Social Impact

WELLS FARGO GRANTS AND GIVING PROGRAMS

The current crisis has accelerated efforts to deploy resources to help address immediate and longer-term needs for shelter, rental assistance, housing, small-business support and financial stability. While Wells Fargo is providing additional flexibility in its grant-making to help nonprofits address operations, staffing costs and other urgent necessities, it continues to focus on supporting organizations that are strategically aligned with its funding priorities. For details about Wells Fargo Grant Application and on its giving efforts and programs, visit www. wellsfargo.com/about/ corporate-responsibility.

Tyler Butler (“Tyler Butler | Giving in Style”), founder and CEO of 11Eleven Consulting, is a corporate social responsibility practitioner and expert leader in the corporate citizenship space. She has served on numerous national and local boards and is often cited as a subject matter expert by Forbes, Entrepreneur, U.S. News & World Report and more. 11elevenconsulting.com givinginstyle.net

Wells Fargo Leverages Scale to Feed Communities

Drive-up food bank is bringing food where its most needed by Tyler Butler

Wells Fargo has a long history of supporting local communities, especially during challenging times. Its leadership believes that when their communities thrive everyone can be successful, and they are deeply committed to supporting local communities where their employees and customers live and work. Wells Fargo concentrates its philanthropic investments on three pressing issues affecting underserved communities: housing affordability, financial health and small-business growth.

The COVID pandemic has created unprecedented disruptions throughout the world, and Wells Fargo is responding to this dynamic and fluid situation by leveraging its considerable network. As part of a series of comprehensive actions that Wells Fargo is taking to help employees, customers and communities experiencing hardships related to COVID-19, Wells Fargo is donating $175 million to help address public health needs, small business, housing, and financial health for vulnerable populations.

One critical program through that Wells Fargo is responding to this pandemic is the Wells Fargo Drive-Up Food Bank program, where the bank is using its philanthropic resources, expertise and scale to help solve complex societal problems. The size and distribution of Wells Fargo’s branch locations and corporate offices puts them in a unique position to use the bank’s scale as a strength to help those facing food insecurity. The Wells Fargo Drive-Up Food Bank program builds on the company’s decades-long involvement in fighting food insecurity and represents just one of the ways the bank is working to support customers and communities during these uncertain times.

“Americans around the country are hurting right now as they try to make ends meet due to the deep economic impact of COVID-19,” says Bill Daley, vice chairman of Public Affairs at Wells Fargo. “One of the biggest challenges in the current environment is getting food to those who need it most. That’s why Wells Fargo is using the broad reach of our locations, including bank branches and corporate properties around the country, to help distribute food and increase accessibility for families facing hunger.”

Working in partnership with Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, and its network of member food banks, Wells Fargo has turned its bank branches and office buildings around the country into mobile food distribution centers in an effort to reach more people facing food insecurity. According to a recent Feeding America analysis, approximately one in six people may experience food insecurity in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase of 46% compared to 2018. In response to the increased need, the Feeding America network of food banks distributed 20% more food in March compared to average months and estimated an average of just under 30% of people being served are new to charitable food assistance.

“Being able to offer food to people in need at different times and locations is critical,” notes Dave Richins, president and CEO of United Food Bank. “Our goal is always to be able to provide assistance where it’s needed. Most of the 300 households coming to the Wells Fargo distribution events each Wednesday are there because the timing and the location work best for them and their families. We’re so grateful to be able to offer them this opportunity to feed their families with nutritious foods.”

Wells Fargo is continuing to grow these efforts as this pandemic continues to impact communities. It announced it will donate approximately $400 million in gross processing fees from the Paycheck Protection Program to nonprofits helping small businesses recover from the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Wells Fargo’s new Open for Business Fund aims to help small businesses reopen, stay open and rebuild. The effort will engage local nonprofit organizations serving diverse small businesses, with an emphasis on Black and African American, Hispanic, Asian American and Native American/Alaska Native businesses, among others. This major initiative will open a new avenue for nonprofits to deliver capital, training and long-term recovery efforts to entrepreneurs who see a long road ahead.

