Supporting the vitality of communities
Our output and impact
Support for vital communities is a central theme within Rabobank's sustainability programme.
With a focus on local issues, we aim to strengthen economic and social vitality by supporting the
business success of local collective initiatives in the countries where we operate. In the Netherlands,
these issues include sustainability, economic vitality, and ensuring quality in healthcare and housing.
In developing countries, we focus on establishing and professionalising farming organisations, and
providing access to the local financial infrastructure. To accomplish these goals, Rabobank supplies
human resources, knowledge, networks, facilities and financial services. In addition, we invest 3% of our
profits in not-for-profit local social projects each year. To ensure that local communities continue to see
the combined benefit of increasing self-sufficiency, greater collaboration and stronger economic and
social vitality, Rabobank has developed a number of KPIs to identify specific objectives that contribute
to these ambitions and allow us to measure our results. For more information, see Appendix 2.
Contents Foreword Management report Corporate governance Consolidated Financial Statements Company Financial Statements Pillar 3
As a global, customer-focused, cooperative and socially
responsible bank, Rabobank supports many local initiatives
and organisations. In 2016, we did this by, among other things,
making contributions to social projects of EUR 72.8 million, and
many dedicated employee hours in the Netherlands and abroad.
The contributions add up to 3.6% of our net profit. In addition,
we devoted extra attention to supporting local civil cooperatives,
with the ambition of creating local sustainable energy or of
supporting fibreoptic cooperative initiatives. Rabobank also
launched a cooperative toolkit and held workshops to train
employees in better servicing these initiatives.
Meaningful cooperative
In 2016, we worked on the 'Meaningful cooperative' strategic
pillar of the Strategic Framework 2016-2020. One of the steps
taken to support our local Rabobank colleagues' commitment
to the theme of new cooperatives is the development of the
Cooperative Planner - a publication aimed at citizens and
entrepreneurs - and associated workshops for colleagues in
local Rabobanks. In the second half of 2016, Rabobank held
eight workshops and trained 105 colleagues from 81 local
Rabobanks. The workshops offer insights into the assistance of
the initiatives, in order to help them develop into fully fledged
cooperatives in areas such as energy, healthcare and fibreoptic
internet.
MiddenBrabantGlas
An example of such an initiative is MiddenBrabantGlas. Central
Brabant is home to an initiative to provide residents in remote
areas with fibreoptic internet connections, giving participants
faster and more stable internet. The initiative is founded on
cooperative principles: the members join the initiative and
share responsibility for funding the project. The area has
approximately 4,000 potential connections and promoters are
seeking 75% participation from businesses and households.
Rabobank Hart van Brabant played a facilitating role in the
preparations for the project by engaging in discussions
regarding financing at an early stage. The bank has offered
committed funding to supplement member capital. Thanks to
the efforts of promoters and the bank, the installation begins
14 January 2017.
Investing in vital communities in the Netherlands
We consider our investments in vital communities a distinctive
part of our identity. It demonstrates that Rabobank does more
than just provide banking services.
87 Our output and impact: supporting the vitality of communities