“We value the tremendous expertise of the CFT for Business team in growing our program, sharing best practices and connecting us to opportunities we didn’t even know existed. In addition to providing custom volunteer projects, they helped us create an engaging volunteer fair and a nonprofit board leadership training program for employees,” said Lopez. “Being part of the CFT for Business network of companies has been meaningful for us, providing us the ability to meet like-minded people outside of our company.”
Beyond their CFT for Business partnership, one of the reasons why the Fed’s employee engagement and volunteerism efforts are such a success is because they’ve had the support of leadership from the beginning. “Our president challenged us to be leading citizens and to live out loud our values of corporate social responsibility. To truly be engaged locally, we need to volunteer and serve on boards so we have on-the-ground insight across the organization into economic conditions,” added Lopez.
“It gives employees the ability to learn firsthand about key issues such as food insecurity and financial instability. It’s been a great way for employees to collaborate and deepen connections across departments. It’s also helped us to attract, retain and develop top talent. Each of our volunteer experiences provides a leadership opportunity for employees,” said Lopez.
“We want our staff to lead and take ownership of community issues, to go out and take action. We want our internal culture to reflect that no matter what position you hold in the organization, you can be a leader working on increasing economic well-being through volunteerism, and that you can do so on work time,” said senior vice president Alfreda Norman.
The Fed offers all employees volunteer time during the work day, but they’ve found that employees continue to volunteer on their own time on the weekends and after hours. “For many of our employees, service is part of their lifestyle,” said Norman.
“We’re connecting the dots to show our employees how they can change the world, working together to increase the economic well-being of our community,” Norman continued. “Our employees are celebrating each other’s efforts and uplifting their colleagues who are doing amazing things. We’re collaborating in a much more powerful way.”