Through these efforts Wells Fargo continues to showcase that philanthropy and community support is genuinely one of the core values that drives its business. Its long history of supporting local and national initiatives is especially apparent during these challenging times with these newly created pandemic focused campaigns. The bank has donated somewhere around $2.3 million to COVID-19 response efforts, funding that will help deliver critical relief and support to communities in need. The combination of this financial support and the leveraging of its existing footprint in communities throughout the country has enabled Wells Fargo to serve as a champion to those in need.

Wells Fargo wellsfargo.com

After 40 years as president of her print and marketing company, Eileen Rogers’ encore career is now as a leadership coach and business advisor through her company One Creative View. She is a seasoned and accomplished entrepreneur and recognized community leader who is fiercely passionate about supporting and growing more vulnerable and courageous leaders. She is a certified Dare to Lead™ facilitator, Integrative Enneagram practitioner and executive coach. onecreativeview.com

Courageous Feedback. Can You Deliver It?

Strive for a shared perspective by Eileen Rogers

“Leaders must either invest a reasonable amount of time attending to fears and feelings or squander an unreasonable amount of time trying to manage ineffective and unproductive behavior.” —Dr. Brené Brown

Most leaders assume feedback is negative and angst over how to deliver it so that it creates accountability, without discomfort for themselves. The ultimate challenge is how to deliver feedback, still be liked, “feel nice,” and still create change or learning. Tough conversations require courage. In her book Dare to Lead, Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW, included a Leader’s Checklist for giving engaged feedback.

“I’m ready to give feedback when …” 1. … I’m ready to sit next to you rather than across

from you. With COVID meetings, this is a metaphor now. The attitude can be symbolic of a power differential or that we view the conversation as adversarial.

2. … I’m willing to put the problem in front of us,

instead of between us or sliding it toward you. When this happens, both people can see it from the same perspective, shifting from “you are wrong here” to “there is something that needs to change.” Now the leader is on the employee’s side and helping him or her through the hurdle — rather than just pointing out the problem.

3. … I’m ready to listen, ask questions and accept

that I may not fully understand the issue. Strong leaders facilitate conversations by fact-finding from a place of curiosity — not lecturing. They don’t shovel and pile on advice/ direction/lessons in a single session. Courageous leaders will dig in, take notes, ask lots of questions. “Here’s what I’m seeing; here’s what I’m making up about what I see. I have a lot of questions. Can you help me understand?”

4. … I’m ready to acknowledge what you do well

instead of just picking apart your mistakes. This can be tricky if there is a crisis or a deliverable with a tight timeline not meeting expectations.

5. … I can recognize your strengths and how you can

use them to address your challenges. Effective leaders adopt a strengths-based feedback style. They connect individual strengths the employee has not applied in the situation. “One of your greatest strengths is attention to detail. You do sweat the small stuff and it makes a big difference to the team. As I look at this, I don’t see you applying that skill here and we need it now.”

6. … I can hold you accountable without shaming or

blaming. We grew up in families with shame and blame as the default methods of feedback. Giving productive and respectful feedback is a skill set we have not learned. 7. … I’m open to owning my part. If leaders can’t own anything, convinced that they did nothing to contribute to the issue, they are simply not ready to meet. Nothing is ever strictly one-sided.

8. … I can genuinely thank someone for their efforts

rather than just criticizing them for their failings. Look for opportunities to call out the good. “I want to share some feedback with you about that call. I think you did a really good job defining the problem to be solved and listening to all the perspectives.”

9. … I can talk about how resolving these challenges

will lead to growth and opportunity. Leaders are prepared to talk about what needs to change within the context of productive feedback and career tracking. Knowing how to tie what they are observing to what’s important for the person is key.

10. … I can model the vulnerability and openness

that I expect to see from you. To grow feedback receptivity, show up open, curious, vulnerable and full of questions. A meeting that begins with a guarded defensive leader who is ready to prove they are right with some kickass hard feedback will be met in a matching defensive, guarded posture by the recipient.

11. … I am aware of power dynamics, implicit bias and

stereotypes. The closer you are to privilege (white, male, straight, etc.) the harder you must work to acknowledge and see how bias could factor into the feedback conversation. Brave leaders will ask about it.

Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager, shared that catching people doing things right is more powerful than always highlighting mistakes. Parents know messages will stick if delivered with reinforcing praise — much more than shaming, blaming or pointing out what’s wrong. The same is true with teams. Courageous feedback is about balancing the messages — with all of them being direct, clear and kind. Unclear is unkind.