Independent Banker - September 2022 - 48

National Community Bank Service Awards
Honorable Mention:
Exceptional Community
Bank Service Award
SPONSORED BY
We also do a Week of Giving in
November. We started that four years
ago. The whole bank volunteers for an
entire week. We put together 50 to 60
events-we sign everybody in the bank
and have teams volunteer all over
the state.
Columbia Bank's
Team Columbia
volunteers
participated in a
recent food drive.
Columbia Bank's ever-growing giving
5
olumbia Bank is always ready
to lend a helping hand through
its Team Columbia volunteer
program, which started small and is
now a major part of its program of
community involvement. Thomas J.
Kemly, president and CEO, discusses
the community bank's eff orts in its
local communities.
Q: How did Team Columbia start,
and how has it evolved over time?
A: Years ago, we did volunteer events
like build days with Habitat for
Humanity. We did these as big team
events and had a great experience
and great success. So we asked
ourselves, " Why don't we do more
volunteering? " Today, our company
has been volunteering for more than
30 years. It started as volunteering
once per month and eventually twice
a month. We decided to double it
again and now we are doing over 100
events per year.
Q: How does the team make time
for all that volunteering?
A: Columbia Bank makes time
available for employees to volunteer
during the work week. Sometimes
we do volunteer on weekends, but
most of the time it is during the work
day. We help our team fi nd volunteer
opportunities and encourage them
to participate.
Q: What are a few of the charities
you've partnered with?
A: We have a lot of great charities that
we've had long-term relationships
with. CUMAC is a food pantry in
Paterson, N.J., and we volunteer
there often. Eva's Village provides
meals and is a homeless shelter, also
in Paterson, the city right next door
to our headquarters located in Fair
Lawn. We've had a long relationship
with Habitat for Humanity, and
March of Dimes has been a consistent
charity we've worked with for years.
48 Q ICBA Independent Banker Q September 2022
Q: Which initiatives have had the
largest impact on your community?
A: We think every group we do work
with is doing something important.
There's a special group, The Phoenix
Center, which is a school for [special
needs] children, and we go each
year when the school is on break
and paint some part of the school,
whether it's a hallway, a lunchroom
or a gymnasium. They have been a
longtime partner.
We also do the March of Dimes
walkathon every year. It's a big
corporate event where we invite
employees and their families to
donate money and support the
walkathon. It becomes Columbia
Bank, extended.
Q: How has the community
responded to these
volunteering eff orts?
A: The community is very appreciative.
A lot of times, these events help
support incoming business
relationships. The companies we
volunteer for will often say, " We'd love
to bank with you. " We have a great
nonprofi t product that we off er called
Columbia Cares. And when we do our
Week of Giving, it's a corporate-wide,
statewide event. We get nice remarks
from so many people out in the public,
because we're all over the state that
week and we touch a lot of lives and
people in our communities.
-Rachel Hatcher
Columbia Bank
Assets: $9.9 billion
Location: Fair Lawn, N.J.
columbiabankonline.com
http://www.columbiabankonline.com
Independent Banker - September 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Independent Banker - September 2022
