Developing talent through community involvement: a winning formula for capital one. a growing number of potential employees now rank corporate social responsibility as a deciding factor when choosing an employer. Accordingly, more and more companies are adopting HR strategies that emphasize increasing employee involvement in the community.

Capital One uses innovative strategies to engage employees with community-based organizations (CBOs). This involvement extends beyond the traditional donation of money: Instead, it focuses on sharing core strengths with CBOs to help shore up their business practices. Surveys of Capital One employees show that employee engagement and retention, as well as employee morale and attitudes toward the company, improve with participation in these community-engagement programs.

Social responsibility is joining talent management as a crucial part of corporate America's agenda. Companies are recognizing that it is no longer enough to provide the best product or service at the best price, because other factors play a role in the consumer's decision-making process. For instance, many people want to know that the products and services they purchase help support companies that do more than just turn a profit. In a recent study, 38 percent of consumers ranked "social responsibility" very high in importance, while 33 percent said that it's important for a company to be active in the communities where it does business (GolinHarris, 2005).

Employees, too, now are looking for socially responsible employers. Earlier this decade, a survey revealed that 81 percent of Americans take into consideration a company's commitment to a social issue when deciding where to work (Cone, Inc., 2004).

Capital One listened and took action. Wanting to transcend where other companies stalled--monetary donations and "feel good" volunteering--Capital One built robust community involvement at all levels into the people strategy for the company. The premise was a comprehensive human resources strategy that helps connect employees with the community. The practice has a dramatic impact on employee recruitment, morale, retention, talent development, corporate image and, ultimately, the bottom line.

Capital One, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, is a diversified Fortune 500 company with more than 27,000 associates and 50 million customer accounts worldwide. Through its international-lending businesses and banking franchise in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Texas and Louisiana, Capital One offers a wide range of financial products, including credit cards, auto loans, small business loans, home loans, installment loans, commercial loans, deposits and savings products.

The Case for Volunteerism 

Just what does "socially responsible" or "active in the community" mean? For Capital One, it means building the business through strategic community engagement. To many community-based organizations (CBOs), it means receiving cash donations from corporations.

However, CEOs of CBOs are beginning to realize that "checkbook philanthropy," while valuable, may not be the most effective way for companies to help their organizations. In many cases, leaders of CBOs have rich backgrounds in the issue area and discipline championed by their organizations, such as education, community development or children's health, but lack specific business training in fields such as marketing, management, finance, IT or accounting. As they find it more difficult to succeed in their increasingly complex jobs, CBO leaders see that corporate America has the experience and know-how they need, in addition to the ability to write a check.

Fueling community-based organizations with corporate talent generates profound, positive outcomes for those organizations that may lack the resources to fully develop business competencies. In fact, 77 percent of CBO directors and managers strongly or somewhat agree that their organizations could benefit significantly from corporate volunteers who focus their involvement on business-practice improvements. Yet nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of these CBOs do not work with any companies that provide volunteers (Deloitte & Touche USA LLP and The Points of Light Foundation, 2006).

Developing the Strategy

While social responsibility trends set the stage for companies like Capital One to explore new ways to partner with the CBO sector, Capital One's momentum to take the lead also stemmed from an internal commitment to stretch employees' talents and provide diverse development experiences for talented associates. Surveys of Capital One employees showed that most possess a strong desire to expand their boundaries and contribute in ways that extend beyond the confines of their job descriptions. Many employees already participated in limited, episodic volunteering, organizing of special events and other types of community involvement. At the same time, community requests to Capital One to provide pro bono services were growing.

Through a structured and integrated approach to community involvement, Capital One offers comprehensive support to community-based partners, which includes monetary contributions, teams of corporate volunteers providing unskilled labor, access to the intellectual capital of Capital One associates, and national initiatives such as the Executive Board Leadership Program (EBLP). Blending together vigorous and wide-reaching community affairs programs and powerful leadership and talent development programs, Capital One is able to provide valuable resources to the community while also benefiting the company.

