We're growing employee engagement and volunteer programs one business at a time.
Over the past year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has partnered closely with CFT for Business (CFT4B) to grow their “Let’s Help” employee engagement and volunteer programs.
“The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ mission is to serve the public. Giving back is the compass that connects us to our community. We focus on three pillars: neighborhood stabilization, economic growth and opportunity, and financial capability and access,” said senior community development advisor Elizabeth Sobel-Blum. “CFT4B has provided us the infrastructure to bring employees closer to our mission through volunteerism. The CFT4B team listened to our priorities and provided us with an ongoing list of nonprofits to partner with that fit within our focus of economic wellness. We’re now able to offer employees a much broader array of choices they can engage in and lead that fit their unique passions.”
“CFT4B makes it easier and more efficient for our employees to become volunteer champions,” noted community development officer Roy Lopez. “We wanted a way to provide service opportunities without employees having to be engaged with logistics that take time away from the volunteer experience. CFT4B acts as our backbone support for so many things we wouldn’t have bandwidth to do on our own.”
“The online portal for volunteer management offered through CFT4B has been a huge help to us,” added program manager and community engagement advisor Jenna Dillenback.
“We value the tremendous expertise of the CFT4B 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 CFT4B network of companies has been meaningful for us, providing us the ability to meet like-minded people outside of our company.”
Beyond their CFT4B 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.”