We asked the sponsors of this year’s Pillar Award for Community Service about the role philanthropy plays within their organizations. Each offered great insight into creating a culture of giving and encouraging employee participation. Here are a few of their ideas.
Robert King Jr., Fifth Third Bank
Describe your company’s philosophy of philanthropy.
At Fifth Third, the belief is that building a stronger community helps build a stronger bank. In 1948, Fifth Third established one of the financial industry’s first corporate foundations. Today, the foundation office reviews hundreds of funding proposals and requests for assistance from nonprofit entities.
We work strategically to align private and corporate contributions to create the greatest and most positive change possible. Fifth Third’s philanthropic efforts include partnering with organizations and promoting community development initiatives, as well as corporate gifts, sponsorships, monetary grants and individual donations.
In 2003, Fifth Third invested nearly $30 million back into local communities.
How important is philanthropy within your company’s culture?
Fifth Third Bank’s culture promotes philanthropy as a core value of its employees. We also promote corporate giving practices and encourage the companies we support to consistently give back to the community.
While we provide financial services that enable communities to grow and prosper, we also support them through philanthropy. This commitment to the community has endured for more than 145 years, due in large part to influential company leaders who wholeheartedly supported arts, health and human services, education and community development initiatives.
Bob Tucker, Tucker Ellis & West
How important is philanthropy within your company’s culture?
Philanthropy is one of the principle values on which our firm was founded. On July 16, 2004, Tucker Ellis & West celebrated its one-year anniversary. In honor of that day, we closed our offices and charged everyone in the firm with doing something extraordinary with their day. Overwhelmingly, employees chose to give something back to their communities.
In Cleveland, volunteers cleaned-up Rockefeller Park, helped prepare St. Martin de Porres School for its first day of school, created care packages for our troops in Iraq, hosted a Senior Cookout at Andrews Place and fed the hungry and homeless at St. Malachi.
How do you evaluate and determine which nonprofits to support corporately?
Our Community Action Committee, comprised of attorneys and staff, acts as a clearinghouse through which we determine support decisions. We decided to focus our efforts on the children in our communities.
Currently, our managing partner is a magistrate judge in the juvenile court system; we are organizing a guardian ad litem program with the courts, and we’re already working with St. Martin de Porres School. In addition, we are planning to focus our work with Business Volunteers Unlimited toward organizations that benefit children.
We also support myriad organizations in which our people are active.
Howard Lewis, Family Heritage Life Insurance
How do you evaluate and determine which nonprofits to support corporately?
Family Heritage is proud to provide cancer, heart attack/stroke and accident insurance. And since our foundation in 1989, we have been committed to supporting cancer- and heart disease-related charities. As our staff grows, we continue to expand on the causes we support. Family Heritage employees created Team FHL (For a Healthy Life) in 1999.
This team is comprised of employees and their families, who donate time and financial resources to numerous local and national charities, including Race for the Cure, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and the American Heart Association. Family Heritage makes a donation to each of these events.
How do you encourage your employees to participate in community service and donate to your corporate causes in today’s economic environment?
In 2000, we introduced a Half-Day Volunteer Program, and many of our employees wasted little time signing up for a volunteer program close to their hearts. In addition, we have employees who have personal reasons for participating in cancer or heart research fund-raising events.
It is common to attend these events and have significant employee participation, and each year, the number of participants increases. There is no executive pressure to support any philanthropic events; rather, executive participation helps to motivate employees.
