Announces New Corporate Volunteer Goal
Pittsfield, MA – Berkshire Bank, America's Most Exciting Bank® announced that it will celebrate National Volunteer Week, April 15-21, 2018 by honoring its employees who have gone above and beyond in the bank's corporate employee volunteer program, known as the XTEAM®. In addition, the bank announced its plan to impact one million lives in 2018 across its footprint through its employee volunteer program.
Launched in 2008, Berkshire Bank's volunteer program, which for the second consecutive year achieved a 100% employee participation rate, allows the company to leverage the power of its people to impact nonprofit organizations throughout its communities. Through the program, employees receive paid time-off to volunteer during regular business hours at a series of company-supported service projects. Employees are empowered to help identify and select the projects resulting in 306 service projects benefiting 203 nonprofit organizations across the country in 2017. In total, employees contributed nearly 40,000 hours of service valued at $1.1 million in donated volunteer time according to Independent Sector. The bank plans to honor employees who donated more than 150 hours of community service and present their top three employee volunteers with Volunteer X-ellence Awards during National Volunteer Week. The Volunteer X-ellence Award winners will receive a trophy and a monetary contribution to the charity of their choice
In addition to celebrating its employee volunteers for their community service, the bank also announced its commitment to impacting one million lives through the volunteer program in 2018. "We believe that the success of our corporate volunteer efforts is not measured by projects or participation rates but rather the people whose lives are positively impacted by employees across our footprint," stated Gary Levante, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility. "This is our commitment to leverage our people and their expertise to contribute meaningfully and substantially to our many nonprofit partners." he added. The bank plans to offer a variety of group, skills-based and pro-bono service opportunities throughout the year to help achieve its goal. In addition, it will host its annual Xtraordinary Day of Service on Tuesday, June 5 during which the bank will close early to allow their entire workforce to volunteer.
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About Berkshire Bank Foundation
Through foundation grants to nonprofits, scholarships to students, environmental programs, and employee volunteerism, Berkshire Bank is making a difference. Each year the Foundation donates $2 million to nonprofits throughout the Bank's footprint and 100% of bank employees provide over 40,000 hours of service through their XTEAM® corporate volunteer program. Berkshire Bank was named one of Massachusetts' Most Charitable Companies by the Boston Business Journal in 2017. To learn more about Berkshire Bank Foundation, visit www.berkshirebank.com/community.
About Berkshire Bank
Berkshire Bank, America's Most Exciting Bank®, is recognized for its entrepreneurial approach, relationship customer experience and distinctive culture. With $11.6 billion in assets, Berkshire provides business and consumer banking, mortgage, wealth management, investment and insurance services through 114 full service branch offices, including Commerce Bank, a division of Berkshire Bank, in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE: BHLB) is the parent of Berkshire Bank. To learn more, visit www.berkshirebank.com, call 800-773-5601 or follow us on: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Berkshire Bank is the official bank of NESN's Boston Bruins coverage and the community partner of Boston Seasons at City Hall Plaza.