Pro bono work drives change in our communities

Jacob knew about Capital One’s philanthropy, but it wasn’t until he joined one of the company’s pro bono projects that he realized it encompassed financial support, volunteerism and leadership.

Through Capital One Pro Bono, engagements in which associates dedicate their time and expertise to nonprofits and small businesses, Jacob and his team of business analysts helped a food bank better address food insecurity by applying their experience with data modeling and visualizing.

“I learned firsthand that Capital One means what they say when it comes to living our mission and values and giving back to our communities,” said Jacob, a senior business manager for Card. “We do leverage our talent and associates for purpose-driven work.”

While Capital One Pro Bono allowed Jacob to enrich lives in his community, the program also provided experience that improved his leadership skills and networking opportunities.

Collaborating on a solution

Community partners can apply to be a part of Capital One Pro Bono and work directly with our teams to address challenges that they face. Our associates then collaborate—with each other and with the community partners—to create solutions and help drive social change. Capital One Pro Bono volunteers have contributed over 22,000 hours in donated professional services since 2020.

Jacob and his team worked with Feed More, a food bank that collects, prepares and distributes food in order to bring hunger relief to neighbors in need throughout Central Virginia. Feed More joined our Pro Bono program to get a deeper understanding of food insecurity during the pandemic.

Capital One associate volunteers—made up of a team of business analysts and data scientists—worked alongside Feed More to build and pilot a sustainable data model that assesses risk of food insecurity at the zip code level. Through a new model created by Capital One, Feed More has enhanced granularity, freshness and frequency of meal-gap data in the region, allowing Feed More to better serve its community.

“A highlight of this work, and what contributed greatly to its success, was the fact that our team was able to work directly with Feed More’s leadership and it felt like a true collaboration,” Jacob said. “Everyone involved in this work was empowered to help drive decision-making and analysis.”

Providing community support

Pro bono programming is a foundational component of Capital One’s Impact Initiative, an initial $200 million multi-year commitment to support growth in underserved communities and advance socioeconomic mobility by closing gaps in equity and opportunity. The Impact Initiative builds upon Capital One’s mission to change banking for good and supports affordable housing, financial well-being, racial equity, small businesses growth and workforce development.

The community work comes with an added bonus for associate volunteers like Jacob: Deeper relationships with colleagues.

“Our managers helped us prioritize our schedules so we could give the time and resources needed to Feed More,” Jacob said.