Tom Raffa (B’76, Parent’10)

Business Owner

Tom Raffa is the founder and former CEO of Raffa, P.C., a National CPA firm specializing in Nonprofits and Purpose-Driven Businesses. In 2018, Tom sold his firm to Marcum and became the National Leader of Raffa-Marcum’s Nonprofit & Social Sector Group. He later sold one of the larger insurance agencies in DC, Raffa Financial Services, Inc. (RFSI) to The HUB and remains the owner and shareholder in several other companies all of which work to catalyze positive systemic change throughout the country and beyond.

Organizations he has created and incubated, the multiple levels of support he has provided and channeled, have been instrumental in advancing the US nonprofit and emerging social sector. Tom’s brainchild for moving corporate philanthropy from good intentions to strategic impact, Companies for Causes, was awarded the Pearl Foundation Award for Innovation in Philanthropy. With this and several other significant social startups and NPOs, Tom seeks to drive effective philanthropy across a new landscape of mandated corporate responsibility and models for sustainability.

More than just an “early adopter,” Tom has been an industry pioneer since 1984, committed to using his business enterprises as a force for good. Building multiple companies over four decades: Raffa, PC – a certified B Corp (and the largest of any B-certified CPA firm in the world) and the only CPA and Advisory firm in the top-100 national ranking that was woman-owned; RFSI, one of the largest insurance providers in DC; Raffa Investment Advisors, with over $1 billion in assets under management; Raffa Solutions (now t/a ThinkNimble), a tech company working on AI issues for the Sector; Raffa Social Capital Advisors, a group that helps social start-ups with strategies and funding for growth and effectiveness; Vardaan, a social company in India that matches corporate philanthropy with effective nonprofits; and, Pierian Services and PIERAG, professional services firms based in India and the US providing needed office, accounting, attestation and advisory services to dozens of corporation and CPA firms worldwide.

Tom’s current Board roles include the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and The Mental Health Coalition (as a Founding Member). He has served on the board of the Park City Community Foundation, the United Way of the National Capital Area, the Research Institute for Small and Emerging Business, and spent over a decade serving the Catalogue for Philanthropy. He is also a founding member of and chaired the Alliance for Nonprofit Management, where he received a life-time achievement award.

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