Ben Alvarado
Wells Fargo Southern California Regional President
Community involvement is part of our core at Wells Fargo. From our Vision and Values booklet to our Orange County Volunteer Network, our employee education matching program and volunteer time, giving drives the culture at Wells Fargo. ‘We are only as strong as the communities we serve’ is one of the values that is weaved into our bank’s everyday actions. We support our communities through many initiatives. We want to ensure kids get a good education, community members are employed, veterans thrive as they transition to civilian life, families own homes, and our small-business community is strong.
We encourage our team members’ philanthropic involvement locally by letting them choose the nonprofits for which they are interested in working, and this has resulted in approximately 15,000 volunteer hours each year. Our foundation and team members donate $6 million in Orange County alone. Managers are encouraged to participate on nonprofit boards of their choosing, and each team member is granted 16 hours a year to volunteer with the nonprofits of their choice. The company matches donations of up to $5,000 for educational institutions. Many team meetings end with a volunteer activity, and each year the company grants up to six months of paid leave to selected team members to volunteer at a nonprofit of the team member’s choosing.
Last year, our team members engaged alongside me and one of my philanthropic causes, the United Way, where I am on the board. I was extremely proud when 400 team members showed up to Walk United at Angel Stadium and walked beside me as we brought awareness to education, income, health and housing in Orange County. Our employee giving campaign, Community Support Campaign, held every September to engage our workforce, topped $11 million in Southern California.
As the year progressed, I was able to see our team engage in volunteering at the OC Food Bank during their National Family Volunteer Day; the We Give Thanks Thanksgiving dinner; stuffing Joy Jars for the Jesse Reese Foundation; wardrobing at Working Wardrobes, and so many others. Each day brings an opportunity to help others, and in 2015 I know I will continually be amazed at the ways in which my fellow team members are engaging in helping others.
Shari Battle
Bank of America
Senior Vice President, OC Market Manager
Enterprise Business and Community Engagement
Community engagement plays an important role in everything we do at Bank of America. It’s a part of our DNA, embedded in our values and expressed through the activities that we engage in daily.
It means more than just writing checks. We take a holistic approach to philanthropy that engages not only our national and local leadership team but also our best resource: our employees.
Local employees drive our engagement, from serving on nonprofit boards (bank employees serve on 83 Orange County nonprofit boards) to providing pro bono expertise, such as financial literacy workshops and participating in dozens of local neighborhood charitable initiatives. Last year alone, Bank of America employees provided more than 34,000 volunteer hours of service in Orange County. Such dedication to the community is bolstered by the bank allowing its employees two hours per week of paid time off to volunteer locally.
This is in addition to providing more than $1 million in grants to 50 local nonprofits, primarily those serving housing, hunger and jobs, three of the most challenging issues facing Orange County. Our employees also help the bank identify community needs by bringing important issues and ideas to the table, helping to determine grant funding decisions.
Also key to its holistic approach to corporate giving is Bank of America’s belief that checks alone are not enough. Through our annual Neighborhood Builders Program, we support high-impact nonprofits in Orange County with a unique combination of individual leadership development for executive directors and emerging leaders, and $200,000 in unrestricted funding.
Our Student Leaders program connects five community-minded high school students in Orange County with a paid summer internship at local nonprofits, plus leadership training in Washington, D.C., giving them valuable workplace experience while helping them discover their own talents for serving the community.
In 2015, we look forward to strengthening and increasing our community engagement by deepening relationships and being a meaningful partner to local nonprofits and the community.
No one entity can address the vast challenges of Orange County’s diverse population. Orange County is made up of 34 cities, making it difficult to identify and service every community need. However, with short- and long-term strategies, we believe in the power of collaboration among public, private and nonprofit sectors to connect our community members with the tools they need to thrive.
Kevin Dunigan
City National Bank
EVP/OC Regional Executive
Community involvement at City National is a way of life. It’s part of our DNA and something that is paramount to our mission in helping not only our clients but our communities on ‘The Way Up.’ Giving back to the community goes far beyond just writing a check.
Like most of our competitors, we support a number of nonprofit organizations and community partners with financial support. City National also recognizes that human resources support is just as important to these charitable groups. In addition to the more than $300,000 City National contributed to numerous philanthropic organizations and causes last year in Orange County, its more than 100 colleagues donated nearly 1,600 hours of community service.
Every year, City National organizes Community Pride Day that supports a specific cause throughout its footprint. Last year, the cause was fighting hunger, and the organization it supported in Orange County was the Second Harvest Food Bank. City National colleagues spent several hours one Saturday morning filling food baskets and sorting food items to help low-income families. As part of City National’s 60th anniversary celebration last year, the bank also donated $60,000 on behalf of its colleagues who volunteer so much time to various nonprofit groups. Several organizations in Orange County were recipients of the special funding.
