On Changemakers from Within, Senior Inclusion & Sustainability Program Coordinator Zariah Hawthorne pulls back the curtain on Impact Days—Forvis Mazars’ flagship, firm-wide week of service. What started as a single day is now a multi-day movement with 2,600 volunteers across 70–80 offices (plus remote employees).
Here’s how Zariah won buy-in, empowered local champions, and built the toolkit that made scaling possible.
Listen to the episode here, or wherever you get your podcasts:
The Spark: How Values Turned Into Action
Forvis Mazars’ mission is to “help clients unlock their full potential.” Zariah saw an opportunity to extend that to teammates and communities, channeling an existing culture of giving into a clear, time-bound initiative everyone could rally around.
Key moves that made it scale:
Executive alignment, in their language. Zariah tied Impact Days to firm principles (“be builders”), positioning community investment as core to growth.
Local ownership via Impact Champions. Each office identified a point person to coordinate with nonprofits, manage logistics, and tailor activities to local interests.
A plug-and-play toolkit. Zariah created a toolkit complete with time-coding guidance, outreach templates, lead times, ideas for small vs. large offices, and how-tos for creating opportunities in Millie.
A living hub. Year two introduced a SharePoint page with one-click access to Millie, printable assets, pre-drafted comms, and marketing resources.
Consistent comms, flexible ops. Zariah launched in January with fun, emoji-sprinkled newsletters, then hosted weekly office hours for drop-in Q&A and to encourage cross-communication.
From “no” to “how.” When a single day didn’t fit every office’s schedule, Zariah reframed the concept as Impact Days—a week with room for one big event or daily activations. (Cue friendly office competition.)
Engaging Remote Employees
Feedback from year one: virtual teammates felt left out. Year two added Project Helping’s Kynd Kits, shipped to employees with firm tees, plus live build-together Zoom sessions.
Results
2,600 volunteers in June across 70–80 locations (including fully virtual participants).
Strong engagement at every level fueled by simple tools and local autonomy.
What’s next: “For Good” year-round
Impact Days sits under For Good, the firm’s giving and volunteering program. Next up: a Giving Tuesday activation that taps regional pride with friendly competition using Millie’s features to power participation.
Zariah’s playbook (steal this!)
Anchor in values. Secure leadership buy-in by connecting to existing principles and business goals.
Design for local autonomy. Centralize the how (toolkit, templates), decentralize the what (office-level choice).
Over-communicate, then listen. Light, consistent comms + office hours reveal gaps your toolkit can close.
Make it time-bound—and flexible. A shared week builds momentum; a few guardrails keep it inclusive.
Treat “no” as data. Reframe, refine, and try again.
Listen to a great line up of changemakers ✨
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🎧 Listen to the full episode:
Inside Forvis Mazars’ “Impact Days”: How one program scaled from 1 day to a week of service across 70–80 offices
This episode includes music by audionautix.com, released for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
