Case Study: Capital One's Corporate Pro Bono Leadership

Capital One, named one of “100 Best Companies to Work For” by Fortune in 2007, is focused on creating a culture in which associates can thrive. It is this understanding of the power of human capital that led to the creation of one of the earliest and most innovative in-house pro bono programs in the country, setting the bar for corporate community investment. Capital One has found that offering pro bono services to targeted non-profit partners is a great way to holistically advance its philanthropic and corporate volunteerism strategies. The Community Affairs team works closely with functional leaders across the company to advance an interdisciplinary pro bono program, leveraging the talent of associates for the benefit of the community. These associates help address pressing social issues by enabling nonprofit organizations to expand both the quality and quantity of their services and programs.

Pro Bono Strategy

Capital One began their pro bono program knowing that success would require cooperation with the leaders of the departments from which the employees would be serving. These partnerships between Community Affairs and department leaders enable the effective recruitment of Capital One professionals to serve on pro bono engagements.

The program at Capital One is focused on three specific philanthropic areas: Financial Literacy, Education and Community Development. In those areas, Capital One targets a subset of nonprofit partners to which they offer more in-depth support such as board service and pro bono projects; this allows for a more focused and strategic opportunity to truly make a difference.

In 2008, spearheaded by Community Affairs, Capital One created a Pro Bono Roundtable to formalize the pro bono program and its interdisciplinary approach. The Roundtable meets regularly to support the integration of the two established Corps programs (Brand and Tech), support the development of new Corps (Legal, HR, IT, Finance and others), and to share knowledge about challenges and opportunities across their varied pro bono efforts. In cooperation with Community Affairs, each Corps has created its own Pro Bono Catalog, detailing project types they can offer, the intended outcome for the nonprofit organizations and the associate skills necessary to complete the project. Community Affairs also established a process for the Roundtable to vet each request for service received to ensure alignment with corporate philanthropic priorities. In addition, Capital One partners with the Taproot Foundation at a consulting level for strategic process design and at a national level for thought leadership in growing the movement.

Pro Bono History

In 1998, a Richmond Capital One employee on a nonprofit board identified the need for marketing support for the charitable organization. He reached out to Anne Schaffer on the Brand Marketing Team who ultimately championed the creation of the Brand Corps, an initiative to manage the growing pro bono branding requests through a more efficient and streamlined process. Anne continues to lead the Brand Corp Team today in their efforts to provide in-kind creative services that deliver new and sustainable branding and marketing tools and capabilities to nonprofit partners. Since the program’s inception, Corps members have contributed more than 12,000 associate hours and have provided over $2 million worth of services. Brand Corps partners benefit from a range of services that are designed to impart knowledge and help the nonprofit become more efficient and effective in its marketing, thereby leading to self-sufficiency.

Following on the heels of a successful Brand Corps experience, Community Affairs recognized the power of the program and sought to expand it across Capital One’s functional departments. Thus, Capital One developed Tech Corps in 2006 to allow other associates the opportunity to leverage their talents to enhance the technology capacity of community nonprofit partners. Services performed by Tech Corps include software training, computer lab builds, mentoring, and strategic planning. In the past year, Capital One has expanded their pro bono service into other departments including Finance and Human Resources, and continues to grow internal interest through awareness channels such as newsletters, team meetings, and the company intranet.

Pro Bono Vision for the Future

Over the next several years, Capital One will formalize its pro bono program across many of the company’s business lines with the goal of scaling the entire program to all Capital One markets, engaging a wider mix of associates and leveraging partnerships with local and national nonprofit partners. According to the company’s Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) Billion + Change pledge, Capital One promises to:

  • Increase number of associates who pro bono volunteer by 10%
  • Increase number of Pro Bono Corps teams by 25%
  • Geographically expand the reach of pro bono services by 50%
  • Increase number of nonprofit organizations who receive pro bono services by 10%

Given Capital One’s already extensive program, these numbers are incredibly impressive. Beginning with the Richmond market, Capital One is working to extend the Brand Corps and Finance Corps and to continue to grow the scope of the Tech Corps. Community Affairs is also working closely with a third-party vendor to develop a system to track and value the pro bono services it provides, and will leverage this technology to accept web-based requests from nonprofits and set up an internal system for associates so that the program can be scaled nationally.

Capital One’s Community Affairs department strategically advances the corporate Pro Bono program in partnership with the Corps leaders. Moving forward, Capital One is interested in assessing nonprofit needs so that their efforts can continue to address the greatest capacity-building challenges by leveraging Capital One’s core competencies.

Pro Bono in Action

Capital One’s Brand Corps helped St. Joseph’s Villa (SJV), a Richmond residential facility and school for at-risk children, build their operational capacity and improve their brand identity.  Click here for more information.

Capital One’s Brand Marketing team helped reinvigorate the District of Columbia College Access Program’s (DC-CAP) brand to elevate the organization’s profile among competing nonprofits. To help achieve these goals, Capital One’s Brand Marketing team consulted with DC-CAP on visual identity and collateral development.  Click here for more information.

To learn more about the impact Capital One is making, visit their website.