Grow Financial Connects DEI to its Corporate Volunteering Efforts

The challenge: aligning DEI and corporate volunteering initiatives

Employee volunteering in the workplace has proven many benefits time and time again, from team building to employee engagement to improving employer brand.

Grow Financial Federal Credit Union – a credit union working for the benefit of its members – wanted to take its deep-rooted corporate volunteering program to the next level by ingraining diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into each volunteer event. 

​​We made an intentional decision to add DEI to our philanthropic efforts since a big goal of ours is to involve more employees in our DEI initiatives.

But with a small diversity team, it is difficult to thoroughly research nonprofits that align with our tactics. And the logistics of organizing these events was a huge time commitment.
_{Chantel Negron, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee Chair and AVP Asset Protection}

Blending DEI initiatives with existing corporate philanthropy efforts is enough of a challenge, but then the global pandemic surfaced. Like many culture efforts during this time, employee volunteering fractured. 

Grow Financial feared that their volunteer program, which had held strong for years, wouldn’t endure the strange, new times the pandemic introduced.

Volunteering in the community is high on our radar and a lot of our departments use it as team-building events. But when the pandemic hit, we struggled to find ways to make an impact that weren’t in person.
_{Chantel, DEI Committee Chair}

Challenged by strategically aligning with DEI initiatives, the significant time commitment in planning volunteer events, and the pandemic, Grow Financial turned to Percent Pledge to fulfill one of their core goals – “Grow the greater good.”

How Percent Pledge enhanced Grow Financial’s corporate philanthropy program

Grow Financial engaged Percent Pledge to power its corporate volunteering program. Within six months of the partnership, Percent Pledge curated 17 volunteer events. 

For each volunteer event (all 17), Percent Pledge provided the following white-glove support:

1. Designed program based on geographies, causes, and volunteer type
2. Researched, vetted, and partnered with local charities, matching preferences
3. Presented vetted project recommendations (2-3 recommendations per 1 project) 
4. Created event pages on Pledge Portal; shared internal comms templates (i.e. emails)
5. Facilitated volunteer project execution
6. Sent volunteer pulse surveys; created impact report ft. stats + employee stories

Grow Financial’s decision to implement Percent Pledge’s volunteering services has saved them 20-30 hours of researching and planning for each volunteer event, and it returned incredible results: 

30% of 500 employees have engaged in the volunteer program within six months of the partnership.

To further explain what has led to this great success, Grow Financial shared how they have benefited most from partnering with Percent Pledge. 

Aligning Grow Financial philanthropic efforts with its DEI initiatives and mission

To build a social impact program that aligns with Grow’s thoughtful strategy, including its values, community, and DEI initiatives, Percent Pledge began by administering its proprietary Employee Passion Assessment. Starting here:

1. Makes programs employee-driven, which leads to far better engagement and inclusion 
2. Provides invaluable insights into how employees give back and what they care about most

And once employees took 5 minutes to complete the Passion Assessment, Percent Pledge created the Grow Financial Passion Report. 

The Passion Report has been utilized in multiple ways. We shared it with our Foundation President, Executive Team, and Board of Directors to show them where our employees’ passions lie, so we can develop a strategy that intertwines with how we should make an impact and where our team members want to serve in the community.
_{Chantel, DEI Committee Chair}

The report shared that employees have the same values: 

• 94% of employees felt having ways to give back would improve their employee experience
• 68% of employees are passionate about Hunger and Homelessness

*These are just a couple of several key insights found in the Grow Financial Passion Report.*

Before Percent Pledge, Grow Financial volunteer events were segmented to individual teams for team-building opportunities. To avoid siloing each project and to customize the social impact program to Grow Financial, Percent Pledge used the Passion Report as a blueprint to strategically align employees’ passion with Grow’s DEI initiatives.

With the Passion Report, we strategically aligned our philanthropic efforts with our DEI initiatives and mission. The three-prong alignment has allowed us to utilize the team-building aspect and partner with organizations that align with our DEI initiatives.

So even though there is an overarching focus of hunger and homelessness [employee’s top cause], Percent Pledge was able to layer DEI into volunteer events by partnering us with organizations that help those underrepresented communities.
_{Chantel, DEI Committee Chair}

How Grow Financial increased internal and external community engagement

While keeping a DEI lens for corporate volunteering events, Percent Pledge catered each event to fit Grow Financial’s strategy map.

Because of Percent Pledge, we were able to find organizations that met our needs and goals, especially with DEI in mind. As a result, we’ve increased internal engagement and external engagement in our communities. We had a big goal this year of involving more employees in our DEI initiatives, and we did just that.
_{Chantel, DEI Committee Chair}

Creating a lasting impact beyond one-time volunteer events

Percent Pledge curated volunteer events that allowed the Grow Financial team to learn more about their communities through the various nonprofits’ programs, inherently connecting employees with each other and their community. And from that, Grow Financial created a domino effect of lasting change.

The impact doesn’t stop after the one-time event.

For example, during a Metropolitan Ministries volunteer event, team members noticed the thrift store was low on specific items and asked additional team members if they’d be willing to help by donating those items. Then after learning about Metropolitan Ministries' mission and services in a virtual event, a few team members were able to help members who were experiencing difficult life situations by reaching out to Metropolitan Ministries for help through their services.

These events aren’t just our team volunteering and making an impact in that one moment. Team members were able to pass the impact on beyond the day of the event. We're really trying to make an impact on the communities we serve. And being able to share these moments with them has a longer-lasting effect than just volunteering one time.
_{Chantel, DEI Committee Chair}

Percent Pledge curated 14 in-person volunteer events.

And due to external challenges stalling Grow Financial’s volunteer program, Percent Pledge curated several virtual events for their dispersed team. The virtual events enabled Grow to continue its corporate philanthropy efforts and gave remote workers in different states the once-rare opportunity to share the experience and engage with all their team members. 

How Percent Pledge simplifies volunteer event logistics

To connect Grow Financial’s team through volunteering – and take more work off Chantel’s plate – Percent Pledge took care of all of the designing, researching, vetting, partnering, facilitating, and more for the curated custom volunteer projects.

Organizing these events was a pain point because we have a small diversity team, and evaluating the nonprofits to ensure they were the right fit for us was time-consuming. We turned to Percent Pledge because we knew all of the volunteer event logistics would be taken care of.

Also, Percent Pledge has become an extension of our team. The one thing that stands out to me is the passion of Percent Pledge employees. When I speak with Maureen [Director of Customer Success at Percent Pledge], her enthusiasm comes across for each project and organization researched. Percent Pledge has a real, authentic passion for their work, and you can’t fake that.
_{Chantel, DEI Committee Chair}

Percent Pledge continues to provide its easy-to-use technology & social impact experts for Grow Financial's team to make a positive impact every day. 

If your company is looking to put volunteering or philanthropy at the forefront of your communities, I would definitely recommend Percent Pledge as the team to partner with.

From the enthusiasm and passion of their employees to their commitment to reaching your philanthropy goals, Percent Pledge is the organization that can help you make a genuine and authentic impact.
_{Chantel, DEI Committee Chair}