Coast capital savings Credit Union in British Columbia is quickly gaining national recognition through its highly developed community volunteering program. Through this initiative, Canada’s second-largest credit union has discovered that in helping others, you also help yourself and your employees.

The 46-branch credit union, which has its headquarters in Surrey, B.C., recently won the Imagine Canada Award as the country’s top corporate citizen in the financial services sector — for the second consecutive year.

The award came on the heels of the Ethics in Action Overall Leadership Award last fall, which recognized Coast Capital as B.C.’s top company in corporate social responsibility and community involvement. In 2005, Coast Capital was named as one of Canada’s 50 best-managed companies for the fifth consecutive year, partly as a result of its employee volunteer program.

The company’s unique approach began as an employee-driven desire to do community work in their spare time. Now there is an official Coast Capital volunteer program that includes some company-paid time for employees to work in the community.

“We don’t want to be out in our community only with our dollars,” says Cyndie Kremyr, Coast Capital’s vice president of public affairs. “We also want to be out there with our faces in the community and really lend a hand. That’s what this mission is all about.”

The Coast Capital volunteer initiative, officially launched early last month, has been affectionately dubbed “The Good Karma Crew” program. Now, in addition to the more than 20,000 hours annually that Coast Capital employees donate to outside volunteering on their own time, each employee can do up to 7.5 hours of volunteering per year during paid company time.

When an employee performs between 50 and 750 hours of community volunteer work, Coast Capital donates $250 to $1,000 to the community organization of the employee’s choice.

“The formal employee-supported volunteer program that we’re doing grew out of feedback from our employees, who were already doing so much volunteer work on their own in their communities,” Kremyr explains.

The types of volunteer work being performed by Coast Capital’s 2,000 employees throughout Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and southern Vancouver Island encompass the full spectrum, she adds.

“We see a lot of opportunities for teaching and mentoring in the community. But we also have a vast variety of skill sets among our employees that we utilize in addition to banking and financial counselling,” Kremyr notes.

This might include painting community buildings, doing community gardening, helping in community kitchens, assisting with programs such as Meals on Wheels or organizing community events.

The Good Karma Crew also helps with community groups’ marketing plans, information technology and communications support. “Where ever the needs are, that’s where we step up and help,” Kremyr says.

Coast Capital has also become the first company in Canada to support a Seeing is Believing program. Sponsored by Canadian Business for Social Responsibility, the program invites community business leaders to see first-hand the opportunities for business to play a role in addressing social concerns.

In early December, Coast Capital led local business leaders on a tour of social facilities in Surrey, including a homeless shelter, an Aboriginal youth centre and a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre.

“We hope business leaders will start to think about how they can help,” Kremyr says.

Volunteering also gives Coast Capital employees tremendous personal satisfaction.

“It’s a big part of my life,” says Lisa Andrusko, who is a community relations co-ordinator and one of Coast Capital’s many volunteers. “The most rewarding thing for me is being able to give back to the community while, at the same time, meeting new people and gaining new skills and experiences.”

Tracy Kalaw, also a community relations co-ordinator, says: “My volunteer work has definitely increased my confidence in the skills I’ve been able to develop. It gives a sense of team-building with others in your organization and it increases employee morale.”

While the program allows Coast Capital employees to build relationships in the community, it has also had significant benefits for the credit union. In addition to receiving enthusiastic support from community organizations, Kremyr says, “Some people in the community have transferred their business to Coast Capital because of the volunteer work.”

In dollar terms, Kremyr says, Coast Capital gave $3.8 million in donations to its communities in 2005 and expects to give $4.7 million this year.

@page_break@“We’re know there’s more to do,” she says. “Down the road, we’re looking at expanding our volunteering program to our retired employees and to members of our credit union, as well.” IE