Umpqua Bank meets community needs
during COVID-19 through employee giving
and volunteering.

When COVID-19 began impacting customers in its five-state region, Oregonbased Umpqua Bank took swift action to help.

The bank approached its response methodically, first identifying the most
urgent needs, then setting up ways for employees to get involved, and rolling
out that assistance in a thoughtful way—all while providing resources to
customers seeking relief programs, mortgage assistance, and other financial
support and transitioning its own teams to remote work.

With Blackbaud’s YourCause solution, Umpqua Bank selected charity
organizations to highlight through its employee giving program. The bank
expanded its company match from a dollar per dollar to a three-to-one match
and focused on specific types of organizations to support, rotating the
featured charities every few weeks.

“We worked to fill urgent needs first,” said Jordan Bowen, operations
manager. “We had the program ready to go before we even had approval. The
platform was just so responsive and really helped advance our ability to help
our people and communities during this challenging time.”

Umpqua Bank first focused on international, national, and regional COVID-19
response funds, then food access organizations, small business support
groups, childcare support organizations, and finally charities nominated
by employee resource groups. The bank also set up virtual volunteering
through YourCause, connecting its employees with nonprofits that previously
received funding from the bank.

Partner organizations surfaced 25 virtual volunteering opportunities in the
first two weeks alone. Umpqua associates sewed medical masks, helped with
data entry, read to children, and more. As more services and programs have
transitioned to maintain social distancing, associates are now also taking
grocery orders, hosting financial education workshops, and participating in
panels and informational career interviews.

“Our team’s approach is to ask community partners what they need instead
of guessing,” Bowen said. “We want them to think of us when they need
hands to support them.”