The Capital One Winning Formula

The benefits to the company and the community reside in Capital One's Community Involvement "Winning Formula." The company's values of "Excellence" and "Do the Right Thing" anchor the formula.

These values--rigor in the application of resources coupled with a strong value of corporate citizenship--are a foundation of Capital One's culture and people strategy. Moreover, every choice Capital One makes is guided by its values. "Excellence" defines the way Capital One associates and managers perform as individuals and teams--and as an organization. "Do the Right Thing" describes how Capital One employees interact with each other, their customers and their communities.

Associates apply the same values or principles to their community involvement as they do on the job:

* Innovation. Capital One seeds new social ideas, invests in the expansion of ideas that work, and shares ideas with other innovators.

* Inquisitiveness or "Test and Learn." Capital One identifies the strongest talent and models in CBOs and tests performance before making major financial investments. Associates' partnerships iterate as they learn from their experiences. Capital One also applies strict metrics to the performance of CBOs, analyzing outcomes and surveying stakeholders to drive philanthropic decision-making.

* Collaboration. Programs are built in partnership with the community and based on identified community needs. CBOs assess their needs and then Capital One managers match associates with the right skill sets to the nonprofit partners. This approach results in collaboratively designed, built and executed relationships in the community and across internal divisions.

More than just a way to provide benefits to the company, the Community Involvement Winning Formula builds and helps define Capital One's employment brand: "Be valued. Be valuable." "Be valued" means that Capital One recognizes and appreciates the specific skills and talents that each employee possesses. "Be valuable" means that Capital One can harness the worthy contributions these employees want to provide to the community. This practice, in turn, enhances the company in many ways.

'Winning Formula' Takes Discipline and Partnership

To create sustainability, the Formula was developed through a disciplined process. Capital One identified business issues and determined the customers for the work. The company used metrics to track success. Then, to put the Winning Formula into practice, Capital One followed a seven-step process:

1. Take inventory. The vice president of Community Affairs and a team led by the manager of Corporate Volunteerism conducted an inventory of all of the activity being performed in the community by associates. Once categorized, the staff could easily identify areas of strength, gaps in service and pockets of innovation occurring around the company that had potential for replication and institutionalization.

2. Identify business problems and develop strategy. The Community Affairs team identified stakeholder groups throughout the company that could most directly benefit from a community-involvement strategy. After extensive conversations with the chief human resources officer's team, corporate communications and the lines of business, the group indentified the attraction, development and retention of talent as the key business problem where integrating community involvement could enhance current HR strategies.

3. Develop priorities. Once the team had its strategy, it identified three priorities: executive board leadership; internal and external communications; and pro-bono and team volunteering. In each case, the team grounded itself in best practices from the field, and in the needs of its internal stakeholders, creating a continuous feedback loop.

4. Set measurable goals. The team set goals, performance metrics, benchmarks and timelines for each priority in partnership with key internal leaders. In the case of the Executive Board Leadership Program, Community Affairs worked with Talent Management leaders to set goals, including a target of 50 percent of executives at the senior-most level serving on the boards of nonprofit organizations within one year.

5. Use the experts for program design and implementation. The teams worked together on the development of content for these market-leading programs. For example, the Executive Board Leadership Program (EBLP) was designed in partnership with the HR Talent Management team. When it came to execution, the HR group identified a set of target executives recommended for board placement while the Community Affairs group identified target partner organizations in each market. Likewise, the Community Affairs team led the content development of the EBLP training curriculum with ongoing feedback from Capital One University. The team undertook similar processes for each program with its internal customers.

6. Test and learn locally. Each program was piloted in the company's headquarters location before it was replicated in other markets. The first EBLP board training and early board and executive matches occurred during the first year of the program in the greater Washington region. Pilots close to home allowed a hands-on approach to implementation and real-time feedback with which to refine the program. This "test and learn" approach is one that Capital One employs in its business as well.

