Firms giving back: Grant Thornton honors 7th Purple Paladin recipient

Top 10 Firm Grant Thornton has named Foster Nation as the seventh nonprofit recipient of its Purple Paladin initiative.

Grant Thornton's annual program is designed to help emerging nonprofits move from startups to more sustainable organizations via funding, business advice and volunteer support.

Launched in 2016, California-based Foster Nation helps former foster youth overcome challenges associated with the "aging out" of the foster-care system, with the goal of helping young adults become more self-sufficient.

“For most young people, turning 18 is a moment of anticipation and potential — but what if it meant being turned out on the streets and losing the support you needed to start your life as an adult?” said Brad Preber, CEO of Grant Thornton, in a statement. “Foster Nation is tackling that fearsome prospect head on. It’s exactly the kind of effort our Purple Paladins program was designed to help. We look forward to contributing to Foster Nation’s continued success, especially now, as COVID-19 increases the pressures and challenges faced by foster youth.”

Foster Nation provides youth with financial resources, basic needs, social support and mentorship. Its efforts include ongoing campaigns that provide free meals and clothing for daily life and careers, as well as basics like hygiene products. These essentials are especially important in the face of COVID-19, which has increased the day-to-day challenges for foster youth, who were already reliant on places like colleges for secure food and housing.

More information on Foster Nation and the Purple Paladin initiative is available on Grant Thornton's site here.

Pennsylvania-based firm Brown Schultz Sheridan & Fritz has announced the launch of two annual initiatives to support minority accounting students.

The first is a scholarship with the National Association for Black Accountants, providing funds to Black students who are entering accounting, finance and business fields.

The second is a sponsorship of a Harrisburg-area minority student to attend the American Institute of CPAs Foundation’s Accounting Scholars Leadership Workshop, to be held this October in New Orleans.

“We’re starting these initiatives to address two factors that are disproportionately reducing the accounting profession’s attractiveness to underrepresented groups: lack of exposure to the industry prior to college, and insufficient support,” said Ken Wolfe, president and managing principal at BSSF, in a statement. “We want to ensure that students of all backgrounds see accounting as a viable and attainable career.”

Online education company Test Prep Insight is accepting applications for its $1,000 CPA Prep Scholarship through Nov. 30.

"To give back to the profession that has given me so much, and ease the pain of one suffering accounting student like myself, I have decided to give $1,000 each year as a scholarship to one accounting professional or student planning to take the CPA exam," John Ross, founder and CEO of Test Prep Insight, wrote on his site. "The idea is that this scholarship will help pay for your CPA review course and make your life a little easier as you get ready to take the exam."

More information is available on Test Prep Insight's site here.