How RBC Saved 1,000 Hours a Year by Automating Global Volunteer Grants

Company overview 

RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) is Canada’s largest bank and one of the world’s largest financial institutions, serving more than 19 million clients across 29 countries. Guided by its purpose to help clients thrive and communities prosper, RBC has committed $2 billion CAD in community investments by 2035. 

That commitment comes to life through programs that empower employees to give back in the communities they know best. Volunteer opportunities, giving and grant programs are managed by a small Community Investments team, supported by a global network of more than 1,000 employee volunteer champions who help bring local impact to life around the world.

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The challenge 

A high-growth program built on manual processes.

When RBC paused its original Canada-only team volunteer program in 2020, the team saw an opportunity to rethink what employee volunteering could look like. 

The result was the Communities Together Fund (CTF): a global, employee-led program where RBCers identify a nonprofit partner in their own community, volunteer alongside them and unlock a $1,500 grant to support the organization’s work. 

The idea resonated immediately. 

Within two years, the program had grown from $1.5 million CAD in grants to $3.75 million CAD, mobilizing more than 6,000 employees across multiple countries. But while participation accelerated, the operational processes supporting the program hadn’t kept up. 

Every application required manual movement between forms, spreadsheets and systems before reaching the volunteer platform. Grant processing depended on repetitive administrative work, and something as simple as a copy-and-paste mistake could result in a grant being issued in the wrong currency. 

The challenge wasn’t securing funding for the program. It was giving a small team the capacity to support growing employee participation without spending more of every day on manual administration.

The solution

Connecting Grants Management and Volunteering into one system.

To support a fast-growing global program without adding administrative burden, RBC redesigned the Communities Together Fund from the ground up. 

The team started by auditing the entire program experience, identifying where manual work, operational risk and friction had crept into the process. Working alongside Benevity, RBC connected the Grants Management and Volunteer modules into a single experience that simplified administration while making it easier for employees to participate. Just as importantly, the team partnered with HR to embed employee impact metrics into the CHRO's quarterly engagement goals, ensuring the Communities Together Fund became part of how employee engagement was measured across the business. 

The integrated solution enables RBC to:

1. Simplify the employee experience: Employees submit a single application through Grants Management, identifying the nonprofit partner and community need they've chosen to support. 

2. Automate end-to-end workflows: Applications move through approvals, revisions and notifications automatically, while approved grants create matching volunteer opportunities without duplicate data entry. 

3. Reduce operational risk: Grant payments are processed automatically in the local currency, eliminating manual calculations and reducing foreign exchange risk across global markets. 

4. Connect community impact to business priorities: Employee impact metrics are embedded into executive engagement reporting, giving leadership greater visibility into how volunteering supports RBC's broader people strategy.

‍The results

The impact extended well beyond operational efficiency. By removing repetitive administrative work, RBC created capacity for its team to focus on growing the Communities Together Fund rather than simply keeping pace with it. 

• 67% reduction in manual process steps, freeing program staff from data entry so they could focus on strategy, partnerships and program growth. 
• 1,000 work hours saved annually, with grant processing time reduced from 40 minutes to just 15 minutes per application. 
• $4.8 million distributed through Communities Together Fund grants across more than 3,000 volunteer projects in nine countries, representing a 21% year-over-year increase. 
• More than 7,000 employees mobilized, a 20% increase from the previous year, contributing nearly 46,000 volunteer hours through the program. 

Just as importantly, the Community Investments team now operates from a single connected system instead of managing disconnected spreadsheets and manual processes. Automated local-currency payments eliminated a persistent foreign exchange risk, while centralized governance provides greater confidence in every grant issued. 

Most importantly, the time saved wasn't simply reclaimed - it was reinvested. Instead of spending their days processing applications, the team now has more capacity to support employees, strengthen nonprofit partnerships and continue evolving one of RBC's fastest-growing community investment programs.

Continuing to evolve

As participation continues to grow, RBC is focused on making the Communities Together Fund even more inclusive and sustainable. 

Current priorities include: 

• Exploring equity-focused participation caps after the most recent grant intake filled in less than 24 hours. 
• Refining grant structures to better manage currency fluctuations across global markets.
• Expanding Communities Together Fund participation alongside major giving campaigns, including a recent food security initiative that introduced the program to employees in four additional countries.

RBC's story shows that the best automation isn't about replacing the human side of community investment. It's about creating more space for it.

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