How Fox Communities CU Logged Over 400 Employee Volunteer Hours in One Day Using Kadince

If you help run a bank or credit union community engagement program, you know that getting employees to volunteer (and tracking those hours) is hard. On a good day, you might log a dozen volunteer hours, and this number might jump up when an institution-sponsored event comes around. But have you ever hit 400 volunteer hours in ONE day? Sounds like the best day of your career, right?

 

For Fox Communities Credit Union, a nearly $3 billion institution based in Wisconsin, this best-day-ever happened in June of 2023. That’s right, Fox Communities CU team members logged over 400 volunteer hours in ONE day. 

 

Here’s how they did it. 

 

 

Fox Communities CU’s 10,000 hours goal

 

Of Fox Communities CU’s five core values, “pay it forward” is Andy Wilson’s favorite. Andy is the CU’s Community Development Officer, and part of his job is finding ways to help team members “pay it forward” through volunteerism. Andy says, “The ‘Pay it Forward’ value speaks to me in a way that says ‘this isn’t just about me.’ It’s a value that represents genuine care and empathy for our communities, and I love that good deeds don’t require an invitation.”

 

 

 

 

We’d say he and his team have done a pretty good job at following this core value! 

 

In April of 2023, Andy and his team set a goal to log 10,000 employee volunteer hours throughout the year. These hours could come from credit union-sponsored events or personal volunteer hours, like serving on a board of directors or volunteering at a church event. The caveat? All 10,000 hours had to be logged in Kadince, Fox Communities’ CSR management software. 

 

Fox Communities CU started using the Kadince Community™ module back in 2019 to track events, volunteer hours, and donations. According to Heather Wessley, the credit union’s Director of Community Engagement, “Prior to using Kadince, we were using Excel spreadsheets. It was getting out of control with the amount of requests coming in and trying to manually keep track of where our money was going. We looked at a couple different platforms, and Kadince shot to the top of our list. At first, we just used Kadince to track donation requests and sponsorships. But pretty soon, we added on the Events portion. Now we use Kadince to track all of the events we sponsor and hold. We love being able to track the volunteer hours right in the software. Now that we use Kadince, life is so much easier. We keep track of donations, sponsorships, events, volunteer hours, people we take to events, and more. I look back now and wonder how we did it with Excel!”

 

 

 

 

Andy knew that logging 10,000 volunteer hours in one year was going to be challenging for their credit union. But he believed in his team and the “pay it forward” core value. Besides, Andy’s not one to back away from a good challenge. 

 

To go along with this core value and their lofty goal, the Fox community engagement team recently held a Family Volunteer Day, during which they logged over 400 employee volunteer hours. 

 

 

“Pay it Forward—Fox Family Volunteer Day”

 

What better way to log a ton of hours in one day than to encourage all team members to volunteer together at pre-planned events? 

 

That’s the conclusion Andy and his team came to while thinking of ways to log 10,000 hours in one year. They spoke to the credit union’s “Plan for Fun” committee and decided to do a huge blitz day of volunteering. Basically, they would encourage every team members to volunteer and log as many hours as possible in one day. 

 

Planning the event

 

The first hurdle was finding time to actually hold this giant event. They couldn’t just close the credit union for a day while team members volunteered. And to fully accomplish their goal, they couldn’t hold the event after hours or for a short period of time. This was meant to be an all-day, impactful event involving as many people as possible. 

 

They settled on June 19th, a paid federal holiday when the credit union was already closed. This meant that team members would be giving up part of their holiday to volunteer in the community. Even though team members weren’t obligated to participate, Andy was confident that they would get plenty of volunteers. He knows that, like him, every team member loves the “pay it forward” core value. 

 

Now came the hard part: finding volunteer opportunities. 

 

The “Plan for Fun” committee members knew they had to accommodate a lot of volunteers at one time. They settled on having around 15 different volunteer opportunities spread throughout the community’s footprint, all happening on June 19th. To accommodate as many team members as possible, events were held at different times of the day: morning, afternoon, and evening. Each event was expected to last a few hours and was designed to be as accessible as possible. 

