RBC Financial Group operates across Canada and the United States, as well as in almost 30 countries around the world.

This section gives a sampling of how RBC and our employees are involved in communities across the United States and internationally. All dollars figures in this section are US currency. For more information on how RBC is involved in other regions, please visit rbc.com.

UNITED STATES
RBC Centura
RBC Centura has chosen three primary areas in which to focus its efforts, in order to maximize impact: economic development, education and quality of life.

Economic development
RBC Centura has a long history of supporting economic development, beginning at home in eastern North Carolina. As the economic foundation of the southeast U.S. has shifted from traditional manufacturing and agriculture in the last 15 years, the need for developing alternatives has become increasingly important. Following are examples of initiatives to support the long-term economic well-being and sustainability of our communities.

•	Savvy Cents: Research has clearly identified the role financial education can play in helping improve individuals’ ability to manage the details of their own finances and make sound decisions. Responding to the need for financial educators, RBC Centura created “Savvy Cents,” a resource for school and community groups seeking a speaker on financial topics. Additionally, we sponsored and took part in “Savvy Women,” a financial education conference in Raleigh, NC, attended by 200 professional women.
•	Imperial Centre financing: In Rocky Mount, NC, we arranged financing for the Imperial Centre, a $30 million arts complex developed in the renovated, historic Imperial Tobacco plant. Opening January 1, 2006, the center provides a new facility for the city’s Children’s Museum and Art Center, both destroyed in 1999 by floods resulting from Hurricane Floyd. The four-building complex, which will also include a community theater, an animal habitat, a science area courtyard and a sculpture garden, holds strong potential for becoming an educational and recreational resource for all of eastern North Carolina.
•	Heart of The City Grants Program: With the announcement of the headquarters’ relocation to Raleigh, NC, RBC Centura committed its support to downtown development in the city. We will contribute $1 million over the next five years through the RBC Centura Heart of the City Grants Program, supporting initiatives and projects that attract new residents and businesses to downtown.

Education
Demonstrating our commitment to education, RBC Centura has built long-standing relationships with organizations such as Teach for America, Communities in Schools, Donors Choose and Futures for Kids.

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Invest In Success: In 2005, we established a statewide partnership to benefit Communities in Schools of North Carolina (CISNC) and are working to expand that partnership across the southeast. Communities in Schools is the largest dropout prevention network in the country and has twice been named by Worth magazine as one of the “100 Charities That Will Save the World.” This year, we launched Invest in Success, a campaign to encourage business and community support for CISNC. Through Invest in Success, RBC Centura accepts donations in all of its 185 North Carolina banking centers. CEO Scott Custer served as chair of the 2005 North Carolina Education Ball, a fundraising event held at the RBC Center.

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Tribute To Teachers: RBC Centura’s 2005 Tribute to Teachers program recognized 20 outstanding teachers across the southeast for their classroom contributions and leadership. Selected from more than 1,750 student and parent nominations, the winners each receive $500 in “classroom cash” to be spent on supplies and materials for the classroom.

RBC Dain Rauscher
Through our charitable programs, RBC Dain Rauscher supports organizations in the focus areas of youth education, human services and the arts. The RBC Dain Rauscher Foundation makes nearly 1,700 grants annually to charitable organizations across the United States. In addition, employees give of their time and money through the Employee Gift Matching and Employee Volunteer Grant Programs. Following are examples of donations, sponsorships and community events in which RBC Dain Rauscher is involved.

Youth education
RBC Dain Rauscher’s Foundation focuses on effective education programs (K–12) that help students of color or those who are economically disadvantaged, as well as programs that help young people understand our economic system.

•	Kinship of Greater Minneapolis: In Minneapolis, we supported the Kinship program, that focuses on mentoring the city’s youth to help them build social skills, respect and responsibility. Kinship of Greater Minneapolis was among four programs selected to participate in a roundtable discussion with President Bush, the First Lady and Secretary Mike Leavitt of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on April 1, 2005, in Washington DC.
•	Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead: In Overland Park, KS, we provided a grant to the Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead to support its Kanza Indian Encampment. This exhibit allows children to see how the Native Americans of this area used to live. The Farmstead, one of the top-15 visited destinations in Kansas, educates children about the area’s heritage and culture. In addition, our employees from the Overland Park office joined together to help with a fundraising event for the organization, and more than half of the employees made personal contributions that were matched through our Employee Gift-Matching Program.
•	BestPrep: In 2005 we provided a $15,000 grant to BestPrep, a non-profit organization that offers educational programs to students and teachers. In addition to providing funding, several of our employees were actively involved in supporting the work of students and teachers who participate in The Stock Market Game, sponsored by BestPrep. With our financial support, BestPrep was able to award the first-place teams with a two-day trip to Chicago, during which they toured our Chicago office and learned first-hand about careers in the financial services industry.
•	Invest In Youth: In Seattle, we supported Invest In Youth, a tutoring program targeted at helping disadvantaged elementary school children from inner-city schools in the Seattle area. Eleven employees from RBC Dain Rauscher served as tutors in the program in 2005, tutoring one student for one hour a week for the entire school year.

