How Veritex Community Bank Partnered With Local Media to Support Nonprofits and Community Organizations

Courtney Taylor (Senior VP and Community Development Officer at Veritex Community Bank) loves to be involved in her community. She serves on several bank and community boards, and is even a member of our own Kadince Advisory Board. One of Courtney’s favorite ways to serve her community is by partnering with local organizations and nonprofits to promote their initiatives. 

 

During the pandemic, Veritex Community Bank employees couldn’t physically support the organizations in their community, but Courtney knew these organizations still needed their help. According to Courtney, “We had to get real creative during the pandemic, so we decided to partner with a couple of different media outlets in order to leverage some relationships and see how we could help our community organizations.” 

 

Courtney and her team wanted to spread the word to community residents about important initiatives, and since media outlets like television and radio stations have a much wider reach than Veritex Community Bank does on its own, it made sense to partner with these stations. 

 

Here’s how Courtney did it. 

 

For its 2020 Great Deeds television campaign, Veritex Community Bank partnered with CBS-affiliated TV stations in Dallas and Houston to air commercial segments for their community partners. 

 

Each nonprofit or community organization had 45–60 seconds to explain its initiative and ask the public for support. These segments aired during the mid-morning shows “Good Morning Dallas” and “Great Day Houston.” 

 

Check out these segments from Veritex Community Bank’s Great Deeds campaign:

 

Nearly 60 Texas nonprofits and community organizations participated in this campaign. All of these nonprofits and organizations were able to raise awareness and support for their initiatives, even during a worldwide pandemic that otherwise put many projects on hold.

 

Veritex Community Bank’s name and logo was on each commercial, which helped build its brand. After each segment aired, the Veritex Community Bank call center received a spike in inquiries about the bank’s services. And Courtney herself received many calls and texts from her friends, family, and associates letting her know that Veritex had shown up on their TV. Community members expressed their gratitude for Veritex Community Bank’s efforts in raising awareness for important issues. 

 

After the segments aired, the bank shared links to each one on social media. This helped reach a wider audience and built further support for both the highlighted nonprofits and Veritex Community Bank. 

 

Courtney and her team are very pleased with how the Great Deeds campaign turned out. Throughout the campaign, Veritex Community Bank saw more engagement from their target audience, more inquiries about their services, and more donations made to their community partners. But Courtney wasn’t done yet. 

 

 

In early 2021, Courtney was approached by Radio One, a local radio company with four affiliate stations in Dallas and Houston. Radio One wanted to partner with Veritex Community Bank, and Courtney saw another opportunity to support and educate her community. 

 

During the summer, Radio One and Veritex Community Bank cohosted a month-long financial literacy podcast called Summer School Sessions. During each live podcast, they interviewed various bankers, organizations, and experts about financial topics such as building credit, buying a home, and small business. These interviews were broadcast on Radio One’s Facebook Live and YouTube accounts, and now the recordings can be found on these same channels for anyone to watch. These authentic, organic conversation starters were a big hit. Just one of the broadcasts was seen by more than 1.5 thousand people, with more going back to watch the recording in the months since. You can watch the video for yourself here! 

 

Partnering with Radio One allowed Veritex Community Bank to connect with and educate new audiences. By showing listeners that Veritex invested in the community and wants to help each member have a solid financial foundation, Courtney was able to market the bank’s services and build brand awareness. 

 

Courtney said that with this radio campaign, “we were able to reach a broad audience over any given time with four different radio stations, in different markets, on different platforms. This not only gave us here at Veritex an opportunity to show what we were doing in the community, but it spotlighted our community partners and what they’re doing...This campaign really increased awareness for Veritex and financial literacy that may not have been available to the masses.”

 

Just like the television campaign, Veritex Community Bank’s radio campaign brought positive feedback from community partners, stakeholders, and bankers. From a marketing standpoint, this radio campaign was a success.

 

“I was very pleased with the outcome,” Courtney said, “Our main goal at the end of the day was to provide financial education and highlight our community partners.” With so many people engaging with their content, this goal has certainly been met.

 

 

If running TV and radio campaigns sounds like a big task, just remember that you aren’t alone. If you take the time to gather support and build an internal team like Courtney did, chances are you won’t have an overwhelming amount of work to do. 

 

“Your marketing team is one of your best assets. You should lean on your marketing staff and work together,” Courtney said. It was up to Veritex Community Bank’s marketing team to spread the word about both campaigns on social media and other channels. The marketing team helped design the commercials and podcasts, find the partnered organizations, and build internal support for both campaigns. 

 

Courtney also had a lot of support from the bank’s CRA team. While getting CRA credit and boosting the CRA program wasn’t Courtney’s main priority, this was a natural byproduct of the work she’s done with local media. Veritex Community Bank’s team has gone above and beyond what was expected of them during the pandemic, and Courtney believes this will be reflected during their next CRA exam. Telling a bank’s story is crucial during an exam, and Veritex Community Bank certainly has an impactful story to tell.

The ideas in this article came from our webinar with Courtney Taylor, Senior VP and Community Development Officer at Veritex Community Bank. You can view the webinar recording here.

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