Volunteerism: how some banks boost participation.

• Author: Albro, Walt
• Position: First Interstate Bank - Gulf Bank

WITH THE SLUGGISH ECONOMY, many banks today are constrained by the fact that they don't have as much money available to contribute to nonprofit groups as they did in the past. Nonprofit groups are also struggling to keep donations up to previous levels. In frustration, some of these groups are returning to their banks and urging them to donate more in order make up the revenue short-fall.

How can a bank respond when they are caught in such a squeeze? If the money is simply not there, one alternative solution is to provide services "in kind" in the form of increased employee volunteerism for community nonprofit organizations.

ABA Bank Marketing magazine spoke with two banks that have been cited for having high levels of employee participation in community volunteerism. We examined the techniques that these banks use to encourage employee involvement with nonprofits. Their stories follow below.

Creating Multiple Ways to Leverage Every Dollar and Every Hour Donated

First Interstate Bank, Billings, Mont. Asset Size: $7.3 billion Number of employees: 1,700

First Interstate Bank is an example of a financial services institution where the community contribution effort is driven at the grassroots' level--at the employee level--and where the bank has devised multiple techniques to encourage employee volunteerism. Currently, about 30 percent of the bank's 1,700 employees contribute some level of volunteer hours. This is roughly 50 percent higher than the average level of employee participation in volunteerism at corporations nationwide.

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Banks can stretch the dollars they give to community nonprofits by encouraging their employees to donate volunteer time as well. Two banks describe how they motivated their employees to achieve unusually high volunteer participation rates.

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The bank, which operates 71 branches throughout Montana, Wyoming and western South Dakota, boasts of a corporate culture that is committed to exemplary customer service and to supporting the communities that it serves. The bank's brand tagline is, "Neighbors helping neighbors in the place we call home."

One of the tools that the bank uses to encourage employee volunteerism is the First Interstate BancSystem Foundation, which was established in 1990, and is funded by First Interstate Bank.

Two of the foundation's primary functions are to support branch contributions to nonprofit organizations within the Community and to support bank...