Giving to others is one of the most important — and rewarding — facets of the holiday season.
Here at FNB, our teammates have been extra busy with giving back to and volunteering at local organizations such as Sharing Christmas, The Banquet, Junior Achievement, Project Warm-Up, Sioux Falls Cares, and many more.
We’d like to encourage you to do some charitable giving and volunteer work of your own this holiday season — so we thought we’d offer you inspiration by sharing some of the ways we’ve been supporting our local communities in 2023!
Avera Race Against Cancer
Rain or shine, you can count on our teammates to participate in the annual Avera Race Against Cancer.
This year, a total of 68 teammates and their friends/family represented FNB at the May event that raises money to support cancer patients and research.
Feeding South Dakota
We volunteer with one of our favorite local nonprofits, Feeding South Dakota, a few times each year — and 2023 was no exception.
First, our Risk Management teammates sorted roughly 5,000 pounds of food and packed 250 boxes in just three hours in March.
Then came this intern outing in July.
Finally, in August, 19 teammates dedicated their afternoon to packaging food in Feeding South Dakota’s clean room and packing 700 boxes for local families in need!
Habitat for Humanity Women Build
Not only did we proudly sponsor the Habitat for Humanity Women Build event in September, but we also had 20 teammates who volunteered at it.
These teammates rolled up their sleeves and got busy doing foundation work, building walls, painting, and putting in countertops at the affordable houses for Sioux Falls community members.
Junior Achievement
On top of visiting classrooms to help fulfill Junior Achievement’s mission of preparing young people for success, our dedicated teammates host a yearly ice cream social to raise money for the local organization.
FNB teammates can purchase ice cream sundaes and root beer floats, as well as bingo cards for a Bank-wide game — and all proceeds go to Junior Achievement.
Fun fact: 37 of our teammates volunteered with JA in 2022–2023!
Kids Against Hunger
In July, nine teammates volunteered at Kids Against Hunger to pack meals for starving children in South Dakota and around the world.
Together, they packed a total of 1,944 meals in just two hours.
Lunch Is Served
In June, 12 teammates spent an afternoon at Lunch Is Served packing lunches for local men and women working manual labor jobs to break the cycle of hunger and poverty.
They packed a total of 275 lunches for the hardworking residents of the Sioux Falls area.
Rake the Town
If there’s one thing that’s certain in life, it’s that First National Bank teammates are going to show up and show out for Active Generations’ annual Rake the Town event.
Not even a brisk and windy day could stop 20 of our teammates from raking the lawns of our Sioux Falls and Brandon neighbors this October.
Sioux Falls Area Humane Society
We really love our furry friends around here, which is why we always have a great time volunteering with the Sioux Falls Area Humane Society.
In April, six of our animal-loving teammates spent an afternoon helping clean the Humane Society and preparing for their Paws to Celebrate event.
And, of course, they had to take some time to snuggle and play with the shelter animals.
Sioux Falls Cares
Just this week, we got in the holiday spirit by volunteering with Sioux Falls Cares — a nonprofit organization that provides gifts, winter clothes, food, and more to local families during the holiday season.
Thirty-one teammates spent their afternoon delivering these boxes of joy to members of the community.
The Banquet
We had a few outings to The Banquet this year, but one of our favorites was in March when 10 teammates served 204 breakfast meals to members of the Sioux Falls community.
The best part is that our former President & CEO and now-Chairman, Bill Baker, joined the crew to help serve.
During Bill’s presidency, he worked with the Bank’s shareholders to define and instate our beloved FIRST Values — and as you can see, he’s still a big fan of practicing our Stewardship value on the regular.
United Way
Every year, we hold a Bank-wide United Way campaign to raise money for the local organization. Plus, for every dollar our teammates donate to United Way during the campaign, FNB matches it.
This year — with the combination of our teammates’ donations and the Bank match — we raised $289,923.54 to help children, vulnerable adults, and people in crisis in the Sioux Falls community!
We celebrated the travel-themed campaign with a “tourist wear” day and paper airplane throwing contest.
Veterans Community Project
The Veterans Community Project of Sioux Falls is currently building a 25-unit tiny home community for local veterans, and we’re proud to sponsor the construction of one of the homes.
Over the summer, our teammates donated items to furnish the FNB-sponsored home. Additionally, 13 teammates volunteered at the project in October to help build and put finishing touches on some of the houses.
Giving back
We hope we gave you lots of ideas of organizations to support with your future charitable giving and volunteering!
All of the organizations featured in this blog are linked for your convenience, so go ahead and check them out if you’re interested in getting involved.
In fact, this is only a portion of the many ways our teammates support our local communities throughout the year. You can follow along on our Facebook page or other social media accounts to see how we stay active and involved — and if you like what you see, why not take a look at our open positions for a potential career opportunity.