7. Take to market nationally. Finally, Capital One replicated the refined programs in other company locations. For example, The Executive Board Leadership Program is now fully operational in greater Washington, Richmond, Dallas and Houston. The company plans to expand it soon in Louisiana, New York and New Jersey.

Components of the Formula

The Formula consists of three distinct types of associate involvement: Hands and Hearts (H2), Core Competencies (C2) and Leveraging Leaders (L2).

Hands and Hearts

H2 is a powerful tool for increasing employee morale and engagement. In this program, Capital One community relations personnel work directly with managers to connect associates with opportunities for community involvement. Typically this has taken place through more individual volunteering opportunities such as participating in fundraising events like the March of Dimes Walk for Babies; collecting books and reading to children on Dr. Seuss' birthday; or gathering canned goods to stock declining food bank pantries.

At Capital One, managers are now connecting Hands and Hearts as an integral part of their business-engagement strategy. For example, instead of the traditional offsite year-end holiday party, one organization brought together more than 300 associates to build dozens of bicycles in one hour to distribute to low-income children. The "bike build" came after the leadership shared business updates and celebrated accomplishments for the year. A networking event followed the bike build. The following year, the department built more than 45 large 5-by-6-food playhouses--complete with doorbells- in cross-functional teams. The group did this instead of spending money on a traditional evening dinner party and entertainment. Instead, in a matter of hours, a village came to life.

Integrating community involvement into these onsite business meetings can touch hearts in a powerful way. After attending a mini financial-education seminar, the third graders in attendance came into the meeting to learn their graduation present was a bike. They reacted with smiles and cheers. The next year, pictures were posted on the company Web site of daycare providers and their children receiving the new playhouses, complete with a welcome card and picture of the Capital One "construction crew" that built their house.

Employees want to give of themselves and don't expect anything in return. According to Capital One's 2007 Volunteer Survey results, more than 88 percent of Capital One employees who participated in community activities did so because they wanted to "help others," while nearly 69 percent did so because it "made them feel good." Similarly, nearly 70 percent of respondents selected "none" or "grant to nonprofit organizations they care about" when asked about their preferred method of recognition.

Core Competencies

C2 is the practice of volunteers sharing core business skills in two key areas: "Brand Corps" and "Tech Corps." Capital One's successful Brand Corps initiative provides an excellent example of how C2 involvement--helping the community by leveraging core competencies--can provide measurable benefits to both the CBO and the company. The Brand Marketing department at Capital One created Brand Corps in 2002 as an initiative to manage the numerous pro-bono branding requests through a more efficient and streamlined process. Through the Corps, Capital One Brand Marketing provides in-kind creative services that deliver new and sustainable branding and marketing tools and capabilities to CBO partners. Not only does this program help drive meaningful change within the CBO, it also provides Capital One associates with opportunities to learn new skills.

When Brand Marketing receives a request from a Capital One executive or member of the Capital One Community Affairs department, it is vetted by Community Affairs via a simple needs assessment and evaluation to ensure alignment with corporate philanthropic priorities. Brand Corps projects range from one-time, quick-turnaround requests, to comprehensive marketing strategy projects that last up to three years.

Community partners benefit from a range of Brand Corps services that are designed to impart knowledge and help the CBO become more efficient and effective in its marketing, thereby leading to growing self-sufficiency. The most comprehensive partnerships draw on all four tracks of brand services available:

* Brand Strategy: in-depth research and analysis of the organization's current and desired brand image, personality and identity, as well as the development of a new or refreshed brand and related standards;

* Marketing Strategy: a review and gap analysis of the organization's marketing plans and recommendations for maximizing resources;

* Direct Marketing: counsel and guidance regarding donor growth strategies and prospecting in both online and offline channels, as well as support for enhancing and improving donor communications tools like annual reports and newsletters; and

* Event Promotion: assistance and guidance to develop and execute a comprehensive marketing plan for promoting a fundraiser or brand awareness event, including design of save-the-date postcards, invitations, sponsor mailings, event programs and signs, print ads, posters and banners.

