Community

Building Communities for the Greater Good

The importance of community was never clearer than it is in the age of COVID-19. If community brings us joy in good times, it is a lifeline in the midst of a global health crisis. ATB takes our commitment to our community seriously, in both good times and bad. In part, because of our commitment to the greater good. In larger part, because Alberta is our home too. We live here, we work here, and our customers are also often our friends, our neighbours, and our families. In better times, we see them at the grocery store, at hockey games, and around town. That’s why we look for opportunities to support our communities in meaningful ways, in any way we can.

Our community involvement is one of the measures we use to track our corporate social responsibility efforts. Here are some of the highlights from this past year.

ATB Fundraisers

This year was a significant milestone for two of our biggest annual fundraising campaigns. Both our Teddy for a Toonie and United Way fundraising campaigns turned 20 years old, and both reached a total of $10 million in cumulative contributions.

ATB Cares

ATB Cares aims to amplify the spirit of giving across Alberta. The premise is simple, but the effects are profound. Here’s how it works:

Albertans pick a charity they want to support and donate to through ATB Cares, our online donation platform. Their charity of choice receives 100% of the original donation, plus an extra 15% provided by ATB for eligible Alberta-based charities.

Last year was the third year in a row that we achieved record donations through ATB Cares. In total, $5.8 million made its way to Alberta charities last year, up from $5.03 million the year before. Although we know the COVID-19 crisis has made it harder for some people to donate, it has also increased the needs, and we are hopeful Albertans will step up again this coming year, which we have already started to see.

Teddy for a Toonie

Teddy for a Toonie has become an annual tradition in Alberta’s fundraising calendar. This year ATB customers and team members came together to raise $644,000 for the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary and the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital. In 2019, Teddy for a Toonie donations were directed to building new mental health facilities and programs to help Alberta’s children and youth.

Over the past 20 years, Teddy for a Toonie has raised an astounding $10.3 million for children’s health in Alberta.

United Way

This year’s United Way campaign inspired ATB team members to ramp up their creativity and take their fundraising to new heights. The campaign raised over $583,000, mostly through donations from team members, to fund programs in all nine United Way Alberta regions. We also continued our efforts to use storytelling and interactive tools to share information on the United Way’s impact on our province with ATB team members. This year’s campaign brings our total United Way contribution to $10.2 million.

Distress Centre

As part of our commitment to supporting the mental health of Albertans, we partnered with the Calgary Distress Centre’s volunteer program. It takes a lot of volunteers to run the Distress Centre, which provides 24-hour crisis support through a crisis line, email, chat, and text throughout southern Alberta. Our partnership will help support valuable resources and training.

Pride

We believe in the power of love, diversity, and acceptance. It’s a movement we’re proud to support in our workplaces and communities.

In 2019, ATB was the presenting partner of the Calgary Pride Parade and supported provincial programs like Reading With Royalty, Camp fYrefly, and fYrefly in Schools, which support LGBTQ2+ youth.

Calgary Centre for Sexuality

We also partnered with the Calgary Centre for Sexuality to help Alberta teens take better care of their sexual health. Since 2017, we have supported WizeGuyz, a program aimed at grade nine boys in Calgary and rural Alberta that teaches them about healthy sexuality. Through a series of four weekly classes, boys learn the skills to have healthy relationships, respect others, and challenge stereotypes about masculinity, all with an ultimate goal of influencing the next generation of young men.

ATB Future Transformer Camp

We know technology will be important to build our future and the future of Alberta. So, we hosted the first-ever ATB Future Transformer Camp. This four-day, immersive experience for high school students in Calgary and Edmonton focused on game-changing technology, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and digital app development.

More than 80 team members came together to create this opportunity for 139 students, inspiring them to learn new skills and exposing them to a range of technology-related career paths.

Community Solutions Accelerator

This year, we announced a new partnership with Edmonton Police Services to tackle socioeconomic challenges affecting Edmontonians and Albertans, and deliver innovative solutions using a data-driven approach. The Community Solutions Accelerator, the first of its kind in North America, is a collaborative forum bringing together a broad cross-section of stakeholders, including business leaders, law enforcement, health care providers and community agencies.

