Community Volunteering Program of Pima Federal Credit Union
Pima Federal Credit Union is a credit union that thinks differently, and they want their members to think differently too. Pima understands that their role is to help their members become financially stable so they can spend more time with family, friends, and loved ones. Pima also believes that they have an obligation to improve their communities.
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Please tell us about your organization and your volunteer program.
To ensure we were doing our best for our communities, we created the Community Stewardship Program in 2011. We wanted to focus on three primary areas - Volunteerism, Fundraising, and Financial Literacy. With the creation of this program we asked our team members what they wanted to see in the way of Volunteering. We started with a goal of 1,000 hours volunteered in 2011, and blew it out of the water with over 1200!
Explain how you use VolunteerSpot to coordinate these volunteers.
We actually started using VolunteerSpot in early 2013 as an experiment for trying to manage our 150 staff members. Before finding VolunteerSpot, we would send out emails and manually coordinate our activities, but when we started adding more Community Partners we were finding it harder to remember locations, phone numbers, and who had volunteered. So after much research and trial and error, we came across VolunteerSpot. It turned out to be the perfect program for what we needed. It is so much easier not having to remember to send reminder emails to staff members, plus the Last-Minute Cancellation tool is the best thing ever!
What do you feel is the key to your 85% employee participation?
Our participation is really due to the immense support we have from our team members and their supervisors. We emphasize our passion to our community in so many ways, that when team members want to get out and help we have the doors already open. We also allow our employees to pick organizations for partnerships. By allowing every member of our staff to have input to the organizations we select, they feel ownership of the program and we allow them to follow their passions. As an organization, we strive to inspire and enrich the lives of our members and surrounding communities, and our employees view this program as a way to do just that.
Why did you decide to use VolunteerSpot?
We ultimately decided to use VolunteerSpot based on its ease-of-use. It is so easy to create a link, and have our team sign up for their own volunteer activities. The software sends reminder emails, as well as a summary to the coordinator once they all get sent out. It really makes every event so easy to plan.
Anything else you’d like our readers to know about encouraging workplace volunteering or managing such a program?
Whether you are starting a new program or looking to enhance an existing one, you really need to remember that community involvement is a journey, not a destination. You always need to be on the lookout for ways to make your program great and it starts with your team. We have amazing people at Pima Federal, and they are the driving factor behind our success. (Plus, having a partner like VolunteerSpot doesn’t hurt.)
To learn more, visit www.pimafederal.org
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We salute Ryan and all the other volunteer leaders out there making a difference. If you're using VolunteerSpot, write and tell us about what you're doing and give us a chance to shine our Volunteer Spotlight on you!! Just email us at [email protected].
