4 Proven Ways to Share Your Community Impact Story

Most financial institutions, like Machias Savings Bank, are very involved in their communities. Not only do your coworkers spend hours volunteering, but your institution gives grants, donations, loans, and more to support your community members. But do your customers and employees know the impact you're making? 

 

That’s where your community impact story comes in. Every financial institution has an impact story, but it’s up to you to tell that story using your community impact data.

 

Just look at Machias Savings Bank. According to Melissa Denbow, VP of Corporate Giving & Community Relations, sharing MSB’s community impact data has put the bank’s name in front of more people and helped build relationships with customers. With a yearly impact report, an in-house digital display, and posts on social media, MSB goes above and beyond when it comes to sharing its community impact.

 

It’s MSB’s culture to give back to its communities, and sharing this impact “has gained awareness for our customers to see where we are. It’s helped with customer exposure,” says Melissa. Not only that, but customers and employees “get to see the full picture of how much we are heavily involved in the community. We don’t just say it; we do it.” 

 

Here are four proven ways you can share your community impact story like Machias Savings Bank: 

 

Displaying community involvement data can be impressive, but sharing “live data” is even more so. As your institution records new donations, volunteer hours, and upcoming events, these numbers can be automatically updated and displayed on your website. 

 

You should put this live data feed anywhere you can, especially your intranet and website. When employees visit your intranet, or current or potential customers/members visit your website, they’ll see this data and have a clear picture of the good your institution does in the community. Showing exactly how many donations, volunteer hours, and events your institution has logged or held is a powerful way to connect with your audience and build their trust. 

 

Kadince allows you to display a live feed of your community involvement data directly on your website. This feed automatically updates as employees use Kadince to track your institution’s community involvement. If you don’t use Kadince, that’s okay. You can run a report every week or month and manually update the numbers on your website. This method won’t have the same “wow-factor” as a live feed, but it will still show your impact and engage your audience. 

 

Here’s how MSB displays impact data on its community page: 

 

 

Newsletters and impact reports help you connect with your audience, and they provide a place to give updates, share news, and tell stories. 

 

If your bank or credit union has a newsletter, this is an awesome place to share your community impact. (And if your institution doesn’t have a newsletter, you should start one! Once you have a newsletter, make sure to spice it up.) By providing customers/members with a regular update on how your bank or credit union has impacted the community, you can build trust and show you care.

 

Your yearly impact report is another great way to connect with potential and current customers/members, as well as your leadership team. Machias Savings Bank employees even take this impact report when they visit business leaders and enter into partnerships. Showing this data helps potential customers trust the MSB brand and proves that MSB is more than just talk. And branches share this report with community members and employees. 

 

Here’s a page from MSB’s community impact report that shows how they display their impact data. 

 

  

Another proven way to share your impact story is by posting your institution’s community impact numbers on social media. This won’t be a live feed, but taking a screenshot of your Kadince data or creating a quick visual is a great way to update your audience on what you’ve accomplished. Chances are your audience will resonate with your transparency and love seeing exactly what you’ve done for the community. 

 

You can repost these numbers every month or quarter to keep your audience engaged and show how you’ve progressed over time. 

 

Even if you don’t post exact numbers, you can still draw attention to the impact your financial institution has had in the community like Machias Savings Bank does with this post:

 

 

 

Digital displays can help engage your audience and provide a changing digital feed in your branches and office buildings. With digital signage, the sky's the limit. You can share pictures, stories, infographics, videos, and more all in one place! This dynamic visual makes it easy to share your community impact story with everyone who comes inside. 

 

Machias Savings Bank has a digital display in each branch. These displays are a fun way to connect with customers and involve employees. Someone in every branch uploads local pictures that tell the branch’s own community story, and Melissa says that everyone loves to get involved. 

 

To learn more about how to set up digital screens in your lobby or drive-up and share your impact story, check out Kiosk & Display. Kiosk & Display has worked with dozens of financial institutions (including Machias Savings Bank) to plan, install, and deliver engaging content inside bank or credit union branches. Kiosk & Display can even connect directly to your Kadince live data feed to automatically show your community impact! 

 

 

According to Melissa, “MSB is known in the community for being heavily involved and making sure that [nonprofits] have the power behind them to be successful.” Being so involved means that MSB has a lot of impact data, and they try to share this data with as many people as possible. This has led to brand exposure, dedicated customers, and interested potential customers. 

 

Sharing your impact is one of the best ways to get your institution’s name in front of more people and show that you’re involved in the community. 

 

No matter how you keep track of your community impact, you should widely share that data and your story with your customers/members and the community. Take inspiration from Machias Savings Bank and share your story wherever you can. Like Melissa Denbow and her team, you’re likely to see customer engagement and brand awareness soar.   

 

Kadince makes it easy to track and display your impact data. You can connect your live data feed to a website, screen, or other digital display. When you use Kadince, you won’t have to worry about manually collecting, tracking, and updating your community involvement data. Instead, you can spend even more time serving in your community. Schedule a personalized demo today! 

 

None of Kadince, Inc., its affiliates, or its respective employees, directors, officers, and agents (collectively, “Kadince”) are responsible or liable for any content or information incorporated herein. Read full disclosure.