Supporting Neighbors in Need: The Story of Helping Hands Foundation

In the aftermath of the tornado outbreak on April 27, 2011, the team members at Bank Independent saw an opportunity to step up and support our local communities during a critical time of need. That's when the Helping Hands program was born - an initiative designed to lend a hand to neighbors who were in a position of need.

What started as an emergency relief effort has since grown into something much larger - the Helping Hands Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to making a positive impact across the communities we serve.

At the core of the Helping Hands Foundation is a deeply-rooted belief that we all do better when we support each other. The Foundation's mission is driven by the principle that "a rising tide lifts all boats." By partnering with local organizations, teams, and programs that align with Bank Independent's values, the Foundation can direct its resources toward efforts that truly make a positive difference in people's lives.

Our team members play a key part in the success of the Helping Hands Foundation. In an effort to give our team members more opportunities to make a positive difference, all team members (part-time and full-time) are offered eight hours of paid time each year to devote to volunteering in their local communities. Whether it’s coaching youth sports, leading civic organizations, or serving at festivals and events; their volunteerism is incredibly widespread and diverse.

Our Helping Hands volunteer initiative shed light on other needs in our communities. While our team members were able to contribute immensely during their volunteer time, they are not able to help all the time. They realized how much local organizations need, and how much they depended on the community to stay open.

Food banks would be overrun with donations during the holidays, but would be low on food for kids during the summer months, when there were no school meal programs to feed them. And organizations that provided school supplies to kids in the fall needed help from the community to manage the demand. We thought about this, and about how we could help with those needs, too. We already had a donation drive in place to collect toys for local kids in all of our sales offices, and it was really successful. We took that concept and ran with it, and our quarterly share drives were the result.

We now partner with local organizations to conduct four different Share Drives:

• Shelter Share
• Food Share
• School Share
• Toy Share

These Share Drives provide another opportunity to help make a positive difference in the communities we serve.

*AP Photo/Dave Martin