PILLAR AWARD FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE
Ralph Della Ratta
Managing partner
Western Reserve Partners
www.wesrespartners.com
Since its founding in 2004, Western Reserve Partners has strongly believed in and practiced a firm-wide commitment to community service and support. Western Reserve is proud of its culture of caring and believes that the relatively small size of the firm is not commensurate with the far-reaching impact of its contributions to the Northeast Ohio community.
At an employee level, Western Reserve prides itself on the fact that all of its 15 senior professionals and many of its junior staff are actively involved at the board level of at least one nonprofit organization, including managing partner, Ralph Della Ratta. Furthermore, the majority of these professionals have assumed leadership positions on these boards, and as such, average as many as eight hours per week on their nonprofit endeavors.
Employees are quick to support each other’s charitable endeavors, staffing and attending innumerable telethons, 5K runs, golf outings and other fundraising events each year. Collectively, these efforts impact nearly 30 organizations across a variety of focus areas.
As a firm, Western Reserve is generous in its financial support of those organizations in which its professionals hold leadership or board positions, as well as many others. The firm is particularly proud of its participation in the United Way’s Pacesetter/Stellar Campaign program.
In this program, the firm commits to an annual 5 percent increase over its previous year’s gift, and the firm has had 100 percent participation each year. Since 2005, Western Reserve’s contributions to United Way and other charitable organizations have totaled more than $500,000. ●
