Two years ago, MainStreet Bank in Fairfax, Virginia, sought to establish a greater connection with local organizations and residents. In 2023, the $2.1 billion-asset community bank launched its charitable giving program, Making Change.
With Making Change, employees can donate allocated funds to a local initiative, individual or family of their choice. Since the program’s inception, the community bank has donated more than $364,000 to community causes and organizations. And it’s all led by employees.
Harnessing employee expertise
Each year, through the Making Change program, all 176 full-time employees—including board members—receive $1,000 from the community bank with instructions to donate it all. Employees can choose to make their own donations, split the funds between different causes or pool their money with other staff members.
Recognizing MainStreet Bank’s employees as the most qualified members to guide community giving, bank leadership put them at the forefront of the initiative.
“[Making Change] was an opportunity to empower our employees to make decisions on where our charitable giving budget goes to, instead of the C-suite deciding that,” says Trish Smith, EVP and chief HR officer at MainStreet Bank. “People that are really in the community can figure out where the needs are and find different organizations or personal stories that are meaningful to them.”
When the program was in its beginning stages, Jeff Dick, chairman and CEO at MainStreet Bank, took inspiration from Bell Bank in Fargo, North Dakota. Much of Making Change’s framework came from Bell Bank’s Pay It Forward program.
“[Bell Bank was] super gracious to meet with me when we were formulating [Making Change],” says Smith.
Making Change supports a variety of local organizations. Employees often contribute to causes supporting animals, faith-based organizations, children’s programs and education-related initiatives.
Evan Hoffman, founding artistic director at NextStop Theatre Company, a Making Change program recipient in Herndon, Virginia, said, “As a nonprofit, donations from amazing organizations like MainStreet Bank are important to us. It’s how we keep ticket prices as low as we possibly can, and most importantly, it enables us to underwrite so many of our education programs, so we don’t have to charge families tuition.”
Shaping culture and connection
The charitable giving program has enhanced MainStreet Bank’s culture by creating a more connected team.
“Every once in a while, we may have someone that wants to donate somewhere, but they’re looking for other employees to donate with them, and we might broadcast that out in our company newsletter, that kind of thing,” says Smith. “[The employees] really love going out and delivering the paper check and having their pictures taken.”
Smith, who was on the original committee that started Making Change, is now on the voting committee that reviews donation requests that employees propose. She feels deeply connected to the program, and being a part of the process fills her with a warm feeling.
One of Smith’s first donations was to Centreville Elementary School, her daughter’s school at the time, to help secure additional educational resources. It was memorable moment, as Smith witnessed a meaningful change happening right in her community.
Josh Douds, former principal of Centreville Elementary School, said, “A $1,000 donation was something, as an elementary school principal, I’ve never experienced before. Someone gave us that much money to use to be creative in supporting our students and staff.”
“That fund had a $6 balance or something like that at the time I did the donation. We were able to surprise [Douds], and the office staff was in tears,” says Smith. “They were so excited to get that support from the community, because they had a real need to use those funds.”
Listening to employee and community voices
The community has reached out to MainStreet Bank for help after learning about Making Change. During a scholarship program in March, local high school students were introduced to the program and later connected with Smith to ask if the bank was interested in supporting their trip to the national competition for DECA, an organization that supports and trains emerging leaders.
“Our branch staff at a couple of different locations got really excited to support them and ended up pooling their funds together,” says Smith. “The donation ended up being around $7,500, and it was able to help fund their trip to California [so they could] compete in the competition.”
Employee feedback surveys about Making Change revealed a desire to expand the program’s reach in the community. One person suggested limiting how much money can be pooled to encourage donations to a variety of organizations.
“We value our employees’ voices,” Smith states. “I think [Making Change] is another avenue where we’re empowering them to make decisions on things that are important to them.”
