We are working with Habitat for Humanity in two counties in our assessment area to develop a program whereby we will make a $25.00 contribution to the H4H in their county when customers open any new account at a specific or new branch.

Has anyone had experience with Habitat for Humanity or can anyone confirm whether this type of program would deem 'favorable' in the eyes of our FDIC examiners when conducting our CRA Service Performance review ??

Also, I've been told that sending employees to help build an H4H house in one of our low-to-moderate income assessment areas would "not" be considered towards our CRA Service Performance.
How can this be ??

Any light shed on the above two questions will be appreciated.

Unfortunately for things to 'count' they have to be financially related - donating funds; teaching about crediting/budgeting, etc. Physically building a house does not use any financial expertise.

Now, if you're donating funds to H4H, that should count.

CRA Services need to be financial in nature. Swinging a hammer, while a very good thing to do, will not get you CRA Service credit. However, serving as Board Treasurer or in a similar financial role for Habitat will get you favorable credit.

As far as the $25, I don't see how that can get you credit as a service. A donation on the Investment side perhaps.

Thank you for your input.....well, we won't "swing hammers", but will continue with the donation.....Service or Investment credit would work for us.

There are two different components that need to be looked at separately here: (1) CD "Services" and (2) CD Investments. Donations are not "Services," but would fall under the "Investments" umbrella. As Skittles mentioned, when you do "Services," it is the work that you are performing AND the organization or WHO you are performing it for that makes a difference for CRA. However, for "Investments" it only matters as to the WHO you are contributing to, i.e. what type of organization/project.

I want to clarify one point made by previous posters. The only activity that is qualified for CD service is either activity that's financial in nature or is related to the expertise of the employee who does the volunteer work. So an in-house counsel who provides legal advice in a volunteer capacity would be eligible for recognition for CD credit, even if it is not financial in nature.

That's a great clarification Len. Some additional examples:

IT Officer provides free tech support.
HR Director provides free HR support.

What if the bank has a relationship with Habitat for Humanity that includes a servicing and accounting program whereby the bank provides the service of collecting payments and escrow servicing. Homeowner funds are placed in a custodial account, reconciled and remitted to HFH monthly, similar to Freddie Mac. The bank retains nothing. Could this activity be counted for CRA credit? This is financially related activity.

We are doing the exact same thing and I plan to submit it for CRA service credit. We took over doing it from another bank and in their prior exam they received service test credit for providing Habitat with this help.

Sounds like you are providing a service that is financial in nature and would qualify as a CD service.