In its first year of existence, Brand Corps served three partners in central Virginia. In 2007, the Corps helped 27 partners, providing 1,500 hours of volunteer service valued at $215,000. Since the pro bono program's inception, Brand Corps members have contributed more than 9,733 associate hours valued at $875,000, and provided over $472,969 in donated goods or services, including printing and mailing.

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Two success stories illustrate the benefit that the C2 strategy brings to both Capital One and the partner CBO. Capital One's Brand Marketing team began pro bono work with the District of Columbia-College Access Program (DC-CAP) in the fall of 2005 with an assignment to help reinvigorate the organization's brand and elevate its profile. DC-CAP is a CBO dedicated to encouraging and enabling D.C. public high school students to enroll in and graduate from college through services and programs managed in its 25 College Information Resource Centers. The organization provides direct counseling and financial assistance to students from low-income, minority and single-parent households, many of which are the first in their families to attend college.

Beginning with brand research and analysis, Capital One focused on building a stronger foundation for the DC-CAP brand by creating a new brand-identity system. Up to that point, DC-CAP had been using clip art and inconsistent colors. Corps members updated DC-CAP's logo to help raise its prominence in a competitive market, and introduced design standards, such as a specified color palette, to help DC-CAP communicate its brand more powerfully and consistently. The Brand Corps then redesigned DC-CAP's portfolio of marketing and promotional materials targeted to the corporate market including a brochure for its workplace-giving program, a direct-mail invitation for a spring fundraiser and donor outreach materials to incorporate the new brand identity.

The group also refreshed simple things like DC-CAP's letterhead and business cards that create an all-important first impression. A Capital One executive vice president is active on DC-CAP's board of directors, and Capital One is extended the partnership in 2008 to help design a new fundraising campaign that targeted individual donors.

Another successful partnership is Capital One's work with St. Joseph's Villa (SJV), a Richmond, Va., residential facility and school for at-risk children. Capital One has focused on helping increase SJV's operational capacity by developing partnership opportunities that leverage Capital One's core strengths. Drawing on Capital One's extensive direct-mail experience, the Brand Corps worked with the SJV development staff to create a more engaging and efficient direct-mail program aimed at increasing the number of donors and improving the responses from donors. After the first year of this new program, revenue from SJV's existing donors increased by 41 percent, and overall response to SJV direct mail increased by 51 percent.

In addition, the prospecting strategy developed by Brand Corps members has helped SJV access new sources for donors and aided SJV in stemming donor attrition. The partnership has extended to improving efficiency in other operational areas. SJV has received extensive technical support from Capital One's IT Corps, modeled after Brand Corps, including training for 150 staff members on new technologies and the donation of 250 computers. These efforts have significantly improved SJV's ability and capacity to implement technology-based, efficient solutions to daily operational challenges. A Capital One senior vice president also serves on SJV's board of directors.

Following the success of Brand Corps, Capital One developed Tech Corps in 2006. Tech Corps focuses on growing the IT skills and capabilities of selected CBOs. Through the Tech Corps program, Capital One IT associates build on and enhance technology capacity of community nonprofit partners. IT requests from partners are vetted through Capital One Community Affairs and then assigned to a group of associates from Tech Corps. As with Brand Corps, these projects range from one-time, quick-turnaround solutions to more regular, ongoing support from Capital One associates for broader technological strategy. Services performed by Tech Corps include software training, computer lab builds, technological capability analyses and building CBO capacity for data-driven strategic planning.

Leveraging Leaders (L2)

L2 matches Capital One's most senior executives with the boards of national and local nonprofit partners through the Executive Board Leadership Program (EBLP), which equips these executives to provide excellent service. EBLP offers leadership development and personal growth opportunities for senior executives by allowing them to expand their established skill sets to effectively serve a CBO.

As part of executive orientation for newly promoted vice presidents, associates are briefed on the EBLP and are encouraged to join a targeted CBO board to enhance their leadership-development plan. Community Affairs (in conjunction with Capital One University) offers an executive training seminar that is recommended for all who serve as board members. The seminar (created and co-facilitated by BoardSource) is an introduction to board service and covers a range of topics including legal and fiduciary responsibilities of board members, fundraising and emerging trends in nonprofit governance.