Human services
Because our business depends on economic growth, we support human services programs that foster economic independence, promote self-sufficiency and strengthen families.

•	Habitat for Humanity: In 2005, RBC Dain Rauscher sponsored the building of a Habitat for Humanity house in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in recognition our 10-year relationship with Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity is an organization committed to eliminating poverty housing from the Twin Cities and to making decent, affordable shelter for all people a matter of conscience.
•	Capital Area Food Bank: We funded the Kids Café program of the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington, DC, a program that provides meals and nutritious snacks to children at risk for hunger at after-school programs. The Food Bank sponsors 49 Kids Cafés, serving more than 2,200 at-risk children.

Arts
The arts enrich the quality of life in the communities where our employees and clients live and work. RBC Dain Rauscher’s emphasis is on pre-eminent cultural institutions, arts programs that generate an appreciation of diverse cultures and programs that foster young people’s appreciation of the arts.

•	Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) – Boston, MA: For the past two years, we’ve sponsored the museum’s MFA Fridays events. We also held an exclusive client entertainment event at the Art Deco exhibit when it came to Boston, after being the name sponsor of the Art Deco exhibit when it was at the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts. Based on these pre-existing sponsorships, we negotiated an additional opportunity to sponsor an exclusive evening at its Cars from the Ralph Lauren Collection.
•	Museum of Fine Arts – St. Petersburg, FL: We were the presenting sponsor of Monet’s London exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg. The show opened to rave reviews in January 2005 and ran through April 2005. We held an exclusive event for our clients and were able to provide tickets to others who couldn’t attend on our date.
•	Young Audiences of Minnesota and Anwatin Middle School – Minneapolis, MN: RBC Dain Rauscher has had a corporate partnership with Anwatin Middle School in Minneapolis for 15 years. RBC Dain’s Foundation has made several related grants in support of the partnership. In 2005, Young Audiences of Minnesota was awarded a grant for an Extended Arts Residency at Anwatin. With the budget cuts to arts programs, the program helps fill the void by providing low-cost arts learning experiences for K–12 students.

RBC Insurance
In the United States, RBC Insurance focuses its community giving on programs that promote health and wellness and foster economic growth.

Economic development
We support organizations and programs that promote economic self-sufficiency, entrepreneurialism and quality of life in the communities where we live and work.

•	Urban League of Upstate South Carolina: We are a longstanding supporter of the Urban League of the Upstate and its efforts to promote economic empowerment. RBC Insurance employees serve on the Urban League’s local and regional boards, and we are a corporate sponsor of the League’s annual Greenville Humanitarian Gala and Awards Dinner.
•	Habitat for Humanity Women Build Project: RBC Insurance was a corporate sponsor of the 2005 Steeplechase, an annual 5K run in Greenville to support Habitat’s Women Build initiative.

Health and wellness
Healthy communities provide the human and financial capital for sustainable economic growth. RBC Insurance actively supports organizations and programs that promote health and wellness through research, treatment, prevention and community awareness.

•	Medical University of South Carolina Hollings Cancer Center: In 2005, we launched a significant initiative in support of the Center’s drive to become a National Cancer Institutedesignated institution for cancer research and treatment. In addition to our financial commitment, we have agreed to loan our extensive textile art collection to the Center for fundraising events over the next two years.
•	United Negro College Fund: RBC Insurance launched a series of initiatives with the United Negro College fund that will provide education and development support to minority communities. We contributed $500,000 to provide scholarships for study in health-related fields at historically black colleges and universities. We also announced a significant partnership with the UNCF Special Programs Corporation to support community-based service and service learning programs.
•	Voorhees College: In partnership with the United Negro College Fund, RBC Insurance contributed $250,000 to Voorhees College in Denmark, SC, to support the development of health education programs, clinical services and health research through its Center for Excellence in Rural and Minority Health.
•	St. Francis Festival of Trees: For the second straight year, RBC Insurance was a major corporate sponsor of this month-long fundraising event in downtown Greenville, which features over 75 decorated Christmas trees as well as other holiday-themed programs and events for the entire family. In 2005, the festival’s beneficiary was the St. Francis Hospital’s Louis P. Batson, Jr. Cancer Care Center.

