Photo courtesy Volt Credit UnionLoretta Roney, CEO of Volt Credit Union
Strategy
Loretta Roney’s Four Steps to Community Engagement
Volt Credit Union invested in the community throughout 2020, even creating its own 501c3 foundation to support local nonprofits. Now, Volt’s CEO shares tips on steering a community-minded business.
by Lillian Stone
May 01 2021 at 8 a.m.
Step 1: Dive in. “I was a transplant to Springfield just under seven years ago. I didn’t know anyone, and I didn’t know the community that well, so I decided to focus on learning how and where to get involved, make an impact and meet people.”
Step 2: Find a cause that speaks to you. “I’m a member of Professionals 4 Child Advocacy, and I also serve as the president of the Borrow My Angel Foundation board, which centers around mental health awareness and suicide prevention. I’ve also done some things with Harmony House, because I have a strong passion for causes that involve women and children. And when you start working with nonprofits, it’s easy to connect with other causes as you meet more people in that arena.”
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Step 3: Create a culture of giving back. “Most people want to make an impact and just don’t know how. At Volt, we worked to provide the infrastructure to allow people to explore giving back, which included giving our staff the equivalent of three days of paid time off to volunteer in the community. We’ve also connected our staff to KY3’s online database of volunteer opportunities, in addition to planning quarterly group volunteer events so they can experience that impact moment.”
Step 4: Focus on moments. “In conjunction with Volt’s 85th anniversary last year, we launched an initiative to make 85,000 moments of impact in our community. It’s easy to write a check and not really see the effects, so this initiative was about looking for ways to directly volunteer in the community. Since last fall, we’ve given almost 50 percent of our net income back to the community.”
