Bankoh campaign doles out $520,803 to charities

Hawaii Foodbank Inc. President Dick Grimm looked at the more than $39,000 received from Bank of Hawaii employees as an early Christmas present.

Grimm represented one of 20 local nonprofit organizations singled out Monday at the Plaza Club to receive a combined $520,803 as part of the bank’s second annual Employee Giving Campaign.

Bankoh employees, retirees and directors surpassed their $500,000 goal and exceed by $50,000 the total they raised last year.

The five-week campaign ran from Sept. 6 through Oct. 7, with employees voting online to select the 20 beneficiaries. The bank didn’t have a tally on what percentage of its more than 2,400 employees contributed, since some of the money was paid in cash at fundraising events.

"It’s a tremendous Christmas present," Grimm said. "One of the things the bank does is allow their employees to learn about the organization they’re contributing to, and I think that in itself is a bigger benefit because the more people who know about what you do, the more chance you have of being able to support the mission that you’re in."

Grimm said the sluggish economy has cut down on donations to the Hawaii Foodbank, which works with 220 agencies on Oahu to distribute food to the needy.

"We’re going to buy food (with the money)," Grimm said. "The one problem is because of the economy and because of efficiencies made by not only the supermarkets — the retail stores — but also the manufacturers, the wholesalers, the distributors and all the way down the chain to the growers, people aren’t buying as much as they used to," he said. "The food that is donated by the supermarkets to the Hawaii Foodbank was at one time 37 percent, 38 percent of our total. Now it’s down to about 25 percent."

He said as the various food contributors cut back to control expenses, Hawaii Foodbank is forced to purchase more food to reach the number of pounds it needs to distribute. Grimm said last year the Hawaii Foodbank distributed nearly 12 million pounds.

The largest donation by Bankoh employees went to Aloha United Way, which received $102,819, followed by Hospice Hawaii ($47,343) and the food bank ($39,186).

Last year Bankoh donated $1 million to 20 nonprofits in the inaugural Employee Giving Campaign. Bankoh employees and retirees raised more than $470,000 during the 2010 drive, with the bank kicking in an additional $530,000 to raise the total to an even $1 million as part of a "matching" program.

Peter Ho, chairman and CEO of Bank of Hawaii, said the financial institution already has donated more than $2 million to the local community this year but decided not to match the employee donations in 2011 because it wanted to let this particular program stand on its own.

"This program is managed by our employees, the beneficiaries are decided on by employees, and at the end of the campaign, whatever has flowed in from the employers to the particular beneficiary is exactly what they get, so it’s a special program for us," Ho said.