The Man Behind Accounting for the Social Good: Harvee Pene

Harvee Pene is best known for his “Day for Dollar” giving initiative as the Co-Founder of Inspire – Life Changing Accountants, successfully providing over 10 million days of Life Changing Help to Families in need across 16 countries. He is also known for reaching $10M of proactive small savings for small business clients. As a result, the business was twice recognised as ‘One of the Top 100 Companies in Australia’ and Harvee was awarded ‘One of Ten Outstanding Young Persons in Australia’.

The Man Behind Accounting for the Social Good: Harvee Pene

When Harvee realized his bigger vision was to see the end of poverty in his lifetime, he decided to exit ‘Inspire’ and help create ‘many inspires’ through Life Changing Accountants. His philanthropic mindset gave rise to 1% TIP, a global movement of Life Changing Accountants who have pledged to Tip 1% of their Time, Income or Profits for good. Adding to it, Pene aims to unify this goal with UN SDG 1 of ending extreme poverty by 2030.

It is noteworthy that it just took 5 years for just one accounting firm ‘Inspire’ to give 10 million days of food, water, health, and sanitation to families in need. In just a matter of 18 months ‘Life Changing Accountants’ reached 62,113,822 giving impacts via Global Giving Initiative B1G1.

Pene is also the founder of Life Changing Accountants which Adelaide-based Accounting Firm, Sum Total Accounting and Business Karen Conlon explains as “They had a purpose that was bigger than them …. a kind of North Star that was guiding them. And now, as part of Life Changing Accountants, we’re going to be doing that for all our clients.”

In this case, the ‘north star’ that Ms Conlon is referring to is what’s known as The Global Goals or the 17 Sustainable Development Goals — very specific things that we need to do by 2030 to create, quite frankly, an even better world.

“We’re transforming ourselves through this process too and we couldn’t be happier than to be doing it with Life Changing Accountants. Both new and existing clients of the firm will be able to get a new sense of purpose and connection, helping them differentiate themselves in their markets, impacting their families, their communities and our world”, Ms Conlon added.

Harvee Pene, the Founder of Life Changing Accountants expresses it this way: “The Global Goals are a ‘must achieve’ thing, the most important thing about them is it’s NOT Governments signing off on agreements that do it, it’s businesses that actually make it happen. And there’s no professional group like Accountants to make that happen for businesses and for our world.”

He adds “Just as an example of that, companies associated with Life Changing Accountants have created a staggering 207 Million giving impacts worldwide.”

Pene has also authored a total of 12 books as of 2022 that have been published by The Greater Good Publishing Co. & Dean Publishing, the most prominent of which is 101 Strategies for Business Owners to SAVE TAX without doing anything dodgy, unethical or against the law. Pene recently released “ZERO POVERTY BY 2030”, which he co-authored with his daughter Havana Pene.

Harvee is also a testicular cancer survivor, the global face of men’s health charity Movember and is studying to become a doctor. He is a two-time TEDx speaker and UN Global Goals Ambassador.

As a numbers person, Harvee believes that family is number one. His mission is to create a business that gives him the freedom to always put family first and to help others do the same. By 2030, Harvee hopes that “Day for Dollar” and “TIP 1%” will reach 1 Billion days of help to families in need. He hopes his company can also serve as a model for others to become a Business for Good – especially those companies that become more profitable as a result of his services. He believes that when business owners have more, they can not only live more but also give more.