Once an executive expresses interest in the EBLP, a member of the Capital One Community Affairs team conducts an interview to learn more about the person's interests and begins organizational research to identify the best potential matches for the executive. Community Affairs guides each executive through the nomination and appointment process and continues to provide support throughout his or her term of service. Capital One currently supports more than 100 matches.

Capital One conducted two training sessions in 2007 for the EBLP, consisting of 30 senior executives.

"The training provides our executives with valuable insight into effective governance, which is directly useful in their work at Capital One as well as in supporting the nonprofit boards on which they serve," said the company's chief financial officer. Feedback from post-training evaluations revealed a high degree of satisfaction with the training. Executives responded to all measures of evaluation above 5.0 on a 6-point scale. One Capital One executive who participated in the training remarked, "This overview of governance is applicable to 'for-profit' as well. It's something that more senior executives would benefit from, even if they aren't on a board." Another added, "This was very illuminating to me, and I have worked with non-profits for 15 years."

Creating Pride and Developing Talent

Capital One's Community Involvement Winning Formula has produced tangible, measurable benefits to the company in three ways: creating pride and developing talent; recruiting and retaining employees; and building company reputation. It is well known that employees perform best when they feel good about their employer and the work they do, and high-performing employees usually mean exceptional returns on the balance sheet. Capital One's 2006 Corporate Summary of Tracked Volunteerism showed that community involvement improves morale and the employees' opinion of the company. Here how associates responded when asked the question, "My volunteerism accomplished which of the following?"

* 90 percent said they "made a difference in the community."

* 81 percent answered volunteering "made me feel good about myself."

* 79 percent said it "made me feel good about the company."

* 28 percent said it "improved my ability to work with a colleague."

* 23 percent said it "helped me develop a new skill."

In general, associates are more engaged and feel connected to "something bigger" when they apply their business skills for social good, and community involvement provides substantive opportunities for professional development. Volunteering and other forms of employee community involvement help develop a variety of competencies, including planning and implementation, communication, project management, listening skills and customer focus. Many community projects require volunteers to work cooperatively in teams to accomplish tasks. Companies have harnessed the teamwork skills learned in volunteer activities to help employees work more collaboratively--often with colleagues spanning a variety of ages, races, cultures and working styles.

Because volunteer initiatives provide opportunities for employees to engage in activities that may differ from their daily tasks, employees can develop and demonstrate their ability to take charge in new and challenging situations. For example, senior leaders have the opportunity to build legislative influencing skills rather than executive skills when they serve on community boards.

Volunteer efforts in the community enable companies to identify leadership skills among employees that might not have surfaced during daily operations. Companies can then cultivate these future leaders and allow employees to master new skills in a less competitive environment. It's no coincidence that a recent study showed that two-thirds of professionals who volunteer think that their volunteer experiences have had a positive effect on their careers (Deloitte & Touche USA LLP and Points of Light Foundation, 2008).

Recruiting and Retaining Top Employees

Companies that help employees share their professional skills with CBO organizations have a leg up when it comes to recruiting qualified employees. Among Generation Y or Millennial talent, 60 percent would prefer to work for companies that give them opportunities to contribute their talents to nonprofit organizations (Deloitte Development LLC, 2007).

EXHIBIT 2

Attitudes on community involvement are a significant predictor of both
associate engagement and retention. In the 2007 All Associate Survey,
satisfaction levers were regressed with the question "I feel good about
the ways in Capital One contributes to the community" in relation to
associate engagement and retention. The results, based on statisfical
significance and relative predictive strength of each factor, are:

Engagement Drivers

1. The work I do

2. Company culture

3. Community

Retention Drivers

1. The work I do

2. Opportunity for promotion

3. Community

Employees' views of a company's corporate
citizenship affect employee morale, spirit,
trust in their employer and the willingness to
recommend their employer as a good place to
work (GolinHarris, 2005). Employees
involved in company-sponsored community
events are 30 percent more likely to want to
continue working for that company and help
it be a success (Council on Foundations,
1996). Limiting associate turnover produces
tremendous cost savings for employers, especially
when companies consider the lost
productivity and damaged morale that goes
well beyond the high cost of on-boarding a
new associate.

