If there’s one thing that credit union teams are known for, it’s giving back to the communities they serve! From fundraising to volunteer work, credit unions spend nearly as much time giving back as they do helping members manage their finances. With all that volunteer and charity work under credit unions’ belts, it can be difficult to keep track of it all, especially when it comes reporting for compliance purposes or building your brand by sharing the stories of how your credit union has made a difference in your community.

The Credit Union Connection Host and Co-founder Sarah Snell Cooke sat down with Uncommon Giving CEO Andy Howell and VP of Sales Melissa Lach to discuss how their employee giving platform helps credit unions keep track and tell their unique stories of giving back to the community.

Read the full transcript:

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Sarah Cooke 00:02

Hello and welcome to The Credit Union Connection. I am Sarah Snell Cooke, your host and co- founder of The Credit Union Connection. I'm here today with two super cool executives from Uncommon Giving. We have CEO Andy Howell on my left. Welcome Andy.

Andy Howell 00:16
Thank you very much. We're happy to be here.

Sarah Cooke 00:18
And VP of sales, Melissa Lach on my right. Hello, Melissa.

Melissa Lach 00:22
Hi Sarah. Thanks for having us.

Sarah Cooke 00:24

Absolutely. And you guys are our old hats at this right now, but I'm going to go to Melissa. Why don't you give me a quick introduction to yourself, as well as introduce Uncommon Giving. I'll give you the shot, and then Andy gets to talk next.

Melissa Lach 00:39

Okay, um, hi, Melissa Lach, I have been with Uncommon Giving for two years now, and I've been in the ESG tech space for over 10 years. So, excited to be here and talk about Uncommon Giving and how we're amplifying generosity.

Sarah Cooke 00:57
Excellent. And Andy, why don't you give yourself a quick introduction as well?

Andy Howell 01:00

Yeah, thanks. I'm Andy Howell, CEO here at Uncommon Giving. I have also been in the sort of social impact generosity space for the majority of my career. And Uncommon just is a, the way we like to say it is an easy to use, easy to administer generosity platform that allows
companies to automate their philanthropy and also involve their employees in it, through giving and volunteering, and run all kinds of programs, whether it's sort of ongoing throughout the year, or if there's some kind of campaign they want to run, or something happens in the community they need to rally support for. We make that really easy for companies to do, and also, we'll talk about it more today, but also tell their story. So the reporting out of our platform, everything that's done in the platform, is very easy to report on, create stories, tell your story, amplify your brand, all those kind of things that happen in your most important community,

Sarah Cooke 01:58

Yep, yep. And this is so credit uniony. So credit unions, their people, tend to be big givers of time as well as funds. And so this makes so much sense to me, and if you give a little more into how it works.

Andy Howell 02:12

Well, you know, of all the types of companies that we support, you know, credit unions, I think, are the ones that should be really in our sweet spot, because their entire mission is around supporting their community. That's what they wake up every morning about, thinking about, and they're really pillars of their community. They, they support their members a variety of ways. Through that member support, they end up improving their communities, a multi, of just a variety of ways. And I just think that of all the things they're doing, one thing we could sort of take the administration off their plate, or is their philanthropy, their charitable giving and their volunteering. So we really automate that. So when a company implements Uncommon Giving, they get this nice landing page for their employees to go to when they log in. They see lots of things that the company wants them to know about, what's going on in terms of community engagement and community impact. If they want to give to something that's personally important to them, they can do it through our platform. And I think one of the things that you know, we've really found in the credit union space that's been extremely powerful is the ability for folks that are volunteering in their community, either because their, their credit union has an ethos or even a service. You know, call it a requirement or just desire, employees can go on, find things that they find to be personally impactful, go do their volunteering, and then they can put that into the platform. Put their hours in that they did. They can tell their stories. They can post photos, and it just gives team members a way to get together with each other, go do something in the community that actually is really important to them personally, but really also important to the credit union overall community, and that just gives the credit union a lot of information about what's important to their employees. Maybe the credit union can actually create events that are important to their business or the corporate culture and let folks sign up for it and go do it together. And volunteering is sort of an underrated piece of impact. We always think about dollars, but really, time is equally as important and maybe even more so, it has an economic impact. A lot of people calculate the value of time, you know, I think most of the institutions now that do that say it's about 30 to $35 an hour of, you know, economic impact to the community. So it's really, really valuable, but it also has all kinds of benefits to the employee. They get to go do something sort of in the context of their work, but, but really personally resonating with them. And they get to go do it with their co workers, which just creates all kinds of bonds among teams, particularly in a sort of hybrid remote environment. You know, it's even more important, because you're not seeing each other around the water cooler quite as much as you used to. And then we use it for a lot of variety, a lot of other purposes, like career development. So maybe, maybe you have a skill, you're an accountant, or you do bookkeeper, or that type of thing. Well, now you're doing it for a nonprofit as part of your volunteer service. So you're actually doing skills based volunteering, which is actually good for your career, giving you other experiences. So it just, it just provides a lot of employee engagement, employee development. It helps morale. Doing something good for someone else is is really good for the giver, just as much as it is for the beneficiary of that, those hours. And so we've seen a lot of uptake of volunteering through our platform, and because it automates it and gives the company all that information, you know, they're using it to tell a right, the rightful story, all of the good things that their team members do in the community, and that just translates to brand and allows you to sort of walk the talk you know, really prove that you really live your values the way you say you do.

Sarah Cooke 06:07

Yeah, I love the brand part. I want to dig into that farther. But Melissa, a quick question for you as the head of sales, what do you think are the key points that are really drive an organization to choose Uncommon Giving?

Melissa Lach 06:22

I think people really like our mobile app. I'll be honest with you. They love the fact that we have a mobile app and a desktop version, and they also love the fact that everything is in one place, which helps with storytelling, so employees can upload their photos, share what their impact was, whether it was an event that the credit union or the company created specifically for their employees, or they went out and volunteered on their own with their family and friends. They can still track those hours, share what their impact is. They can still wear their T-shirt that says whatever the name of their organization is, which people love, one place for all philanthropy. And being able to have that reporting on the back end to help with storytelling has been pretty impactful. And we also disperse funds twice a month, which is a big differentiator for Uncommon Giving in this space. So we're really proud of that.

Sarah Cooke 07:07

Okay, all right, so obviously, tracking that data is important, as you all both said, it can help make a huge splash in credit, in a credit union's branding and marketing. How do you see organizations using it in that regard?

Andy Howell 07:27

Well, meaning from just sort of telling their brand story and really like their whole personality and who they are? One of the things about software that's the most important. Number one, obviously, it has to have a good user interface and be engaging and simple to use, and, you know, something that folks want to use, and we really spend a lot of time on that. And as Melissa said, with the mobile app and some of the engagement tools, like, you know, the generosity feed that all the employees get so they can follow the causes that they care about most, or really see all of their impact in one place, whether it's giving dollars or doing volunteering, they need to keep that forever, so really powerful. But we know that that companies with well run employee giving and volunteer programs, that really helps their public image, and so credit unions that maintain a high profile and charitable activities really get goodwill from their community. We know that a huge percentage, 70 plus percent of people want to do business with companies that serve their communities and credit unions would be, I would think, even higher than that, so being able to pull that information right out of our platform again, so, so easy to do. It's all within the tool. And then everything from numbers of hours or numbers of dollars to numbers of nonprofits that you've impacted, I mean, that's really relevant to the community, but it's also fun to take some of these things that people have put in, individuals have put in there about their activities that they did, so they get to tell a story. We got together with the sales team, and we went out and we did we packed care packages at this food bank, and we, we felt like we made a big impact in their own voice. It can be really powerful. And the fun part of our our tool, is they, they usually put pictures in there of them doing it. And so if you're really going to tell the story you get to show your people having great time making the impact. It's just easy to, to post on LinkedIn. It's easy to post in your annual report. It's easy to, one of the things, we think is, is, is just as much fun as that outward PR is really telling your employees how great they were, how many good things they did, and it's almost part of the company meetings. Now, you know, the general, generosity part of the company culture, and it's really reinforced. We also by the nature of our software, you know, it can be managed by more than one person. So a lot of times, credit unions have kind of, what we call volunteer champions. They're those folks that are just out in the community that's just, you know, so important to them personally, and if they can get in there and come up with ideas for people to do things, it almost becomes employee owned. And at that point, it really is sort of an intrinsic part of your company culture. And takes a little bit less of a top down approach and a little bit more of a grassroots approach when you do it that way.

