoyable evening for all attending, and we raised a lot of money to support Camp Fire. Definitely a success.
Medic One Foundation Fundraiser
October 5, 2010
October is a big fundraising month for nonprofits, and Peterson Sullivan is honored to be a small part of such wonderful organizations. We audit over 250 nonprofits throughout the Puget Sound, and it’s our priority to offer participation in auctions, fundraisers, and other related events as often as we can.
Matt Smith, Audit Manager, and his wife Danielle attended Medic One Foundation’s “Lights, Sirens, Auction!” fundraisor at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel on Friday, October 1st. Here’s what Matt had to say about the event:
Medic One has been a client of ours for many years, so it was great to support them. The auction was for the benefit of 19 new Seattle based paramedics, in order to train and equip them. The event was in the absolutely packed main dining hall of the Seattle Sheraton Hotel. Numerous businesses sponsored the event and donated to the auction.
This was a fantastic event. My wife and I had a great time. It was a great excuse to have a date night, and she got to dress up. There were two waves of silent auctions, and a live auction, with a total of 286 items! If you’ve been to a nonprofit auction in Seattle, you’ve probably heard the amazing auctioneer David Silverman. He is incredibly quick witted, and hilarious. He was also joined by Steve Raible, the KIRO 7 news anchor, who, when you get him away from the news, is kind of a wild man (in a good way). He joined David in the live auction. These guys were buddies from high school, which made for great chemistry.
Medic One had plenty of extras to make this auction as entertaining as possible for its supporters including: a free photo booth (with a curtain), free drinks, a raffle, dancing, a magic show, and about 12 really strong firemen (and a firewoman, who was also very strong) who were signing calendars and wearing clothing that would not save them from fire.
All in all, one of the best auctions I’ve attended.
Helping Clients
August 31, 2010
This week it was our pleasure to help our clients at the Women’s Funding Alliance as they moved into their new home in downtown Seattle. When they sent out a call for donations, we were happy to respond with an offer for a refrigerator.
Here you can see Jared and Devon making the delivery. They had a fun time wheeling a fridge through downtown Seattle!
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Putting for Food Frenzy
July 22, 2010
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Introducing the only golf course owned and operated by a public accounting firm, The Links at PS has teamed up with the Food Frenzy event (with our client Food Lifeline) to raise money for a good cause. PS employees participated in this groundbreaking, first ever, in-office golf tournament in 2 Union. As fun as it would be to hit 3-irons down the hallways, this tournament was for putters only. Bob Bowman and Matt Smith worked diligently to develop this course (they were hard at work designing the course layout in the office in the wee hours of the night this last busy season.)
The tournament took place on a couple days during lunch or after work. 100% of entry fees raised went to support Food Frenzy. Whoever had the fewest putts around the office perimeter (penalties for hitting walls including cubicle walls, or going in offices) would be designated the winner.
Right now, Torrey Kwok and Danelle Dye are tied for the lead with a 23. Stay tuned for a winner after their putt-off!
We were recently interviewed for an article in the Puget Sound Business Journal around the topic of social responsibility and hiring. It’s a topic that is important to us, and important to our candidates.
A number of students ask us about our social responsibility programs. That’s why we like to talk about our community service efforts on our blog. Any company can have a policy, what’s nice is to see how employees actually use the policy. With over 250 non-profit clients, our employees are actively engaged in assisting multiple non-profits in the community. We hold quarterly employee events with community service activities, and we support employees who need to use work time to fulfill volunteer obligations.
Community service and social responsibility is part of the culture at Peterson Sullivan. Come talk to us and learn more!
Read the full article here: http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2010/05/17/focus11.html
On April 29, we attended and exhibited at the Washington State Not-for-Profit Conference at Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue. Ray Holmdahl and Becky Borek attended the sessions and enjoyed catching up with clients and friends. Peterson Sullivan employees staffed the booth all day, and we want to thank Jennifer Crofoot, Davy Lau, Jessica Li, Kanako Matsumoto, and Ashlea McLaren for keeping things running so smoothly.
This year’s conference featured keynote speaker Dan Pallotta, author of “Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential,” and a special appearance by Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire, along with keynote speaker Kristin McSwain.
To keep up with our other events, visit our Seminars and Events page on our website.
Powerful Change is Possible!
May 6, 2010
Peterson Sullivan people turned out in full force on April 27 at client Wellspring Family Services Powerful Change Luncheon. Thank you to attendees Ray Holmdahl, Sharlyn Turner, David Lee, Bob Bowman, Nathan Hartman, Mark Raker, Rebecca Borek, Ben Altmaier, Rebecca Keever, and Kanako Matsumoto who made Powerful Change possible! At the event, where Peterson Sullivan was a table sponsor, $417,231 was raised to help children and families in the community. These funds will go directly to support Wellspring Family Services’ work to prevent & end homelessness for families, stop domestic violence and help children succeed.
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Take a look at some photos of the event from Dani Weiss photography.Caspar Babypants dedicated his new song, Happy Heart, to six year old Rena Mateja and Wellspring Family Services.
Volunteer Spotlight – Andria Green
March 22, 2010
Our employees community service efforts keep growing! This quarter’s Community Service Challenge Winner, Senior Andria Green, volunteered her time with the City of Seattle Parks and Recreation Department, planting native trees and shrubs in Discovery Park to reclaim areas taken over by invasive plants. When she’s not performing an audit, or volunteering, Andria loves international travel. Here she is on her latest trip to Egypt. 
Peterson Sullivan employees volunteered 115 Community Service hours in the months of November, December and January. Some of the organizations being served were Northwest Harvest, Greenwood-Aurora Involved Neighbors, Rosehedge, Hope Place, and Village Volunteers.
