Accounting Firm Competition Increases Participation Giving for Second Year

William & Mary alumni working in the accounting industry came together for the second-annual Accounting Firms Competition. Created in 2016 by the Accounting Programs Board and Raymond A. Mason School of Business, the competition encourages alumni to give back to the university.

This year, EY and PwC tied for the highest participation rates among Big Four Firms; both achieved 54 percent of employees giving to William & Mary or the Mason School of Business. PwC greatly improved their participation over last year’s results, jumping up 18 percentage points to tie the 2016 competition winner, EY.

“I am delighted to see alumni coming together to support students and faculty for this friendly competition. Each of us do our part to help the university and Mason School deliver an accounting education that is second to none,” said Travis Patton ’98, Partner at PwC and Fundraising Committee Chair of the Accounting Programs Board.

Other firms made significant improvements in their participation rates, notably Grant Thornton improved their participation by 10 percentage points and Johnson Lambert by 18. Of the 11 regional and international firms with 840 combined employees, half contributed to the university or Mason School during the competition.

Broad-based support is an established and important indicator of the level of engagement of a school’s alumni community. William & Mary has the highest alumni participation rates among nationally ranked public universities, and the university is striving for 40 percent participation by 2020.

2017 Accounting Firm Competition Final Results