Making a Difference: Northwestern, a community bank helping organizations in need

Rich Palzewic

Staff

February 19, 2024

WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN – Many organizations throughout the State of Wisconsin make it their mission to give back to the communities they represent, but Northwestern Bank, headquartered in Chippewa Falls, takes that to the next level.

Founded in 1904, Jamie Leibrandt, market president, said Northwestern “has always been involved in the community.”

“Going back several generations of presidents, Northwestern is an extremely philanthropic bank,” he said. “As a community bank, that’s always been a part of our charter. Since Northwestern President Jerry Jacobson took over in the late 1990s, he’s about as philanthropic an individual as you’ll find. He’s been the catalyst to push our community involvement to where it is today.”

Leibrandt said it makes him proud to work for a bank focused on supporting the community.

“When I joined Northwestern, it became evident to me quickly that the bank was heavily involved in the community,” he said. “Our tagline is, ‘Building Stronger Communities Where People Matter,’ and that is the focal point of every decision we make. I couldn’t be happier and prouder to work for Northwestern.”

Leibrandt said everything Northwestern does stems from its five culture values:

• Deliver an exceptional experience
• Shine through service
• Lead with integrity
• Create a positive impact
• Foster genuine relationships

With these values serving as foundation, Leibrandt said Northwestern employees are “very dedicated to the community,” which is evident by the 1,400-plus hours of annual volunteer time.

“We encourage them and allow them to use bank time to get involved in the community,” he said. “The caveat we put on it is, we want you to be passionate about being involved in the community and make a difference. We have numerous employees who like to roll up their sleeves and get to work.”

The organizations that Northwestern supports, Leibrandt said, are plentiful – more than 450 to date.

“We like to vary who and what we support,” he said. “Our employees are always helping us find new organizations and events.”

 Casual Day for a Cause

Leibrandt said Northwestern believes that serving a thriving community is the best thing for its residents and businesses – a commitment that served as inspiration for the bank’s “Casual Day for a Cause” initiative.

He said by making a minimum financial donation, employees at each Northwestern Bank branch were eligible to wear jeans for the day.

Each branch then chooses a nonprofit of its choice for the donations to go to.

“Northwestern will match those donations,” Leibrandt said. “We’ve done this for quite a long time – we encourage them but don’t make it mandatory to donate. The employees get to vote on different organizations we give the money to.”

Leibrandt said the organizations Northwestern gives to are known in advance.

“For 2024, we have 12 organizations for Chippewa Falls, 12 for our River Prairie office and each of our other offices,” he said. “The employees voted them in. If you feel passionate about the organization for that month, many give extra money.”

Leibrandt said typically, a few hundred dollars is raised by the employees each month at each branch, which is then matched by Northwestern.

Hope Village

Leibrandt said Northwestern is also heavily involved in Hope Village – a nonprofit organization focused on helping the homeless population in Chippewa County.

“I don’t think most people realize the amount of homelessness we have in our area,” he said. “It’s one of those basic needs – housing – that Northwestern feels strongly about. We’ve donated more than $100,000 to Hope Village.”

Other goals of Hope Village include:

• To build and maintain a small community of temporary and transitional tiny houses in the Chippewa Valley
• To offer case management and mentoring for all tiny house guests
• To remodel and maintain a community center with a kitchen, laundry, showers and severe weather shelter
• To build and maintain affordable housing units to meet a community need and ensure sustainability

According to Hope Village’s website (hopevillagechippewafalls.org), the first tiny house was built entirely by community members in spring 2016 and was the birth of The Hope Village Tiny House Shelter Program.

With the support of many Chippewa Valley churches, community volunteers and organizations like Northwestern, Hope Village has grown to 10 tiny houses, serving 45 unique households and 70 individuals since its founding.

Leibrandt said Northwestern also helped raise money for Hope Village through its Jazz for a Cause event held in downtown Chippewa Falls.

“One of our employees is into jazz music, so downtown Chippewa Falls has a beautiful riverside park with a bandshell, and we got various music groups to perform there – the bank matched up to $2,500 of the funds raised,” he said. “It was a great cause, and we ended the night with some fireworks.”

 Other causes

The bank, Leibrandt said, is also involved with the local Boys & Girls Club.

“We recently gave them $225,000 for their new building’s program room,” he said. “They also recently asked us for some money to buy some defibrillators for several of their locations. You never know when something like that will be needed.”

Leibrandt said The Community Table – an Eau Claire-based organization that provides food for those in need – is another nonprofit Northwestern works with.

“They’ll do a meal and then provide take-home food as well,” he said. “We (volunteered time) in two shifts – a shift that prepared the meal and then another shift that served the meal. We did that in January.”

Since 1993, The Community Table has served one meal each day, 365 days a year on a no-questions-asked basis.

 The employees matter, too

Though helping local organizations is at the heart of what Northwestern does, Leibrandt said that doesn’t mean the gratitude doesn’t spill over to its employees, too.

“As a management team, we’ve sat down and asked, ‘how can we help families – especially working families,’” he said. “Every bank has similar benefits, but we want to make sure we’re offering flexibility.”

One such area of need brought forward by employees, Leibrandt said, was time off for sick kids.

“We offer up to five sick days for our employees to use when their kids are sick,” he said. “It’s inevitable that kids are going to get sick.”

For more information on Northwestern Bank, visit northwesternbank.com.