 

Prior to June 19th, participating team members signed up for a specific event in Kadince. According to Andy, “We decided to build one main event that incorporated each of the specific volunteer opportunities. Having all the opportunities listed within the same umbrella event (even though shifts were different times and locations) made everything much easier. Our team only had to look at one form, one page, and could see the details that were pertinent to them. If we had created a separate form for each opportunity, it would have been more cumbersome to work with over a dozen different events. Once the umbrella event was set up in Kadince, it was a breeze to track.”

 

 

 

 

To encourage registrations, Andy’s team created hype throughout the credit union. They emailed team members, spoke up in meetings, and asked senior leadership to encourage people to sign up. They made it clear that this was a family event, so team members could still spend time with family members during the holiday and could have an even greater impact (although only employee hours counted towards the 10,000 hour goal). Team members quickly got excited and started spreading the word themselves.

 

When the day of the event came, over half of the credit union’s nearly 500 team members had signed up for the Fox Family Volunteer Day. 

 

The day of the event

 

June 19th finally came. And with it, the most volunteer hours Fox Communities CU has ever logged in one day. 

 

As planned, credit union employees and guests arrived at their chosen event at a specific time. Some nonprofits they volunteered at include:

 

• Pillars, a local homeless shelter 

• Habitat for Humanity

• Green Bay Botanical Gardens

• Golden House and Safe Haven (local domestic violence shelter) 

• Boys and Girls Club

 

With 15 total volunteer opportunities, there was something for everyone. 

 

By the end of the day, Fox Communities CU team members had logged over 400 volunteer hours. Andy and his team celebrated by entering the hours into Kadince and watching their goal’s progress bar jump dramatically. What a satisfying moment! 

 

When complimented on the giant impact he was able to pull off, Andy said, “Really, I’m just the Kadince guy. I don’t plan the events. That would be our amazing committee who spent so many hours putting together this day of volunteering and finding ways to have such a big impact.” Andy may be humble, but the Kadince team is still impressed with everything he’s done!  

 

 

“Paying it forward” doesn’t stop there

 

These 400 hours may have helped Fox Communities CU move closer to its 10,000 hours goal, but this isn’t the only way Andy and his team have encouraged team members to volunteer. 

 

Every month, the community engagement team does a drawing of all team members who have volunteered for at least 20 hours that year. The winner chooses a charity to receive a $1,000 donation. 

 

“This drawing has motivated team members a lot more than we expected it to,” Andy says. “Everyone wants to participate, so they hurry to get their 20 hours in as soon as they can. This has really helped us increase our volunteer hours and move closer towards that 10,000 hours goal. Employees love it, and the community engagement team loves to see those hours roll in.” 

 

The Kadince team loves to watch those hours roll in, too! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the end, Fox Communities CU didn’t quite meet its 10,000 hour goal for 2023. This goal started a little late in the year, and Andy isn’t disappointed that they didn’t make it. “We’ll just have to do better next year. Now we know what works and what may need some tweaks,” he said. Andy’s confident that his team can continue to find ways to encourage team members to volunteer and have an impact on their community. 

 

In fact, the Fox Communities team wants to hold more Family Volunteer Days. The more they can “pay it forward,” the better. Who knows, maybe they’ll beat their own record and log over 500 volunteer hours in one day! 

 

And when that day comes, Kadince will be there cheering them on. 

 

 

 

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See how Kadince software can help your institution track and manage employee volunteer hours. No more difficult spreadsheets. No more emails back and forth requesting volunteer hours. Just one easy-to-use software that keeps all your data in one place. Plus, you can build and share reports that show the exact data you want to see. Schedule a 30-minute demo to learn more. 

 

And to see how another awesome institution used Kadince to log over 400 volunteer hours in one day, check out this article.

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