Community engagement

All PwC firms are involved in their local communities through a vast range of projects, from supporting youth education and leadership programmes to helping social entrepreneurs and local charities. This is a core part of our PwC culture, and we regularly contribute our time, skills and resources.

While our goal is to make a difference in the communities where we work by sharing our time and knowledge, PwC people also benefit from new skills, enhanced personal fulfilment and deeper local relationships.

Our approach to volunteering and community engagement tends to be local and considers local priorities and customs so that the activities have a positive impact on beneficiaries. To learn more about our commitment to community engagement please see our CR commitments page.

We’re supporting education programmes. Many of our firms are involved in local initiatives to support education. For example, PwC US’ Earn Your Future addresses two critical shortfalls in the US education system: financial literacy among young people and financial training opportunities for educators. PwC’s Open University in the US offers free and open access to a selection of courses developed by PwC. In Indonesia, PwC has run a programme to mentor young leaders. PwC China works with NGOs to run the Rural School Volunteer Programme, which sends volunteers to rural village primary schools for a week to lead fun, interactive classes in English, computer literacy, environmental awareness and physical education. PwC Mexico's staff provided technical coaching and advice on accounting, finance, audit and tax to students of Villa de las Niñas, an organisation that provides education opportunities to girls from impoverished backgrounds.

We’re supporting social entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurs create socio-economic value for their communities. We seek to strengthen the business skills and expertise of these entrepreneurs. Such capacity-building is one of the most useful ways that we can support small business as it ensures that the work undertaken adds strategic value to organisations and maximises PwC’s impact. For example, PwC firms in the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, support and promote social entrepreneurs.

We’re raising reporting standards in the not-for-profit sector. We aim to help non-profits report their results effectively and accurately. The PwC Transparency Awards were established in 2004 by PwC in the Netherlands to recognise the quality and transparency of reporting by not-for-profit organisations. They have since been introduced by other PwC firms around the world, including Australia, Germany, and Korea.

PwC China/Hong Kong recently launched its Strengthening Donor Communications and Mentoringproject to help NGOs to understand impactful reporting, good governance and robust internal controls. Sessions were run in Beijing and Hong benefitting over 100 NGOs.

This year our people have responded generously, with over US$560,000 in donations and pro bono services towards the immediate needs of those affected by Ebola Crisis and the devastating earthquakes in Nepal. We have also committed nearly $1m USD in pro bono services to aid recovery efforts and rebuild stronger societies in Nepal and the regions affected by Ebola.

PwC co-created the R!SE Initiative, together with the UN, and continues to lead the global expansion of the scope of R!SE. This ground-breaking global effort, launched in May 2014, brings all stakeholders together in a single alliance to take leadership on disaster risk resilience, with a focus on creating shared value by making investments risk-sensitive.