Educational outreach through its award-winning Reading is the Way Up literacy program is one of City National’s key community initiatives. Since 2007, the bank has partnered with Barnes & Noble on a Holiday Book Drive that supports schools throughout its footprint with books and cash donations totaling $200,000 each year. Since 2004, City National has awarded more than $800,000 to educators as part of its Teacher Literacy Grant program. Colleagues also teach financial literacy classes to K-12 students during the workday as part of its Dollars and Sense program.
Some of the other many nonprofit organizations City National supported last year in Orange County include the Friendship Shelter, Orange County Museum of Art, Ronald McDonald House, Neighborhood Works, Affordable House Clearinghouse, and South Coast Repertory.
This year, City National plans to continue supporting these and many other nonprofit groups in Orange County with financial and volunteer outreach. City National is celebrating its 40th anniversary in Orange County this year and will include a philanthropic component in its celebratory activities.
Katie Ellis
Opus Bank
Executive Director
Opus Community Foundation
At Opus Bank, being involved in our community is one of our top priorities and has been since inception. Simultaneously with Opus Bank’s founding, the Opus Community Foundation was established exactly for the purpose of improving the lives of those who are less advantaged in our local neighborhoods, and does so by supporting nonprofit organizations that make a positive and meaningful impact in our communities.
Our team members are also passionate about giving back, so volunteerism has become an integral part of our corporate culture. So many people give of their own time and treasure to support the causes they care about. We hear the most amazing stories about how our team members were inspired to get personally involved. Realizing the importance of that personal engagement, Opus Bank established its Great Works volunteer program to find and organize opportunities for our team members to volunteer together with local nonprofits.
Representatives from all levels of the bank are eager to roll up their sleeves and help out whenever Great Works announces a project, whether it’s packing food boxes for the hungry, teaching financial literacy to at-risk students, donating and giving out holiday presents for families in need, helping job seekers prepare for interviews, or any of the other community events we donated our time to last year. It’s incredibly rewarding to see how much joy our team gets out of doing something good for someone else.
As we head into 2015, one of our goals is to provide even more of these opportunities for our team members. By personally engaging them and their families in these projects, we can work together with our nonprofit partners to better the communities where we live and work. We are also committed to focusing on high-impact giving as we continue to support dynamic nonprofits in the coming year. As Opus Bank continues to grow and evolve to meet our community’s needs, we fully intend for our community involvement to grow and evolve.
Caroline Harkins
Bridge Bank
Senior Vice President, Southern California
Regional Manager
We at Bridge Bank consider community involvement to be a vital component of our annual operating plan, both from the perspective of being a good corporate citizen and as a way to support the causes that our clients and the business community at large are passionate about. Additionally, many of our employees care deeply about participating in their respective communities in a multitude of ways, from the employee-led annual holiday food drive that provides thousands of meals to families in need, to sitting in advisory roles of community organizations.
Bridge Bank strives to support charitable endeavors as much as possible. The Bridge Bank team volunteers over 1,000 hours of their time, in addition to financial resources to over 50 organizations on an annual basis. As a commercial bank focused entirely on serving the entrepreneurial community, including emerging technology companies and privately held businesses, Bridge Bank looks for opportunities within the community to support causes that are linked in some way to fostering economic vitality. Specifically, we focus on education at all levels, from elementary school to the secondary education level; affordable housing; and various legislative issues that impact the business community.
The challenge we often face in our effort to support the community is that there are so many important and worthy causes that need corporate support, and it can sometimes be difficult to choose one over the other. At the end of the day, we try to find and support the causes that are common between the passions of our employees and our clients, and the values of our brand.
Our approach to community involvement in Orange County in 2015 will be consistent with how we participate in all of our markets and will include working with Junior Achievement to provide financial literacy skills to low-income students, and with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, to name a few. As we continue to expand our presence here in Orange County, we will continue to seek community involvement opportunities that align with the values of our employees, our clients and our brand.
Steve Herman
California Bank & Trust
First Vice President, Community
Reinvestment Manager
Over more than 60 years, California Bank & Trust has held to a set of core values recognizing that its financial performance represents only a part of our corporate responsibility. One of the bank’s core values focuses squarely on community. California Bank & Trust is dedicated to being a responsible leader and active partner in the communities it serves.
California Bank & Trust helps in a variety of ways—through community reinvestment, charitable donations, sponsorships and contributing time. California Bank & Trust is especially proud of its many associates who volunteer at community organizations, many of whom provide financial expertise that helps individuals achieve their goals.
California Bank & Trust’s support includes economic development, improving healthcare, supporting the arts, sponsoring educational opportunities, promoting affordable housing, and more.
As an example, California Bank & Trust has helped many families throughout Orange County obtain the financing needed to own their own home through its ‘Friends and Neighbors Mortgage Program.’ Through this program, we offer flexible underwriting criteria and down payment assistance for those without affordable mortgages. As an example, California Bank & Trust has partnered with NeighborWorks Orange County to help more than 60 families throughout Orange County obtain the financing needed to own their own home.
