KBC and The Alzheimer Society of Ireland – Skills-sharing for long-term impact
Overview of the Partnership
Since 2017 The Alzheimer Society of Ireland (ASI) has been KBC’s charity partner. This relationship has matured over time – In the first 2 years, KBC focused on fundraising and practical volunteering with employees raising over €300,000 for the ASI. By our third year, the partnership had evolved to focus on skills sharing between both organisations.
The ambition set in 2019 was for KBC to utilise in-house knowledge and skills to support the ASI to use social media more effectively to increase awareness for the organisation and for the ASI flagship fundraiser, Ribbon Day. Similarly, KBC wanted to engage the expertise of the ASI to review business practices in supporting vulnerable customers living with dementia and their families.
2019 has brought about long term changes to practices in both KBC and the ASI. By sharing knowledge and skills with the ASI, KBC have supported the ASI to extend their reach and increase awareness of their services on social media. The ASI have supported the development of KBC’s engagement with vulnerable customers.
Implementing Best Practice
During 2019, KBC employees engaged in professional skills volunteering while also sharing expertise and resources with the ASI.
To support the ASI in their ambition to use social media effectively, the KBC Social Media Advisor developed and delivered a bespoke social media workshop for the ASI staff. The Marketing Team shared their knowledge and expertise and worked with our agency to develop creative assets for an engaging social media campaign for the ASI Ribbon Day.
Similarly, the ASI shared their skills with KBC by delivering a Dementia Training course to customer-facing staff . This training equips KBC employees with the communication skills to support vulnerable customers. Over 20 employees from across the bank attended the 2019 training and 4 more Dementia Friendly Training sessions in 2020 have already been planned as part of KBC’s ongoing vulnerable customer support.
Impact of the Partnership
Over the last 3 years, the KBC & ASI partnership has gone from strength-to-strength, with KBC employees spending over 1,800 hours volunteering in support of the ASI and raising over €300,000 for the charity. This funding has been used to develop the ASI website as a key information resource, ipads have been provided to each day care centre, and the ASI mobile information unit has been able to visit 150 locations across the country. Over time, the partnership progressed from a focus on practical volunteering and cash donations to a more strategic and high impact partnership that centred on skills and knowledge sharing to bring about long term benefits for both organisations.
As a result of KBC’s skills sharing, the ASI delivered a successful social media campaign throughout November and December increasing awareness for the ASI annual Ribbon Day Fundraiser. As a result of this project, the ASI’s impressions on Twitter increased by 108%, and their reach on Facebook increased by 170% compared to the 2018 campaign.
Similarly, as a result of the ASI sharing their Dementia Friendly Training programme, KBC now have Dementia Friendly champions across the business and in the customer facing Hub network. These champions can now better support any potentially vulnerable customers that might be living with dementia. The training programme supports the KBC Vulnerable Customer Policy and, reflecting this, KBC have committed an additional 100 places on Dementia Friendly Training course for 2020.
KBC’s Impact in 2019
KBC provided €106,971 in cash donations; €15,926 was contributed through in-kind donations and €24,705 was raised through employee fundraising. Employees also volunteered 1,330 hours to local groups and projects during the year.