At Capital One, attitudes on community
involvement are a significant predictor of both
associate engagement and retention. Using
data from the 2007 Capital One All Associate
Survey, Capital One regressed satisfaction
levers by analyzing responses to the this statement
in relation to associate engagement and
retention: "I feel good about the ways in which
Capital One contributes to the community."

The company determined drivers of employee
retention and engagement based on
statistical significance and relative predictive
strength of each factor. For both retention
and engagement, "community involvement"
was the third most influential driver out of 18
possible, showing its great importance for
influencing employee behavior in these areas.
Capital One's internal research also showed
that employee satisfaction with the company's
community involvement is a top predictor
of engagement and retention. This makes the
opportunity to leverage community involvement
a robust tool for managers.

Building Company
Reputation

In addition to benefits to morale, retention
and the bottom line, community involvement
also yields external benefits to the company.
One example is helping to develop new markets.
In effect, volunteer involvement, board
work and community events become a vital
form of advertising for the company. These
initiatives help personalize the organization
and put its most vibrant and talented employees
on display.

Further, corporate community involvement
enhances the economic vitality of Capital
One's business regions, helping to ensure that
its communities remain competitive for
attracting talent. The CBO sector plays an
important role in combating threats to the
economy, such as unemployment, illiteracy,
homelessness and a variety of other social
concerns. By strengthening organizations
that attack these problems, the company
helps fortify the overall business climate in
local markets.

Encouraging employee volunteerism in the
community helps companies build stronger
relationships with communities, government
leaders and other stakeholder groups. Volunteer
projects and strategic partnerships
improve the company's standing among community
"influentials" and potential customers.
At the same time, engaging in the community
helps corporations obtain important business-relevant
information about communities
in which they operate, while also identifying
opportunities for the development of business
and products that are responsive to the
needs of consumers.

Engaging with community influentials combined
with market insight helps corporations
both foresee and mitigate risks related to
growing the business, market entry and
license to operate. When included as part of
a strategic mix of community-involvement
activities, corporate volunteerism enables
companies to provide a greater benefit to the
community at a lower cost than can be done
through charitable contributions alone.

Fast Forward

Many cutting-edge companies are using corporate
volunteerism to boost their HR goals
of increasing retention, engagement and
morale. Capital One's experience linking its
HR strategy with its Community Affairs program
provides a compelling example for
others to follow. The Capital One Winning
Formula can assist any company in developing
its own community involvement strategy,
allowing it to identify and leverage its own
core competencies to simultaneously benefit
the community and the company.

Capital One's Winning Formula has remained
vital and dynamic. If you fast-forward from
inception to today, each program helped
accelerate development of enhancements to
the Formula as it was added. When it came
to H2, Hearts and Hands, feedback from
associates highlighted a desire to participate
in Capital One's philanthropy program by
directing grants to causes that were important
to them. In 2008, a new program, Voice
Your Choice, was launched to empower associates
to direct a pool of grant money among
10 nonprofit organizations that support children
and their families. Each associate vote
logged potentially increased the amount of
the grant made to that organization.

The second part of the formula, Core Competencies
(C2), has expanded beyond the
initial scope of Brand and IT to other departments.
Today, the finance, legal and human
resources departments are developing ways
to engage nonprofit organizations using their
skill sets. For example, projects that range
from building financial models for fundraising
to pro-bono executive coaching strategies
are now actively under consideration. As
Capital One shared its success on how to
build leaders through community involvement
at business forums, sharing best
practices became an accelerant to Leveraging
Leaders (L2). Capital One executives now
consult directly with leaders in other large
companies to take pro-bono volunteering
programs to a national scale in corporate
America as a strategy for solving previously
intractable problems in communities.