Sarah Cooke 10:16

Yeah. And as you said, credit unions are perfect for this, right? Absolutely, because they really want to avoid things like CRA, which is, you know, Washington's really paying attention to them. There have been, there are a few handful of credit unions that fall under CRA in different states, but the NCUA, DOJ, CFPB, and others are cracking down on organizations that aren't serving minorities, women and other historically disadvantaged people, and so there's also the CDFI Fund certification that requires you show your activity in these communities and low income credit union requirements. It sounds like this could also be helpful for regulation compliance as well.

Andy Howell 11:03

Well, we really think so. We think it's one of the, it takes our product from a nice to have to more of a need to have. Because the good news is, as you point out, credit unions are doing a lot of good in their community, whether it's through actual financial giving or volunteering that we're leaning into. And for the banks, they have CRA they need to serve low to middle income communities. They need to tell that story. Turns out that they are, they are doing so, at augmenting some of their financial activities with things like volunteering, like folks working at a homeless shelter in a certain community, or hosting financial education workshops in a certain type of community, volunteering with organizations that provide tax assistance. So they're all these things that you can do that can augment and help you comply with CRA which, as we know, is, you know, largely similar to the sort of the CDFI work that folks are doing to generate economic growth. So things that your employees are already doing, maybe a little bit, maybe we tailor it a little bit more toward areas that we know are either underserved populations or in need of economic growth, low to middle income, that type of thing, and just harness the power of your employees. Let them go out, volunteer, do something that's actually right down the line of their career, or something that they find personally impactful, and then you get all those numbers. So if you're if you're putting that together, telling your story, it could have two benefits. Either you're already telling your story, so government regulators don't need to come in and ask you to do that, you know, or if they are asking you to do that, you got the data right at your fingertips, and it, it qualifies. So it's, it's just as powerful as, you know, trying to do some type of different loans. You know, for those type of communities, if someone's actually providing a valuable service to those communities, it's just as valuable.

Sarah Cooke 12:54

And so, the volunteering and the donations we've talked about, you know, it can help stave off CRA requirements for credit unions. That seems like the data could also be useful in their lobbying efforts in Washington, to show what they're doing in their communities as well, if you want to speak to that at all.

Andy Howell 13:15

Well, we would, we would agree with that. I mean, we don't spend a lot of time in Washington dealing with the regulators, but the fact matter is, we know from the customers that we serve, and just from being a member of a community that has credit unions that they're doing a lot of good. So it would just be really powerful if they were collecting that data in a way that was administratively easy for them, and then, and then they have it. So really, if you're trying to stave off, as you say, sort of this need for the government to tell you that you need to do more good, you're already doing it. You know, I think it would have a great lobbying effect. I mean, that, you know, that's, that's what we've been so inspired by with credit unions, is they're doing it anyway. And we try to put together a really cost effective system to allow them to just collect that data of really the things they're doing already, and then grow it. You know, once they have the administrative once they have a platform like ours, it can just grow so much that, number one, it's going to benefit the employees. It's going to benefit sort of work life balance, and all the things that you know we try to do when we're trying to win the talent wars out there. But number two, then you have all this information. It's not self serving, it's just a fact. So it's a, it's a you're no longer running around trying to trying to compile information, to, to tell your story. You have it right at your fingertips. And I would imagine that would be very powerful to those that are trying to increase, enhance that and ultimately regulate it.

Sarah Cooke 14:47

Yeah, certainly something that credit unions have been working on for quite a while is telling their story better. So this could definitely help. So with all that powerful data in that platform, Melissa, all in one place, it saves company, obviously, it seems like lots of time, lots of headaches, helps, lobbying, helps all the things, the branding, everything that we've talked about already, but I imagine it also, and Andy touched on this, the community engagement, awareness, the employee engagement. You know, I would think retention, maybe even recruitment of employees, and particularly the millennials, the younger generations, that this is so important for. So what do you think of that as for credit unions, as employers being an employee engagement and recruitment tool?