Wearing Our Support on Our Sleeves

As ATB advances its Indigenous Relations Strategy and the values we call our ATBs (especially ATB #11 to “Courageously be yourself and a true ally for others”), we look for opportunities to care, connect, and act in our communities. On September 30, team members proudly celebrated Orange Shirt Day. Orange Shirt Day is an opportunity to help build awareness and understanding of residential schools, listen and learn more about the Indigenous experience, and demonstrate support and allyship in reconciliation.

ATB also continued to take part in Pink Shirt Day to stand up to bullying on February 26, when team members from across the province proudly donned their pink shirts and took to social media to make their support known.

Even our youngest team members stood with us. “Employees” of the Junior ATB at Chester Ronning Elementary School in Camrose spent their lunch hour distributing cookies and handwritten messages of kindness to other students in their school.

Community Investment

Arts and Culture

We know how music and art can bring communities together. That’s why we sponsor several large music and art festivals every year, including the Calgary Folk Music Festival, Calgary International Film Festival, Edmonton International Fringe Festival, and Edmonton Comedy Festival. We also sponsor the Lethbridge Dragonboat Festival and Grande Prairie Street Performers Festival, both of which are long-time partners.

We are proud to partner with the Nina Haggerty Centre, a collective made up entirely of artists with developmental disabilities. This year we supported the Here’s Nina event, an annual fundraiser and awards show for the Centre, where we presented ATB’s Emerging Artist Award to illustrator Kim Casarin. We also supported provincial arts organizations such as the National Music Centre in Calgary and the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton.

Sports and Wellness

Hockey is an integral part of Alberta’s identity, and we support it at the NHL, university, and minor levels, as well as the Western Hockey League. Our partnership with Hockey Alberta helps 12,000 players hit the ice and supports the Hockey Alberta Provincial playdowns in 36 different communities across the province.

Our customer cycling program has grown to include 141 customers and team members who joined us for 15 weeks of scheduled rides.

We are long-time sponsors of curling and golf, and we support Team Koe, one of Canada’s best curling squads. The ATB Financial Classic (1 of 12 PGA Tour Canada events) raises an average $50,000 each year for the charity of choice.

One of our oldest sponsorships remains Spruce Meadows, showcasing some of the best horses and athletes from around the world.

Players and coaches with the Red Deer Rebels instructing a group of young children in between drills in an empty hockey arena

These kids got to learn from the pros at an ATB Junior Hockey Clinic with the Red Deer Rebels.

Metric	FY2019	FY2020	FY2021 target	Action plan
Donations	$3 million	$3 million	$3 million	Review our giving focus areas to align with ATB’s Greater Good Strategy and ensure our donations have the greatest impact for Albertans. Consider how we can support economic recovery from COVID-19.
Sponsorships ¹	$7.5 million	$7.6 million	$6.4 million	Create memorable and relevant experiences that continue to unite Albertans in, and further connect them with, their communities while delivering value back to ATB’s business and our brand.
ATB fundraising	$1.3 million	$1.2 million	Match or exceed FY2020 results	Align our fundraising efforts to ATB’s Greater Good Strategy, and respond to community needs by switching the timing of our enterprise-wide campaigns: United Way in the spring to support COVID-19 efforts and Teddy for a Toonie in the fall that will focus on enhancing mental health for children and youth.
Junior ATB ²	96 schools	84 schools	90 schools participating (depends on branch and school networks running at regular capacity in the fall)	Increase the number of Junior ATB schools particularly outside of the Edmonton area, including establishing a Junior ATB school in an Indigenous community.
Employee giving program (Helping Hands)	$111,000 in grants; 27,000-plus volunteer hours	$106,000 in grants; 35,000-plus volunteer hours	$110,000 in grants; 30,000 volunteer hours	Evaluate the program and how it can best support our Greater Good Strategy. Consider an online platform for its administration.
ATB Cares	$4.78 million in donations, $250,000 matched by ATB, $5.03 million total donated to charities	$5.5 million in donations, $250,000 matched by ATB, $5.8 million total donated to charities	$6 million donated to charities (including match from ATB)	Review the program as a whole and assess the current fee structure and platform to maximize the impact in our communities and ensure the program’s longevity, in line with the Greater Good Strategy.

(1) ATB has been centralizing sponsorship activities over the past couple years, so there have been some efficiencies in spending and sharing benefits across multiple teams, without having multiple sponsorships.

(2) The decrease in numbers is predominantly due to reduced branch capacity in terms of dedicated personnel to administer the program.