Good Corporate Citizenship Programs

The company Citibank Europe plc, organizační složka is part of the largest financial group in the world, Citigroup. Citibank has been present on the Czech market since 1991. Since then, it has become a universal banking institution, which provides a wide range of modern banking services in all areas of the banking market. Citibank wants to be a good corporate citizen. This reality is illustrated by a wide range of sponsorship, philanthropic and socially responsible initiatives related to the moral responsibilities of Czech corporations. The principals of good corporate citizenship are integrated into the current decision-making process within Citibank We are dedicated to establish and promote good ralations with the community and institutions. In our everyday decision-making, we try to set an example in the community of how responsible and successful companies do business in the Czech Republic.

Citigroup Foundation

Citibank is aware of the importance of considering the society in which it does its business. In this respect, ever since it was established in the Czech Republic, Citibank has endeavoured to support various good causes. These projects receive funding from the Citigroup Foundation, which finances non-profit programmes in all countries in which Citigroup operates. Citibank supplements these contributions with funds from its local budget.Through the Citigroup Foundation we contributed CZK 2,829,680 to selected projects in 2006. An example was the non-governmental organization Junior Achievement. Thanks to the finance provided the organization was able to run the educational programmes ‘Banks in Action’ and ‘Get to Know Your Money’. These projects for secondary-school students and their teachers are designed to help young people learn how to handle money and develop their financial skills.

We also continued supporting Money for Living, a Citibank initiative organized by the Centre for Adoption and Foster Care. We want this project to help young people in the unenviable position of having to leave children’s homes when they are eighteen years old, without any practical knowledge and the skills to cope with basic life situations, such as looking for a job, dealing with the authorities, or handling their own money. Through playing a creative game, adolescents in children’s homes learn how to find their way around in the ‘outside world’.

Citibank considers charity work to be a natural part of its business activities and partnership between companies and non-profit organizations to be one of the key values of a healthy civil society. On this basis Citibank is an established partner of the Via Foundation, and it supported the Via Bona Award, which is presented to donors from companies and individuals for their charitable activities. Citibank also contributed to the curriculum of the Summer School of Modern Economics, organized by the Liberal Institute, for teachers and students selected from all schools in the Czech Republic. This programme is part of the Economics for Leaders series, and is organized by the Liberal Institute under licence from the US-based Foundation for Teaching Economics.

Staff Charitable Fund

In 1996, Citibank set up the Staff Charitable Fund, to which employees can contribute regularly through wage deductions or through single payments. For each financial donation by employees to the Fund, the Citibank contributes a matching amount. The Fund fosters solidarity between Citibank and the individual donors, our employees, who have the right to decide to where their charity is to be directed. In 2006 we distributed CZK 734,656 among 33 beneficiaries from non-profit organizations such as the Naděje Civic Association (Občanské sdružení Naděje), Diakonie Broumov, the Fund for Children in Danger (Fond ohrožených dětí), and the Neratov Association (Sdružení Neratov). In 2006, CBG staff started cooperation with the non-profit organization Kontakt bB, providing not only finances but also active participation in their projects. Our objective is to support charitable projects in all regions where we do our business. As an example, our Liberec branch‘s backing the local Jedlička Institute can be given.

Cash contribution application

Donors Forum

Citibank regularly cooperates with the Donors Forum, a civic association that acts as an umbrella organization for donors in the Czech Republic and strives to promote philanthropy. It creates favourable conditions for individual, corporate, institutional and community donations, which are a significant form of charity. The Donors Forum has set up the DONATOR Club of Corporate Donors, of which Citibank a.s. also is a founding member, as a network of companies experienced in transparent, systematic donations. Its aim is to persuade other companies to include donation in their business strategies in the most effective way. It also contributes to the preparation of proposals for legislative and tax changes designed to have a positive effect on donations in the Czech Republic and increase corporate enthusiasm for this sector. It also strives to improve the quality of communication between corporate donors and non-profit organizations.

In 2005, the Donors Forum, in conjunction with members of the Founding Group among which Citibank a.s. is also included, introduced so called Standard Socially Responsible Company methodology. It is a comprehensive, unified and standardized system for measuring impacts of corporate donorship.

Volunteer Programme

Citigroup devotes significant efforts not only to company growth but also to philanthropic and socially responsible initiatives in the countries where it operates. The company is aware that a leading position means a significant moral responsibility concerning the commitment to assist in improving the quality of life of civic communities that need it. In 2006, Citibank employees participated in the first annual volunteer event called Citigroup Global Community Day, worldwide volunteer day. Under this event, they helped, for instance, to carry out the finishing works of the reconstruction of protected workshops of the Neratov Association, participated in the landscaping of a garden and greenhouse at the Kociánka Institute of Social Care for Physically Disabled Youth in Brno, and worked in several other places.