The Reciprocity of Giving Back - In Conversation with Barry G. Moss
How Businesses and Leaders can Utilize their Skillsets to Support their Communities
“If you’re helping people who need help, you’re always in good standing.”
It is widely understood that helping others also helps us. The same can be said about businesses. Since companies play a prominent role in their community, they can build respect and a good reputation while making it a better place for its residents. While giving back is good for the greater community, it also benefits the business by empowering its employees and allowing for network expansion.
We are in conversation with Barry Moss. With over 30 years of experience as a senior advisor and business strategist, Barry is an exemplary leader whose central ethos is people-driven and giving back. Today, Barry speaks on insights on giving back and how to best utilize your skillsets to help the needs of the charity.
Barry, you are a believer in the power of giving back. It is intrinsic to the way you work. How do you translate this value into your professional choices? How do you ensure that your skills are transferable” — and that the skills you use professionally can also be used for giving back to society? Further, discuss some of the causes you believe in and why.
“I have always cared about people and try to find where to help others best. For this reason, I have always sought to work at a company where the leadership cares about giving back. This value embedded within the company culture allows it to play out naturally; it is not a question of the company being forced to prove certain metrics but instead displaying sincerity in giving back. I was always very proud of working at EY, where giving back was a core value, allowing for many opportunities to become involved in charities promoting the act of giving back to society.
“Having charity as a core value helps the community and for-profit businesses simultaneously. Besides doing the right thing, one of a not-for-profit’s most vital skill sets is making more with less. Not-for-profits innately have limited resources, so taking the most and bringing out the best with those resources is critical. This skill translates into the for-profit side, where sometimes you might be resource-constrained and have to see how to make the best of what you have. Being people-centric also helps build a strong positive working environment since you become more sensitive to employees’ needs and can address them accurately.
“The key to doing good and giving back is learning what the charities need and seeing how an individuals professional skills can best cover the need. For example, choosing the right person for the executive director role is essential since they are responsible for organizing, guiding, and driving the charity agenda forward. It has always been a focal point to match my skill sets to whichever charity I am involved with, to fluidly match the tasks I am undertaking in my day job to maximize the benefits my skill sets may have towards the particular charity. Having developed accounting and business advisory skill sets throughout my career, I can and have transferred those skill sets to serve a social service agency not-for-profit and a real estate industry organization not-for-profit as audit committee chair.
“Another aspect of giving back is instilling the right ideals in the next generation to ensure the continuity of paying it forward. Focusing on mentorship and training the younger generation to do the right thing, have good values, and support those in need has been an imperative of mine. I like guiding my mentees to choose a charity they feel passionately about since you want your people to be involved and directly participate, whether a mentoring program where you’re advising many students who could use the extra assistance to get ahead, at a food bank where people are giving out the food, or even a food kitchen where you’re cooking and serving the meals.
“The charities that I am most passionate about center around social services. For example, helping the elderly, assisting with educational tuition, and supporting food banks and kitchens. With the rise of inflation and unemployment, I find it important to help those who lack financial resources so that those who need them can access senior care, education, and food.”
Thank you, Barry, for your time and insight.
Connect with Barry on LinkedIn.
