Katrina Aid: KPMG Efforts, Houston Golf Tourney

Partners and employees at KPMG have pursued a variety of efforts in response to the effects of Hurricane Katrina, including contributing substantial relief funds, establishing an internal firm Web site to match the needs of affected employees in the Gulf Coast, and providing individual support to hurricane relief programs.

In the fundraising component, the firm is matching individual employee donations to the KPMG Disaster Relief Fund and has removed the annual cap of $150,000 on voluntary employee contributions. This match, combined with contributions by partners and employees, has enabled KPMG to raise more than $900,000 toward the disaster relief effort, and the firm expects to exceed the more than $1 million raised by the firm for victims of the Asian tsunami.

Contributions going to the KPMG Disaster Relief Fund are helping those employees hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi. Additional proceeds will be donated to a Gulf Coast relief organization.

As a companion to the relief fund effort, KPMG developed a "Helping Hands" Web site to match KPMG employees in need with KPMG employees willing to donate the items requested, from diapers to personal care items. The firm has also relocated partners and employees to offices throughout the Southeast and Southwest, including Baton Rouge and Houston, to meet client and operational needs.

In Texas, the Houston CPA Society's 16th annual golf tournament for the Make-A-Wish Foundation has taken on another level of importance with the destruction on the New Orleans-based office of the foundation. Proceeds from the Oct. 24 tournament will be used to fund wishes for children with life-threatening diseases in both Louisiana and Texas.

The tournament will be held at Sweetwater Country Club in Sugar Land, Texas, and feature local celebrity hosts as well as a barbecue, silent auction and seminar for CPA attendees. More information and registration for the event is available by clicking on the "Calendar" link of the society's Web site, www.HoustonCPA.org.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM ACCOUNTING TODAY