Weaver and Tidwell Foundation makes company an ‘impact player’

Mikaila Adams
Associate Editor – OGFJ

Weaver and Tidwell, the Southwest’s largest independent regional accounting firm, serves a variety of industries in a variety of cities. Here in Houston, the firm is focused on the energy industry. In Houston and across the Southwest, the firm is focused on the communities in which it operates.

Since its founding nearly 60 years ago, the firm has been active in a host of community organizations. “We’ve been in many things because we believe you have to give back a little bit of what the community provides for you,” said W.M. “Mack” Lawhon, Weaver and Tidwell’s managing partner.

Being involved in numerous cities across the Southwest, the firm is faced with hundreds of opportunities to give back. But with the opportunities come challenges. “You just don’t have enough talent or money to give to them all,” he explained. To best utilize company resources, the firm created the Weaver and Tidwell Foundation.

The Foundation is funded from the firm’s operating budget and run with the expertise of the Allocations Committee. “The people we selected for the Allocations Committee are people that have been active in their communities. We wanted to get people who are sensitive to the needs of the community,” Lawhon explained.

One of the first decisions made by the Foundation was to select a ‘Charity of Choice’ each year and become an ‘impact player’ instead of diluting its resources over a hundred organizations. As Lawhon put it, “Rather than being a shotgun we’re a rifle.” He continued, “Let’s see if we can make a difference with our gift. We only have two resources, time and money.”

The Foundation recently chose Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) as their Charity of Choice for fiscal year 2008-09 and donated $60,000 to the organization for use in the cities where the firm does business. Lawhon commented, “When you think about it, what better place to invest our resources than in the children who will be our leaders tomorrow?”

Weaver and Tidwell volunteers aided in local RIF book distributions at schools in Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth. The firm’s staff helped younger children, who cannot read, choose books; gave “book talks” that briefly described the books’ stories to groups of children; and read stories to classes or groups of children.

While the children benefitted from the firm’s contribution, so did the Weaver and Tidwell volunteers. Lawhon elaborated: “You can imagine the kind of pride and community spirit they felt. They came back to the office and felt like they had made a difference.”

Focusing on one community effort each year has given Weaver and Tidwell the opportunity to do just that - make a difference. Lawhon concluded: “It’s a wonderful way to make a statement to our communities that we want to give back. We want to invest in the future of the folks that live and work in our communities, and at the same time, have a real impact on our Charities of Choice.”