Furthermore, we are committed to helping entrepreneurs start and grow small businesses to revitalize communities.
California Bank & Trust views expanding economic growth in the areas it serves as part of its job. We donate time, resources, and financial expertise to help entrepreneurs start and expand their own businesses—by preparing strong loan applications, securing funding and financing, and teaching operational and growth strategies.
This year alone, California Bank & Trust plans to participate in a Habitat for Humanity build and teach Junior Achievement of Orange County’s Personal Finance program to low- and moderate-income high school students.
Rick Nogueira
JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Orange County
Head of Commercial Bank
At JPMorgan Chase, we believe we have a responsibility to be part of the solution to our community’s most pressing problems, not only because it’s the right thing to do but because our own long-term success depends on the success of the neighborhoods and the people, companies and institutions we serve.
JPMorgan Chase donates more than $200 million a year globally, much of it to help the poor and disadvantaged, and our employees volunteer more than 540,000 hours to serve their local communities around the world.
But our efforts go well beyond philanthropic work. We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in a number of initiatives that are assisting veterans and their families to return to civilian life, helping small businesses grow, and helping unemployed community members have a chance to get the job skills training they need to secure employment.
In Orange County, we are very focused on workforce development. Working with partners like the Goodwill of Orange County, Think Together, and Taller San Jose, we are attempting to tackle the skills gap where employers are having a hard time finding skilled workers trained for available jobs. Our $125,000 grant to Taller San Jose last year, for example, will allow it to increase its efforts to provide job training in high-growth industry sectors.
As a major employer, we plan to sponsor a number of important Orange County events. Last year, we sponsored the Orange County Business Council’s International Trade Forum, where leading area experts exchanged ideas about growing the local economy.
We also sponsored the Business Council’s Turning Red Tape into Red Carpet Awards; the Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ ArtsConnect program; the Women in Business Awards; the Baldwin Cup Regatta; and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Walk to Cure Diabetes.
With more than 1,700 employees in the county, JPMorgan Chase volunteers take pride in rolling up their sleeves. Last year, we repaired the home of a disabled veteran in Yorba Linda with Habitat for Humanity; served at a monthly pancake breakfast at Someone Cares Soup Kitchen; planted at a California Coast Commission Roots gardening event; taught financial literacy skills at a Junior Achievement event; donated food at a Second Harvest Food Bank event; and walked as the largest team—600 volunteers—and top-25 fundraiser in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. This year, we look forward to continuing these efforts.
We are proud to serve Orange County. We will continue to use our size, scope, and expertise to make a difference and be a real, positive contributor to this beautiful region.
Julius Robinson
MUFG Union Bank NA
Head of Corporate Social Responsibility
for the Americas
At Union Bank, we realize that having a strong and healthy community is not only good for the community but for business. As a result, building strong relationships and making a positive impact on the communities we serve is an inherent part of our mission to do right as a responsible bank. One way we accomplish this is through the MUFG Union Bank Foundation, which has pledged at least 2% of the bank’s annual after-tax net profit to charitable organizations as part of its 10-year community commitment. The foundation also partners with community-based organizations to provide programs to diverse and underserved communities. Our core areas for charitable contributions include affordable housing, education, community economic development and the environment.
With 44 branches in Orange County, our local support in these areas includes collaborating with organizations dedicated to helping families receive affordable housing; partnering with local chambers of commerce to help educate small-business owners about growing and sustaining their businesses; and teaming with nonprofit organizations to help educate youth about the basics of personal finance. Our support also includes partnerships with nonprofits to help with capacity-building grants for developing and maintaining healthier communities; participation in local beach cleanups and beautification projects; and partnerships with health organizations to promote community health and fitness. In 2014, the bank’s charitable investment in local communities totaled more than $13.7 million, including grants, contributions, and sponsorships, and in Orange County, the bank contributed more than $744,000 in grants and corporate sponsorships alone.
Equally important to our community involvement is our employee volunteerism and participation on local nonprofit boards. In 2014, employees volunteered more than 75,000 hours. More than 9,000 of those were volunteered by our Orange County workforce. Employees volunteered more than 11,000 hours focused on financial literacy.
A challenging aspect of our community involvement is deciding which organizations to support among the numerous requests and not having enough resources to support every worthy cause. However, we find balance in having employees who are among the most committed in the industry and who supplement the bank’s charitable giving by volunteering their time and offering their talents, including through board memberships and other leadership, to a variety of organizations throughout the year. In 2014, our employees provided more than 22,000 board service hours.
Union Bank is committed to continuing our community support, and among the initiatives we’re most proud of is our student-run branches. The program, which began in 2011 in Fresno and expanded in 2014 to two Los Angeles high schools—the first-ever in L.A.—provides high school students with the hands-on experience of working in a bank while acquiring skills in finance, teamwork and leadership. The program has proven successful, and we are looking at possibly expanding into Orange County.