CARIBBEAN
In the Caribbean, we give back to our communities through donations and by sponsoring events that focus on education, arts, health care and amateur athletics.

•	University of West Indies, Barbados: RBC announced a gift of US$300,000 ($600 000 BBD) over the next five years to help build the University’s Creative Arts Centre and expand the academic program to include an interdisciplinary creative arts major. RBC’s donation to UWI will also provide support for the research, marketing and training of teachers, reviewers and researchers, with the goal of establishing a centre of excellence in performing arts.
•	National Gallery of the Cayman Islands: In 2005, RBC became a corporate sponsor of the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands, a non-profit organization committed to the development and success of artists in the Cayman Islands. They offer an average of eight exhibitions of both local and international art per year, in addition to numerous programs, artist workshops, lectures and events.
•	Jazz on the Square – St. Lucia: We sponsored Jazz on the Square in St. Lucia, a week-long, free community event that showcases regional and international jazz artists to locals and visitors. Our silver sponsorship involved C$20,000 in cash, plus promotional material.
•	Bahamas Cancer Caring Centre: RBC has committed funds to support the Bahamas’ new Cancer Caring Centre and headquarters facility, both of which were dedicated on September 30, 2005.
•	Heart Foundation of Barbados: RBC made a $10,000 donation to the Heart Foundation of Barbados to finance the publishing of the Foundation’s magazine Heartline, in support of educating the community on cardiovascular health issues.
•	RBC Bahamas National Swimming Championships: For the 22nd consecutive year, RBC sponsored the Bahamas National Swimming Championships. The RBC Royal Bank of Canada National Swimming Championships are run by the Bahamas Swimming Federation and include both individual and relay events.

EUROPE
Globally, RBC Capital Markets and Global Private Banking reinforce RBC’s corporate identity through sponsorships that actively target amateur athletics, the arts and community events.

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Food For Life Cycling Program: The Global Private Banking team in Geneva, Switzerland supported the Food for Life Cycling program in Kenya, Africa, with a gift of $21,000. This Food For Life program, which has been running for over five years, is considered the most comprehensive vegetarian food relief program available in Kenya.

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Theodora Foundation: Global Private Banking funded the Theodora Foundation in Spain, an organization that brings laughter, smiles and music to hospitalized children through the work of its clown doctors, who are trained to work in hospitals. They visit 10 hospitals on a weekly basis and use their entertainment and improvisation skills to create sketches for the children, allowing the children to actively participate in the magic as it is played out.

BRITISH ISLES
In the British Isles, RBC supports the community in the areas of amateur athletics and the arts.

•	University of London Men’s Hockey Team: RBC Capital Markets in the U.K. sponsored the University of London Men’s Hockey Team for the 2005–2006 academic year, covering clothing, equipment, coaching, fees and travel costs. The team plays matches across with the top 10 London colleges and other universities across the country.
•	Relay for Life: Relay for Life is a family event held in Jersey, centred around a 24-hour relay race that raises funds for Cancer Research UK. RBC has been the main sponsor of the event since 2002, and signed a three-year contract in 2005. As sole sponsor, RBC provides the majority of funding, supplies branded promotional goods and coordinates PR activity to raise awareness.
•	RBC Athletics Multi-Event: 2005 marked the second annual sponsorship of the RBC Athletics Multi-Event in Jersey and Guernsey. This event, which includes athletes at all levels and ages, exposes the athletes to a variety of events including running, throwing and jumping, broadening their sporting abilities. The event is aimed at benefiting both Islands’ athletic clubs and encouraging sports development.
•	Jersey Spartan Athletics Club: The spirit of RBC’s three-year sponsorship of the Jersey Spartan Athletics Club is to contribute toward the future growth and development of the club and to demonstrate our commitment to the local community and its youth.
•	Liberation 60 Memento Book: To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Liberation of Jersey from German Occupation on May 9, 1945, RBC provided significant funding to publish the official memento book. RBC was proud to be part of the book in celebration of the Island’s freedom and development. It also provided an opportunity to celebrate the enduring links between Jersey and Canada. A complimentary book was sent as a gift to selected RBC corporate clients.

LATIN AMERICA

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Give To Columbia Campaign: RBC pledged $15,000 to the Give to Columbia campaign, which will encourage U.S. individuals and corporations to donate to Columbian causes by creating capacity in the Columbian not-for-profit sector, and by providing donors with objective and trustworthy information on Columbia and its social causes.