Tom and Gail Stevenson’s story is one of love for each other, their family and the Spokane community.
Tom was born and raised in Spokane, while Gail grew up on a farm near Tekoa. After meeting at the University of Idaho, both had season passes to Expo ’74. Every weekend, they enjoyed getting better acquainted and exploring the exciting attractions together.
Once they finished their degrees — accounting for Tom and business education for Gail — they moved to Spokane to marry and raise their two daughters. Tom worked at the same firm, now Moss Adams, his entire career. During his time at the firm, he took on many different roles, including business consulting for Native American tribes, restaurants and auto dealerships. For the final twenty years of his career, Tom was Managing Partner.
After raising their family, Gail worked in a marketing and fundraising role for the Spokane Chamber Music Association while also volunteering as a fundraiser for the Junior League. She then became Executive Director of the Community Colleges of Spokane for fifteen years. “Community college is a door to education that many people otherwise wouldn’t be able to open,” Gail said.
Together they founded the Thomas J. and Gail D. Stevenson Fund at Innovia in 2011. Since its inception, the fund has awarded more than $520,000 to local nonprofits focused on education and poverty alleviation in their community. “Our focus is Spokane,” Tom said.
People from all walks of life can experience poverty. The organizations we support give them a hand up."
During his retirement, Tom co-founded the Bite2Go program and partnered with Second Harvest to help children experiencing food insecurity. Bite2Go allows churches, businesses and other organizations to adopt a local school to provide students with weekend meals. They called the program Bite2Go because students carry a full bag of food home with them each weekend in their backpacks. The program fulfilled a huge need during the COVID-19 pandemic when children were unable to access consistent meals at school. Recently, the program has expanded to other parts of Eastern Washington and North Idaho, providing thousands of students with food.
Tom’s influential efforts during the pandemic helped raise over $800,000 in conjunction with All In WA to support Bite2Go. In addition, he supported Innovia’s pandemic response by contacting prominent members of the community and encouraging them to give to Innovia’s Eastern Washington COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund.
The Stevensons have an incredible philanthropic legacy, providing help for Spokane’s most vulnerable residents and inspiring others to donate and make an impact. Most of all, they want to be known for taking care of both their family and their community.
“There’s a lot of joy in giving back to the community when you see the success stories you had a hand in creating,” said Gail.
