Raise your hand if your financial institution is committed to making an impact in your community.   

You can put your hand down now. 

Of course, community betterment is part of the mission for every regional and community bank or credit union. 

However, it’s not always been an easy initiative to deliver on—especially as community-minded financial institutions are forced to do more with less due to rising competition and lower margins.

That’s about to change.

In a recent analysis of how progressive organizations align their community impact programs to strategic outcomes, we’ve uncovered a new opportunity—one that was previously not possible. 

Let’s outline how to amplify the impact of your community impact programs with the help of an AI Workforce purpose-built for banking. 

“Our brand and our community impact are one in the same. I wouldn’t even say they’re connected, they are the same.” –Todd Rothenberger, EVP/CXO,
  Diamond Credit Union

Which Categories Does Your Company Participate In?

There are four major categories of community impact, and all kinds of examples of banks and credit unions creating amazing results in each of them:

Which of these categories is best to participate in? There’s no wrong answer. Most organizations do a smattering of all of them and there’s value in each. But one area where most organizations wish they could make an even bigger impact is in employee volunteerism, particularly among frontline employees.

Overcoming a Long-Standing Barrier

Your frontline team–the people who interact directly with your customers and members–are the faces of your organization. While giving them opportunities to get out into the community (during paid work hours) may sound great, it’s not always realistic given the high demand and tight staffing of most contact center operations.

”We are passionate and dedicated to offering our front-line employees the opportunity to attend community events supported by our credit union. We do everything in our power to provide the resources they need to give back and be present whenever their schedules allow. At the same time, we are equally dedicated to making sure we have enough staff available for our members. We certainly want them out representing us, but one way of helping the community with financial health is also ensuring we have enough people serving our members with their immediate needs.” –Amy Crafa, VP, Community and Business Partnerships, Nutmeg State Financial Credit Union

“We talk about volunteerism being part of the DNA of our company, but we also unintentionally put barriers in front of our newest or frontline staff.” –Andrew Tweedie, Community Impact Director, Columbia Bank 

Expand Team Capacity With an AI Workforce Built for Banking

Think of all the repetitive and time-consuming, yet essential, tasks your team handles. Now imagine how much time you’d free up if you didn’t have to worry about that work anymore.

That’s where your AI workforce comes in:

• AI agents deflect up to 80% of high-volume inquiries, like password resets and balance checks, freeing up time for your frontline team
• AI copilots brief your agents on caller histories before interactions, surface relevant information during interactions, and automate post-call surveys after interactions
• AI analysts transform reporting, planning, and performance management, empowering leaders to immediately translate comprehensive interaction data into actionable insights

By helping your team work smarter, faster, and more efficiently, your AI workforce helps you 2x team capacity. That surplus means you can take a breath—then shift to higher value initiatives. 

Expanding capacity by as much as 2x offers possibilities that never existed before. Instead of constantly being bombarded with the same old “check my balance” and “I need to make a transfer” calls, there’s now more time to handle the most serious and complex customer issues—and ample time for additional training and community service. 

“The contact center team are our frontline employees and that’s who the community knows. But it’s been a challenge in the past because it was also the hardest for them to get away.” –Taylor Humphrey, Community Engagement Manager, Heritage FCU

Empower Your People To Give Back

Simply put, AI efficiency creates an enormous opportunity for organizations to amplify their community impact programs. Banking AI gives frontline employees extra capacity to volunteer with organizations that promote financial literacy. Initiatives include: 

• One-on-One Counseling. Offering personalized financial counseling to help lower-income families create tailored plans for long-term goals like homeownership or retirement.
  
  
• Fraud Protection. Hosting workshops to teach seniors how to safely use mobile banking, and how to identify AI-generated scams or phishing attempts
   
• Tax Assistance. Some banks and credit unions participate in the IRS's VITA program (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) offering free tax preparation services to low- to moderate-income individuals.
  
  
• Data Analytics. Volunteers can analyze a nonprofit’s impact data, helping them create more compelling applications for future grants.

"Every one of our employees is given a certain number of hours of volunteer time every year to participate in various community activities. This year we partnered with 269 nonprofit organizations and we're sitting at around 4,000 volunteer hours from our team.” –Amy Etheridge, Sr. VP of Strategy and Transformation, Robins Financial CU

"We definitely find a plethora of [volunteer] opportunities. And with the launch of our paid volunteerism program this year, we've put more of a focus on trying to find organizations we can partner with during business hours.'' –Crystal Garrison, Marketing & Community Development Manager, Fibre Federal Credit Union

Create Efficiency Today, Increase Impact Tomorrow

With an AI workforce built for banking, you can immediately create capacity to increase your community impact. You’ll also lay the foundation for exponential impact growth in the future. 

To understand how, let’s examine a case study outside the financial services industry. 

For years, the frontline teams at Southwest Airlines participated in an annual bake sale to benefit the American Cancer Society. Team members would bring in home-baked goods and offer them to customers in exchange for donations. It was a lovely program and all for a good cause.

However, what does baking muffins have to do with running America’s largest low-fare airline? Nothing.

But over time, while the commitment to the community didn’t change, the method did. Instead of holding bake sales, Southwest initiated a program to fly cancer patients (at no cost) to cities where they could get the best treatment.

Now, their community impact is amplified by donating what they are experts in (getting people from one place to another) but using that differentiator to benefit the people of the communities they serve.

Now, imagine the kind of community impact you could make by continuing to align your expertise to the unique needs of your people. 

“As Winston Churchill said: We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” –Ginny Stroud, SVP & Community Affairs Officer, United Bank (interview with United Voices)

Deepen Communicate Impact, Solidify Your Competitive Differentiator 

It’s an unfortunate fact that over 40% of all new deposit accounts opened last year went to neobanks. The competitive landscape doesn’t appear to be getting any easier. 

But consider this: For most credit unions and regional banks, your biggest differentiator isn’t your products or your rates. It’s your people. You and your team members are very much a part of the fabric of the communities you serve. That’s something no digital-only bank could ever match.

Traditionally, the overburdened frontline team didn’t have the freedom or capacity to impact the community beyond just providing customer service 8 hours a day. With an AI workforce built for banking, that’s no longer the case. 

Even better, your community commitment—genuine as it surely is—also serves as your competitive differentiator. By freeing your people to participate in volunteer activities that capitalize on their financial expertise, you deepen the sense of trust, care, and loyalty that you’ve already poured so much effort into cultivating. The result is a win-win—for your financial institution and for the people who count on you.