Umpqua Bank refocuses volunteer program to leverage technology for nonprofits' benefit

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30608
• Date: 01 June 2019
• Published date: 01 June 2019

JUNE 2019 NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR

5

© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

Industry News

Umpqua Bank refocuses volunteer program

to leverage technology for nonprots’ benet

For nonprots looking to work with corporate

partners, it helps to understand their overall business

strategy and how both entities’ programs might in-

tersect. When a company launches a new community

investment program—whether it’s a new fundraising

program or employee volunteer initiative—charities

that can best adapt their own processes and opera-

tional and programmatic needs to what’s on offer by

the corporate partner will see the most success.

Exemplifying this are Portland, Ore.,–based

Umpqua Bank and the nonprots it is working with

under a new initiative that aims to integrate the latest

digital technologies into the company’s philanthropy.

Due to the growing use of mobile devices and wireless

technology, Umpqua—a regional nancial services

rm—saw a dramatic shift in how its customers

banked, with more transactions over the phone us-

ing apps, or from home using laptop and desktop

computers, instead of the traditional model that

involved in-store visits and customer-staff interac-

tion. On the business side, the company responded

by scaling back on brick-and-mortar operations in

favor of an expansion of online banking services. But

it also spurred a new focus for Umpqua’s corporate

philanthropy program—bolstering what it calls the

human digital connection.

“In our sector, like many others, technology is

transforming consumer behavior, and that’s led to

a new focus on digital banking, putting new digital

tools in the hands of consumers,” said Eve Callahan,

vice chairman of the Umpqua Bank Charitable Foun-

dation. “But there’s a gap between having access to

these new tools and having access to the knowledge

needed to make good nancial decisions.”

That’s led to doubling down on its focus on nan-

cial literacy, which has long been a core component

of its corporate responsibility efforts.

“We realized that nonprots are having similar

disruption in their processes due to new technology,”

she said. “Given these challenges, we think there is

a real need for nancial advice and expertise,” both

within nonprot organizations themselves and among

the constituent populations they serve.

Foundation grants to support strategic nonprot

partners are being coordinated with extensive skills-

based volunteerism under Umpqua’s Connect Em-

ployee Volunteer Program. The company has long

prided itself on the Connect program—which offers

full-time employees an impressive 40 hours per year

of paid time off to volunteer with nonprots of

their choice—and its equally impressive employee

participation rate, which was around 76 percent in

2018. But the new focus on nding ways to leverage

the latest digital technologies meant some changes to

the program were in order.

Callahan described two examples of this new

approach:

• Virtual volunteers. The company has identied

various opportunities for Umpqua’s employees to

volunteer their time with nonprot partners directly

from their own desks, either via phone or computer.

This can include such things as marketing, communi-

cations, administration or even IT functions—numer-

ous back-ofce tasks that nonprots need done can

be done virtually, Callahan said, and doing so cuts

or eliminates commute and travel times, which means

employees are more apt to participate. In the end,

the nonprot gets more hours of service as a result.

• Bankers Hours. This new program places

Umpqua’s bankers at the brick-and-mortar facilities

of its nonprot partners so they can provide educa-

tion and outreach services—via laptops, cellphones

and other wireless devices—directly to members of

the public served by the nonprot. This is especially

useful with populations like the homeless, who often

are not comfortable entering a bank to discuss nan-

cial issues but are nonetheless in need of education

and services in this area.

Both make use of the professional skills and capa-

bilities of Umpqua staff but are further enabled by

digital technologies that make it easier for informa-

tion and services to reach target audiences, Callahan

said.

But equally important, she said, was identifying

nonprot partners that could fully and efciently

make use of the employees and the services they

can provide. Too often, she said, nonprofits are

(See VOLUNTEERS on page 8)