As T&M Associates marks its 60th anniversary, longtime CEO Gary Dahms can trace one of the company’s most defining cultural forces — its charitable foundation — back to a simple question posed a decade earlier.
The T&M Foundation, now a central piece of the firm’s identity, began as little more than a creative idea for celebrating a milestone.
“Ten years ago, when we were celebrating our 50th anniversary, we put together a committee of employees and asked them how would they like us to celebrate,” he said. “They came back with a theme called, ‘50 Ways of Giving.’
“Every week of the year we would give back to one of our communities, our clients, our communities, as a way of saying, ‘Thank you for being in business for 50 years.’”
What was planned as a year of weekly volunteer events became something much bigger. The firm did nearly 100 events — and it hasn’t stopped since.
“Giving back to the community became so embraced by the employees that we said, ‘We can’t let this be a once‑a‑year thing, it’s got to be something we build on.”
Dahms said that groundswell of enthusiasm laid the foundation for a formal, lasting program. A few years later, the firm established the T&M Associates Foundation, cementing the spirit of volunteerism and community partnership into the company’s long‑term identity.
“This allowed us to get much more structured and impactful with these communities,” he said.
Now celebrating its fifth anniversary, the foundation has already reached a scale Dahms didn’t anticipate when that first employee committee met.
Not only has the foundation given nearly $100,000 in college scholarships, it has given thousands of community volunteering hours and assisted on fundraising for different charities that are aligned with the communities the company serves, Dahms said.
But the impact isn’t just external.
Dahms said the foundation has become a meaningful part of how T&M attracts and keeps talent — a cultural signal that resonates with current and prospective employees.
“It’s been very gratifying and satisfying to give back to communities, but more than that, it’s been an incredible tool in attracting and retaining talent,” he said. “People see the foundation, and they can really see who we stand for, who we are.”
And just as T&M has expanded far beyond its New Jersey roots over its 60‑year history, the foundation’s reach now spans the company’s full geographic footprint.
What began as a celebratory experiment has evolved into a defining part of T&M’s culture — a reflection of how the company, now six decades in, continues to think about its role in the communities it serves.
“It’s a big part of who we are,” Dahms said.