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Value Beyond Money

The goals of the business and its responsibility
to be a good corporate citizen are not at
cross-purposes. Most well-managed companies
have talented workers who are willing
and able to share their expertise with community-based
organizations helping those in
need. The added value for both is making the
most of the interaction. The corporate- and
community-based relationship should not
begin and end with the exchange of a check.
Savvy, forward-thinking companies will take
this partnership to the next level and create
their own winning formula.

References

Cone, Inc. (2004). "2004 Cone Corporate Citizenship Study: Building Brand Trust," accessed April 27, 2008, at http://www.coneinc.com/stuff/contentmgr/files/0/84d3119bfeO9009ccba4134a2 c9fd5ae/files/2004_cone_corporate_citizenship_exec_summary.pdf.

Council on Foundations (1996). Measuring the Value of Corporate Citizenship, Washington, DC: Council on Foundations.

Deloitte Development LLC (2007). "Highlights of 2007 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT Survey of Gen Y (18-26 year olds)," accessed April 27, 2008, at http://www.deloitte. com/dtt/cda/doc/content/us_comm_volunteerimpact_survey_results2007(2).pdf.

Deloitte & Touche USA LLP & The Points of Light Foundation (2008). "2008 Deloitte/Points of Light Volunteer IMPACT Study Executive Summary," accessed April 22, 2008, at http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/ us pointsoflight_executivesumrnary.pdf.

GolinHarris. (2005.) "Doing Well by Doing Good 2005," accessed April 22, 2008, at http://www.golinharris.com/ pdf/GH_CCS_2005.pdf.

Putnam, R.D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, New York: Simon & Schuster.

Principles for Success

How can other companies create their own winning formula? Capital One's process was built around three principles:

1. Know your audience, Data from Capital One's All-Associate Survey, an annual volunteerism survey, and structured, in-depth interviews with executives and associates formed the basis of the company's volunteer strategy. While many businesses use rigorous research and data analysis to drive development of their products and services, they sometimes create their associate volunteering programs without fully understanding the needs and desires of their audiences. Evidence-based decision-making is critical to developing a volunteer program that achieves its intended outcomes.

2. Lead with your strengths. Knowing that Capital One is a leader in brand development and technology was the foundation for successful skills-based volunteering. While many companies can provide capacity to CBOs in standard business processes, a company will distinguish itself in the community if it leverages what it truly does best. Nonprofit organizations naturally sought out Capital One to help them create winning brands. When a company can deliver its core competency in ways that benefit the community, everyone wins.

3. Align associate volunteering with other philanthropic programs. Companies' volunteer programs can become the "cart that leads the horse" if they are not considered strategically. CBOs expect that if a company is supportive through volunteering, financial support will follow. In Capital One's case, only CBOs who are already grantees receive the full value proposition of the winning formula. This ensures that the company's resources, including volunteers, board members and grants are aligned to achieve target outcomes.

How Gen Y Views CSR 

The 2007 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT Survey of adults ages 18-26 and the Cone Millennial Cause Study reveal some important facts for leaders to consider to increase recruitment of top-notch Gen Y talent:

* 62 percent prefer to work for a company that provides opportunities for the employee to apply his/her skills to benefit CBOs.

* 65 percent believe that companies should make an effort to match their employees' work-related skills of talents with needs of a CBO, for volunteering purposes.

* 70 percent believe that companies should use volunteering as a professional-development tool.

* 75 percent feel that volunteering offers the opportunity to develop leadership and other skills that the employee can use at work.

* Nearly eight out of 10 Millennials want to work for a company that cares about how it contributes to society.

* More than half of Millennials would refuse to work for an irresponsible corporation.

Matt Schuyler is the chief human resource officer at Capital One.

Carolyn Berkowitz is vice president of Community Affairs at Capital One and is president of the Capital One Foundation. For more information about Capital One, go to www.capitalone.com.