Melissa Lach 15:58

Sure, I think that it's essential, as people are asking different questions now, when they're going to apply for a job and they're interviewing, they want to know if you have VTO. They want to know what kind of company you are, whether it's a credit union or another kind of company. They want to know if you have dollars for doers, if you're matching gifts. They want to know what you're doing to better the community and and so this isn't, as Andy had mentioned, it's not a nice to have. It's a must have. I mean, HR teams are putting this information on their website to say, as a collective, we look at what we're doing, look at what our culture is. We care about the community. This is how we give back. And we also care about where you care about, so if the credit union loves animals, but you care about the environment, hey, we're going to give you volunteer time off to go and buy, and volunteer for an environmental organization. So it's not only just what the credit union cares and their values, but they're also going back to their employees and saying, we care about what you care about. And it's a huge opportunity for recruitment. It's a big differentiator as well, because the big banks are doing it also at a grander scale. But these little credit, smaller credit unions and smaller banks are in the community. Their people are living and working right there. So it's, it's a big differentiator for them.

Sarah Cooke 17:08

Anything to add Andy?

Andy Howell 17:09

Yeah, I mean, I think just in general, everybody wants to find purpose in their work. The good news for credit unions is their their purpose driven, their mission driven by their nature. We see a variety of them with really, really, really strong cultures. A lot of times that culture is around what they're doing for the community. That is a great recruiting tool. If you are looking for people that buy into your culture, it's a great way to hire people that want to augment that culture and then doing something to support them in their desire to make an impact is really powerful. From I was, mentioned recruiting, but retention, productivity, relationship, building, all the things that that enhance a culture and there, and by doing so, enhance the business. We talk to executive teams and management teams all the time. They know it's important. They know it's happening, and, and, and they really want to harness it. We think we've got a way to to put some software on your platform, make it part of your employee experience. It's easy to implement. It takes an hour, and then you're then you're up and running, and our customer success team will help you come up with great ideas of things to, to keep it promoted, and part of the communication at the company. And so all those benefits, we know, there's data everywhere that says, you know, employees require that, want to know what the company stands for and are attracted to it. And so this just gives you a, but if there's ever a burden, or if there's ever a hindrance to putting it together, it's just the administration of it with all the other things going on. So we want to take that friction out of the process. Let people have a big part, you know, something that evidence is a key core value that they have and and let it run, you know, let it grow, let the employees take it over. Mm, hmm,

Sarah Cooke 20:15
So, you know Uncommon Giving's being on here before, and so you know that I give my guests the final thoughts, final words of the day. Melissa, what have you got to say?

Melissa Lach 20:26

I think that if you are looking for a way to engage your employees, and you want to streamline the process, save time for your AP team so they're not vetting nonprofits, then looking at a technology partner like Uncommon Giving is a great idea. Our software is self serve, which makes it easy for admins. It's intuitive for end users, for employees. It's all wrapped up in one so you have everything in one place, and the price point is really low on purpose, so that way all credit unions can afford to utilize our software and to amplify generosity.

Sarah Cooke 20:59
Awesome, excellent. Thank you so much. Melissa. Andy, take it home for us.

Andy Howell 21:04

Well, I would just say we're really inspired by credit unions. It's been, it's been really fun to get to know the industry even better. They're more generous than any other type of business. And literally, like I said, wake up in the morning thinking about their community. And so it's inspiring for us. We'd love to offer a way for them to do it easier, more and, of course, report on it more effectively. And adding this idea that it can help you with CDFI Certification or award applications or compliance reporting is just an extra business case around why it makes a lot more sense. I mean, we love the fact that it's engaging for employees, and it's a good way for you to further tell your brand story. But really, if it, if it helps you with some of this reporting and compliance, you know, it comes, becomes even more valuable. And so we really want to, we really want to explain that and and let people use it for, for, for everything that it can be.

Sarah Cooke 22:07
Excellent. Well, thank you all for your time today. Appreciate it Uncommom Giving folks.

Andy Howell 22:12

Thanks. Thank you so much. Always good to talk.