2020 was a year unlike any other for all of us, as we faced many personal and professional issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, Delta Community continued to provide financial, educational, and volunteer support to the communities we are privileged to serve in Georgia, Kentucky, Texas, and Utah. Our efforts are summarized in our 2020 Community Investment Report.
In response to the impact of COVID-19, we altered our traditional means of community engagement to assist with the critical needs of our members and our business and community partners. Throughout last year, we made additional efforts to be safely available to our members and assist them. We recognized the special needs of members who had been adversely affected by the personal financial consequences of the pandemic. In response to members' needs, we offered a variety of programs to help members managing through unexpected financial problems, which was explained in detail in a blog post last year.
Pandemic-relevant financial education workshops were offered to our members and their families to provide practical and actionable advice ranging from Rebuilding After a Financial Crisis to Planning for Financial Uncertainty. As part of its COVID-19 response, Delta Community's Financial Education Center released the Financial :15 Webinar Series—a four-part series of 15-minute, on-demand webinars to support those who were either negatively affected by the pandemic or were wanting to become more comfortable with their finances during this uncertain and difficult time.
We further redirected our community sponsorship efforts by creating a COVID-19 Special Fund to support 53 charitable organizations in areas pertaining to emergency relief efforts, diversity, equity & inclusion programs, financial wellness workshops and small business sustainability needs.
We are grateful to our members and others throughout the community who participated in our educational programs throughout the year, and sincerely hope they were able to benefit from the content provided during each workshop.
2020 was a special year for Delta Community's efforts to help local communities
2020 was a special year for us, both in the total amount of financial support to local communities and in the number of people we helped through our efforts:
- Overall, more than $876,000 was invested through grants and donations to local organizations; Delta Community gives back to the communities where its members live and work.
- Unique to 2020, $210,000 was invested through the COVID-19 Special Relief Fund.
- Ultimately, 470,000 individuals and families were supported through our Philanthropic Fund.
- The Fund granted $100,000 to 18 charitable organizations in Atlanta.
- $30,000 was provided in college scholarships.
- We conducted 183 free Financial Education Center workshops for 7,100 attendees.
We look forward to continuing our member and community relationships, and remain committed to provide ongoing financial education, support, and services to members, employees, students and everyone who participated in our learning programs.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will linger well into 2021; that means we’ll need to maintain virtual, rather than in-person, events until at least this summer, and maybe even farther out. But we are keeping up the pace of our efforts to help others. We've identified the recipients of our Philanthropic Fund grants for this year, and have received applications for our 2021 college scholarship program. We have also begun awarding scholarships to students at Georgia's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and have continued our support programs for members in need of financial relief due to the pandemic.
