Capital One Offers Its Expertise as Well as Its Wallet to Charities

Officials at Goodwill of Greater Washington realized they needed to tackle some serious technology problems.

The charity, located in the nation’s capital, had nine retail stores, two training centers, and mix-and-match computer systems that didn’t allow all those locations to communicate effectively.

“We were so not-savvy and so behind the times,” says Catherine Meloy, president of the organization, of the dilemma it faced in 2007.

Goodwill got help with its problems after the bank Capital One, in McLean, Va., selected Goodwill and several other charities to participate in an innovative experiment in corporate volunteerism. Instead of simply giving money or offering volunteer muscle for painting or planting projects, the bank offered to share its brain power. It hoped to lend its employees’ business expertise to help nonprofit organizations solve long-term structural problems.

‘The Next Step’

Jay Liverman, a senior information-technology director at the bank, talked with Goodwill officials about their technology troubles. That led to a two-month technology audit and some suggested solutions, including a proposal to replace the part-time technology coordinator’s position with a full-time chief information officer.

Goodwill officials’ first reaction was that such a position seemed a luxury only a much bigger organization might afford. But at Capital One’s urging, they went ahead.

Ms. Meloy says the new chief information officer — whom Mr. Liverman helped find — has saved the charity more than $100,000 by fixing its many technology problems, including finding a cheaper, more-efficient phone system and installing a new copier system.

Ms. Meloy raves about the thoughtfulness and impact of the work by the bank, which now provides about $2-million a year in pro bono services to charities.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with many different corporations and companies, but I’ve never worked with an organization that not only gives you support but also tries to expand the capabilities” of a beneficiary charity, she says. “Capital One has taken it to the next step.”

The recession has not dampened the bank’s determination to expand the program beyond the Washington area; Capital One is now looking to provide pro bono services to charities in Dallas, New Orleans, and Richmond, Va., and build on its existing services in New York.

More companies may soon emulate Capital One’s approach because of the difference it has made, says Aaron Hurst, president of the Taproot Foundation, which keeps its headquarters in San Francisco and encourages corporations to donate pro bono services to charities. He says he has seen few efforts as promising as Capital One’s approach.

First, he says, it’s rare for a banking corporation to be so determined to offer pro bono consulting services; law firms, accounting agencies, and other professional outfits more typically offer that.

And second, he says, the bank doesn’t try to run all of its volunteer partnerships out of its community-affairs division, as is the case in many corporations.

At Capital One, the community-affairs division serves more as the facilitator, spotting good candidates from among the bank’s corporate grantees and pairing them with the bank’s experts in their particular area of need. Essentially, Mr. Hurst says, the bank has created about a half-dozen in-house consulting firms that lend their skills to charities, a system he says is more effective in helping nonprofit groups because community-affairs offices don’t always have access to the specific expertise charity projects require. Mr. Hurst, who offered guidance to Capital One in developing the program, says he sees it as the future of how companies can mobilize their employees to do good.

“It’s the right way to do it,” he says. “It changes the whole dynamic for corporate voluntarism. They’ve really created the blueprint.”

Marketing Requests

Capital One traces its current approach to 2002, when its marketing division formed Brand Corps, a group of employees who focused on pro bono work, in hopes of finding a more efficient way to handle the stream of marketing requests from charities in the Washington area.

It proved so successful that the information-technology division followed suit several years later with Tech Corps. The human resources, legal, and finance departments followed. Last year, Capital One volunteers handled about 70 projects. In 2007, the bank rolled the pro bono corps into a broader program called Partners in Excellence. Through it, specially selected charities receive program support, event sponsorships, bank employees who can serve on executive boards, and board-member training, as well as the pro bono partnerships.

Mr. Hurst says he has been impressed by how actively the community-affairs office collaborates with other Capital One divisions. Once a month, all the corps leaders meet with community-affairs officials to discuss problems and what they have learned about how best to help nonprofit groups.

“That’s really special,” he says of the departmental collaboration. “It’s usually a very passive relationship.”

The corporation does traditional “checkbook philanthropy” and provides more-basic volunteering as well. However, the value of the “intellectual capital” supplied by the bank’s employees far exceeds the philanthropy budget, says Emily Talley, senior director of community affairs.

By providing charities the management skills they need to solve debilitating structural problems within their organizations, the bank hopes to maximize the impact of its philanthropic efforts. (Capital One’s foundation gave more than $4.2-million in cash to charity in 2008, according to The Chronicle‘s latest survey of corporate giving.)

Instead of just waiting for grant requests, the corps approach “allows us to be very thoughtful and strategic about how we approach our work with nonprofits,” Ms. Talley says. “It allows us to be more proactive.”

In the case of Goodwill, its officials simply wanted their technology problem fixed. If that meant a grant for new computers, fine. But Mr. Liverman and his team took a more thoughtful, long-range approach: How did technology fit within the organization’s business plan? Were workers appropriately trained? What were the gaps between what the charity had and what it needed?

Mr. Liverman says helping organizations like Goodwill benefits the bank as well. Working on such problem-solving projects often lets Capital One’s emerging leaders “call the shots” and acquire additional management experience.

“The impact is harder to see when you’re in a larger organization. But when you’re going to an organization like Goodwill you can see how the impact there translates directly into their mission statement,” he says. Capital One workers “absolutely love it. And they want more of it.”

Raising a Charity’s Profile

Meredith Davis, a brand manager at Capital One, counts herself among those who are enthusiastic about pro bono projects.

She usually works on online banner advertisements for the company, but had to draw on some different creative instincts last year when she landed on a team of Capital One marketing professionals trying to help a New York charity raise its public profile.

The Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation works to revitalize its Brooklyn neighborhood through a wide array of economic development, housing, and educational programs. But despite an annual budget of more than $6-million, its leaders felt too few local residents knew about the organization’s work. It needed help in appealing to individuals and to reinforce its presence in the community.

When Capital One picked Cypress Hills from among its corporate grantees, the bank matched the organization with Ms. Davis, two copywriters, and a graphic designer.

Meeting with Cypress Hills employees via videoconference, Ms. Davis and her colleagues came up with a marketing plan that used the charity’s scheduled 25th-anniversary celebration to underscore the Cypress Hills “brand” in Brooklyn.

They designed and shipped to New York special table markers that told the organization’s story, along with coasters that featured pictures and quotes from people who had benefited from Cypress Hills’ services.

“People loved them. They wanted to take the coasters home,” says Emily Blank, planning and development director at Cypress Hills.

The Capital One team is also developing office posters and brochures designed to give the organization a consistent message and image.

Charity officials say they wouldn’t have had the marketing expertise to handle the project themselves. “This is new for us,” Ms. Blank says. “We’ve had relationships with banks before, but never this broad.”

Ms. Davis, Capital One’s leader on the project, says she got something out of the experience, too. “You do get to think strategically in a different way,” she says. “It really is an opportunity to develop some skills you may not use in your everyday job.”

Capital One officials say employees generally work with their supervisors to incorporate pro bono projects into their regular workdays.

“It’s just something that’s embedded within our culture,” says Shelley Solheim, a corporate spokeswoman. “As associates learn new leadership and project-management skills, it drives organizational productivity.”