Always raising the bar

When Paul Williamson sees a child in need, he lends a hand because he’s been there.

As a self-described “crippled kid” with polio in the 1940s, Williamson was towed in a wagon to school by his sister. But you will never catch him complaining – he is the only one of his group of hospital roommates from back then to survive.

Today, Williamson, CEO of Williamson Group Inc., a Brantford, Ont.-based company specializing in investments, financial planning and employee benefits, has created a culture of giving back, both at his firm and to his community.

Williamson was exposed to that culture at an early age. His father, Donald, was the first chairman of Brantford’s United Way charity.

Williamson the younger is known as “Mr. Double-Up” for his fundraising challenges and prowess, and he is big on getting as many people involved as possible. “Many hands make light work” is an adage Williamson lives by. He wants his staff to appreciate the great work done by organizations such as the United Way, so he encourages them all to take part in a “day of caring,” during which they’ll volunteer at a specific United Way agency.

“They have an opportunity to become passionate about it,” Williamson says. “They were blown away [because] they didn’t know things were like that.”

One of Williamson’s biggest success stories is the Brantford Rotary Classic Run, which benefits physically challenged youth. One year, in the mid-1990s, Williamson participated in the run and raised $5,000. He doubled his fundraising goal in each of the next few years – to $10,000, then $20,000, $40,000 and $80,000 – all the while challenging the Rotary club to match the money he was bringing in.

In Williamson’s final year in the Rotary run, the community raised $70,000. But the following year, when Williamson didn’t raise a dime, the community picked up the slack and raised $130,000. Whatever Williamson had done, it had rubbed off.

“I want to be an initiator,” Williamson says. “Get it up and going; get some momentum, step sideways and let the waves keep on going.”

Fast-forward by a decade or so, when Williamson applied the same principles at the local food bank. He challenged his employees – he had 60 at the time, compared with 75 today – to raise donations of 4,000 pounds of food. They did it, of course, so he raised the bar by 1,000 pounds the next year.

A couple of years later, Williamson’s company challenged all of Brantford to match the 20,000 pounds of donated food they were planning to bring in. Combined, they brought in more than 45,000 pounds of food.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Williamson chaired the local United Way campaign in 2000, propelling it to its biggest year-over-year funding increase of 14%. Says Williamson: “Personally, it was the greatest community thing I’d ever been involved in because of the great sense of ‘team.’ We were supercharged.”

Williamson also is proud to point out that his firm has had 100% participation in United Way fundraising campaigns for 13 years. In fact, 14 employees give a minimum of $1,000 to qualify as “leaders.” And, even during the economic downturn of 2008, his staff’s giving increased by 8%.

In honour of all of Williamson’s volunteer work, he was presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for community involvement last autumn.

There’s more work to be done, of course, and the challenge is getting new people involved. The biggest factor keeping many people from participating in their communities, Williamson says, is the distraction of the “technological rat race.”

When you consider that most families have two working parents and kids in multiple activities, it can be difficult to look outside the bubble of your own life.

Still, Williamson says, you have to: “I’m trying to take a two-by-four to being too self-oriented. The more you give, the more you get. It’s a winning combination.”