Heads, hearts and hands
RBC’s employees and pensioners are passionate volunteers and, as financial services professionals, one of the most significant contributions they make is by sharing their knowledge. Around the world, you’ll find our employees on not-for-profit boards and committees, providing money-management workshops, and sharing knowledge about budgeting and business planning.

But our employees are also renowned for sharing their hearts and hands, volunteering with schools, hospitals, community sports clubs and civic causes. Here are some examples from 2004:

• More than 30 RBC employees volunteered at the Calgary Drop-In and Rehabilitation Centre, painting its exterior and serving 500 hot lunches as part of the United Way Day of Caring.
• Over 40 employees at RBC Mortgage volunteered to paint, plant and clean up schools, parks and social service agencies as part of Chicago Cares Serve-a-thon, the largest single day of community service in Chicago.
• RBC employees are active with organizations like Junior Achievement and Big Brothers and Sisters.

Dollars for doers: local impact
RBC’s Employee Volunteer Grants Program was launched in 1999 to support and encourage community involvement. Employees and pensioners who volunteer a minimum of 40 hours a year with a registered charity are eligible for a $500 grant to the organization in their honour.

Many of these grants are applied to specific projects at smaller organizations that do not even have the resources to fundraise, so they can have a real impact.

“I don’t know if I can adequately express what a donation of this size means to a small organization like ours,” says Deborah Davis of the Manitoba Riding for the Disabled Association, where RBC employees Dianne Borger and Heather Anderson both volunteer to help give horseback riding lessons to children with disabilities. “We are 99 per cent volunteer driven and it is a joy to have two RBC employees involved, who are a credit to themselves, their community and their employer. It’s a true reflection of RBC’s social consciousness that they recognize their employees’ volunteer activities.”

2004 Employee Volunteer Grants Since 1999, RBC has made over 7,000 grants and donated more than $3.5 million to celebrate our employees’ volunteer efforts. In 2004, employees and pensioners donated their volunteer grants to projects as diverse as: a food and shelter program for homeless people in Vancouver; a program to end child hunger in Regina, Saskatchewan; guide/assistance dog training in Sainte-Madeleine, Quebec; lifesaving equipment for the Guelph General Hospital in Ontario; literacy support programs at an elementary school in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador.