In my last blog entry about Corporate Social Responsibility, I talked about what the commitment to philanthropy looks like from a corporate perspective... Numbers and business model, and the supporting reasons for large corporations making such donations.

When I met with the great team over at the RBC Corporate Citizenship, I also asked them specifically about the RBC BlueWater Project, the initiative to donate a total of 50 million dollars over 10 years to water related causes, specifically to watershed protection and access to safe drinking water.

Why Water?

My initial assumption had been that Water is blue... RBC's corporate colour is blue (and gold)... It was a perfect fit... But the well went so much deeper! (Apparently bad water jokes are now the norm over at the Corporate Citizenship office.) We talked for quite some time about why water was selected and it seems that it was a pretty long decision process... Here's what I noted down:

• By virtue of being large, corporations are expected to be all things to all people. While it's often difficult to do this, they do need to take a greater responsibility to try and meet those needs, to be a good neighbour and be involved in the community they live in.
• RBC needed to find something that was relevant to most people, where they felt that support was needed, and the money that was being set aside would be put to good use on real and impactful social initiatives
• It needed to be a cause that was important globally, but also locally relevant, as RBC is both global and local in their approach. (We have some form of representation in 41 countries)
• People needed to understand the cause (I'm not sure that people would "get" a donation to Bacon Addicts Anonymous(I need to break the habit))

So, water made sense... Even if people aren't aware of water issues (Which many Canadians aren't), if you tell someone that the next time they turn their tap on, nothing is going to come out, people seem to understand.

I talked about water shortages in the southern parts of the US a few months back. I thought that that was where the problem ended for the western world... Now, I've been reading about farmers in western Canada who are going through a critical water shortage. The problem just keeps hitting closer to home. For weeks now, I've been seeing articles in the national newspapers about water shortages here, titles like "The Next Walkerton?" there... Overall, our water situation seems pretty sketch.

I'm hoping that in the coming weeks, I'll have some further opportunities to take a look at what the impact watersheds have on the situation (and really, what a watershed is!!), and how our drinking water is being affected by various things...

Meanwhile, what's your take on water?
Do you tap it or bottle it?
Do you foresee a future where you turn your tap on and nothing comes out?
Or even worse, how would you deal if you were under a constant boil-water advisory?

It's true! You've heard it right! RBC is giving out a 7", 2gb Asus Eee PC when you open an RBC Signature No Limit Banking account or an RBC VIP Banking account and meet the qualifying criteria.

Here's the qualification criteria checklist for your perusal.

The account fees are totally reasonable for the great features of these accounts (stuff like unlimited debit transactions, free overdraft protection, etc), and you're getting a Free Eee PC!

The promo runs from May 1st to September 12th. Someone on RedFlagDeals.ca asked how long you had to wait to get it. The only wait time is the 8-10 weeks it takes for the delivery of the super mini laptop...

You can find out more information on the promo website...

Check out the FAQ to find out about some of the more common questions…

The checklist for obtaining the Eee PC is also pretty handy!

One of our bloggers will have an Eee PC in hand by the weekend and will be reviewing it for everybody early next week. Lets see how this wee Eee pc simplifies things ! Check back then to see what we think about it!

RBC p2p will be blogging LIVE from RBC Desifest, a festival of South Asian Culture, on Saturday, May 3rd.

The festival will feature an outstanding lineup of performers from the South Asian music scene and will be held in Vancouver's Gastown, on Water St.!

Henry and I will be posting to the site live as we interview attendees and performers, both on video and in text!

If you're going to be at RBC Desifest, let us know, and we'll be sure to let you know where we are so that you can come and meet us... You could be featured on the site!

A while back, I wrote a blog entry about RBC's donation to Water causes, and vowed to you that I would find out more about it... It took me a while to find the time, and even longer to write about it.

So, last week, I met with Gayle Longley, Director of Corporate Donations, and Lynn Patterson, Director of Corporate Responsibility to talk to them about donations and RBC's social responsibility.

Before I write about this, I'd like to preface my information with a note: I work for RBC. While this creates a sort of bias as to which financial institution I'm going to deal with, it doesn't negate my natural scepticism towards things like companies getting involved in activities that don't directly make them profit; things like philanthropy and donations.

That being said, I learned some really interesting things about RBC when I met with Gayle and Lynn.

First thing I learned: They're REALLY passionate about what they do. And I don't mean in a "Ra Ra yay for us" kind of way. I mean in a serious about social responsibility kind of way. It was not only impressive, but motivating at the same time!

The facts:

• Last year, RBC donated 40 million dollars in Canada alone, and 47 million dollars worldwide.
  
• There are 4 areas that RBC primarily focuses on: Children's mental health, After-School programs, Water, and Employee Engagement
  
• RBC is committed to donating at least 1% of their net income before taxes, based on a 5 year average, dollars that are taken 100% from RBC's bottom line that are going directly into the community.

I wrote all these facts down furiously. Then I asked "Why? What's the point?" And I didn't get the answer I was expecting. What I was expecting was something along the lines of "Because we're nice." or "Because it's the right thing to do.". Both of these answers would have made sense, but seem like somewhat of a cop-out when RBC's end goal is to return a profit to their shareholders, and donating (essentially, giving money away) doesn't seem directly contribute to RBC's bottom line.

What I got was an answer that made sense. From a business perspective. Gayle said to me "We donate because in order for communities to flourish and prosper, i.e. for business to grow, they need strong social and community foundations, this in turn, helps our business goals." That's where it all started to make sense. Not only is RBC being nice and doing the right thing, but it actually supports RBC's business objectives and in a long-term way, makes everyone in our community more prosperous. A brilliant equation, and an honest approach.

As is the case with most other events which are not a holiday, Google reminded me this morning that today is Earth Day. Founded in 1970 by Gaylord Nelson, a democrat from Wisconsin, Earth Day was meant to be a day of action around the environment and other issues which affected the health of the earth.

You might recall that a few weeks ago, I wrote about water in this blog entry. Well, today, on Earth Day, RBC has announced that they're committing a further 1.5 million dollars to a grant pool (no water pun intended!) that will protect watersheds and drinking water. With all the talk about the composition of and effects of bottled water on the environment lately, it's a good thing somebody's thinking about water supplies...

As a side note, one of my favorite young finance bloggers, Stephanie from "Poorer than You", made a really interesting video about a bottled water that you should check out!

On Thursday Morning, I'll be meeting with some folks from the RBC Foundation as well as our corporate social responsibility group to talk to them about what these donations really mean... Watch for more to come...

In the meantime, there are a whole number of things that you can do to reduce your impact on the environment. You might even save some money. And these things are simple too... Turn your lights off... Turn down the heat and put on that nifty (or not so nifty) sweater that grandma gave you for your birthday! (Or take off the nifty sweater for the summer, and turn the AC down...)

It'll never happen to me.  Well, at least that's what I thought until today!

Here's a timeline of my day to date:

7:47am:  I walk into work. Ahhh… Work.  Work doesn't feel like work when you love what you do!

7:48am: Turn my computer on… Update Twitter, check RSS reader (while you're at it, sign up for our RSS feed), check Facebook, check e-mail, respond to email.

9:15am: Obtain coffee…

9:18am: Caffeine levels return to normal. Oh, the addiction.

11:30am: Talk to bloggers. All of them. At the same time. Conference calls rock!

12pm: Mmm… Lunch.  I buy lunch on a daily basis. It's terrible. I know.  I'm so un-frugal.  Whoa. I have no money. Must visit nearest ATM!

12:02pm: I'm walking towards the ATM that is handily located in the lobby of my building.  My Blackberry vibrates. Bzzzzzz! Bzzzzz!  I whip it out like I'm on a mission.  A mission to read every email I get within 0.23 seconds. A mission that I often fail, but not today!!! It's Friday!

The email that I've just received pleasantly notifies me that I'm a victim. A VICTIM OF FRAUD!  Except that I haven't been victimized, and just to be certain that I won't be, the RBC anti-fraud department has disabled my debit card and I need to get a new card.

Inconvenient: Yeah, totally… I was freaken hungry!  The sandwich shop, also conveniently located in the lobby of the building in which I "work", frowns on paying in hugs, and I needed money!

The email said "You need to come into the branch to get a new client card as the one you have has been cancelled."  Straightforward. Easy. I like easy.

12:08pm: I walked myself over to the nearest branch, stood in line for a few minutes (Apparently everyone feels the need to bank instead of eat lunch at 12:08pm) and about as fast as I thought that it was inconvenient to have someone thieve my Debit Card information (really fast), I had a new card!

Moral of the story: Getting your bank card defrauded really sucks hardcore.  What sucks a whole lot less though is getting said card replaced within about 6 minutes of finding out that your information was stolen in the first place.

Luckily, the Feisty Fraudsters didn't take anything due to the really fast action that my bank's anti-fraud department took to disable my card!

Have a great weekend!!

While RBC p2p didn't fool you yesterday, I thought it might be interesting to share some of my favourite internet April Fool's pranks, and a bit of history around the unusual date.

It's a long standing tradition that on April 1st of every year, pranksters around the globe unite to create a little bit of light-hearted, good humoured chaos. Over the years, everything from poor spaghetti crops to the Taco Liberty Bell have been reported on through official and respected news outlets. The top 100 April Fool's day hoaxes of all time is a great read if you have a few minutes!!

Yesterday morning, when I woke up and realized that it was April 1st, my first thought was to stroll over to my computer and pull up Google. For those of you who may not use Google on a daily basis, or don't pay particularly close attention to the page, Google, every year on April 1st has a series of web pages that they put a lot of time and effort into to prank people into believing something that, considering Google's massiveness, is really not that implausible. This year's prank, Virgle, involves Sir Richard Branson of Virgin International, as well as Sergey Brin and Larry Page, founders of Google, teaming up to bring you Virgle, a planned mission to Mars. They've requested that people apply on YouTube to be the first set of 12 Virgil Pioneers, the first permanent human colony on Mars. You can find more information on Virgle's website, where you too can apply to be a Virgle Pioneer.

Google has had some other great April Fool's day pranks in the past, including the Lunar Googleplex and the Toilet internet service provider, among many many others. Wikipedia has a great entry about Google's past pranks.

Hopefully you weren't caught off-guard yesterday! Let me know about some other cool hoaxes and pranks that you've read about!!

Recently, Thicken My Wallet, a personal finance/entrepreneurship blog, commented on RBC p2p; we seem to be doing some things right, like our content and layout, and there were other points that were brought up that I needed to write about, like the comments about the lack of diversity, specifically ethnic diversity. The blog entry was shared with my team and we talked about our commitment to students and to diversity, and I wanted to provide some insight that might be valuable. The bank is really serious about it’s commitment to students and to diversity, and both are definitely not short term.

This is our first year with RBC p2p and it’s an integral part of a larger piece of work dedicated to the student market. From student tailored products such as no fee student banking, and on-campus activities, to other things such as the Next Great Innovator competition and our scholarship offerings, we’re doing a lot to make sure that we’re connecting with, and providing value to students.

Being the first year for RBC p2p, we’re really excited about it, and we’re picking up a lot of learnings. In fact, RBC p2p was an idea that came from students as part of the 2006 Next Great Innovator Competition. To stay true to the intent behind the idea, “a blog for students by students”, we engaged students right from the early days of bringing RBC p2p to life. Students helped shape and mold the future of their blog! In fact, the selection of the six bloggers was not like any other job application, we relied on students, all students from various backgrounds, to compete for the jobs and left it up to the public to vote for who they wanted.

Prior to the six final bloggers, (Zach, Nathan, George, Henry, Kate and Nick), our 12 semi-finalists had a tremendous amount of visible diversity (which is only one type of diversity), both in terms of ethnicity and gender representation.

Diversity comes in many forms. We have bloggers who understand the struggles of handling student debt, bloggers who have applied for and received scholarships. Their interests are diverse, such as Nathan who is passionate about entrepreneurship, while others know very little about budgeting and managing finances but hope to learn through this experience and pass solutions along to other students. 7 bloggers, 10 different languages, 7 different life experiences, 7 different backgrounds, 7 different educations… Pretty diverse indeed.

And speaking of diverse interests, our bloggers are going to be covering cultural events such as the South Asian Cultural festival Desifest. I, for one, am super-psyched to be doing this, as are all of the bloggers. All of this is to say that we welcome the feedback and the questions, that’s why this forum was developed, and that diversity can come in many different forms.

Zach Pedersen, one of our very own RBC p2p bloggers, has been featured in Ryerson University's student newspaper, the Ryersonian! The article was published both in print and digital formats and can be found here.

If you happen to come across this site and are looking for media contact information, please see our press release here.

We've been featured in a number of articles; we’re always excited to tell our story!

Let me know what you think. The feedback goes directly to me, so you're sure not to get a robot reading your comments!

Also, if you like RBC p2p, be sure to add us to your RSS reader!

It's no secret that we really think that RBC p2p can be a valuable resource for students everywhere!! So, when late in the day on Wednesday, when we received a call from the Business News Network (BNN) for an on the spot interview on their show "Squeeze Play", we were uber-thrilled! Kate and I made our way to BNN's studios at 5pm Thursday evening where we were interviewed. The experience was quite boss and I'm really happy to let you all know that the interview was a really really great!

The taping of the program is already online and can be viewed at http://www.bnn.ca/articles/rob.tv/319/squeezeplay.html

Select "Complete recent episodes" under the description, at which point a window should appear, allowing you to select Thursday's episode. You can then use the controls in the window to fast forward to 41 minutes 58 seconds, where we're featured for the entire remaining duration of the episode!

I know a few things about water.

I know that when I turn my tap lefty-loosey, the water turns on. When I turn my tap righty-tighty, the water turns off. I know that when I wash my clothes, and the pipes are being cleaned, I get really upset that I end up with t-shirts in a color that should be white, but more closely resembles a wet post-it note. Yes… I do know a few things about water.

Other than that, I have never really given water much thought. I swim in it. I drink it. Sometimes, usually on a bi-monthly basis, I take a shower in it. (Just kidding!) Being from Northern Ontario, where lakes and rivers and streams about, and where you can’t throw a stone without skipping it on some liquidy formation of sorts, it seems that I’ve taken water for granted.

A little while back, I turned my computer on to find a message that says “RBC announces commitment of $10 million over 10 years to the One Drop Foundation” and I thought… What can be worth a $10 million dollar donation?? (Other than me! I’m open to anyone wanting to make a $10 million dollar donation to my retirement fund)


Starting from the water, up… The founder of One Drop Foundation, Guy Laliberté, is the guy behind it all, having committed $100 million personally, over 25 years. Some of Guy’s crazy credits: He’s the founder of Cirque du Soleil, one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people, recipient of the Order of Canada, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Quebec, Canada AND Internationally and recipient of the 2007 Humanitarian Award, oh, and hey, just as a side note, the guy’s a professional poker player… That’s some serious serious resumé material.

Why water?

According to the One Drop Foundation’s website, more than a quarter of all of humanity has NO access to drinking water. (Maybe I really should reduce showers to a bi-monthly basis!) Half of everyone on the planet doesn’t have access to purified drinking water.


The average person requires 30-50 litres of water per day. That being said, children in developed countries consume 30-50 times more water than children in developing countries. Doesn’t sound like a big deal? Try washing your clothes, taking a shower, drinking, cooking, flushing your toilet, cleaning your house/apartment with the equivalent of 2 normal sized bottles of water per day.

Sounds like another developing nation problem, right? Not so much… Check out this picture of a lake in South Eastern US:


March 4th 2007                                                         Feb 11th 2008

This picture is from Brian Hursey’s flickr photostream… You can find more of his drought pictures here.

So, the One Drop foundation’s mission to reduce water consumption in the developed world while boosting access to water in the developing world doesn’t sound like just another charity to me anymore…

Now that I know that RBC is donating $10 million to the One Drop foundation, and that it’s part of a larger plan to donate $50 million to water related initiatives, am I rethinking my water habits? To be honest with you, not just yet. But I’m thinking about rethinking them, and that’s a start.

Why RBC’s interest in water? Stay tuned… This isn’t water under the bridge just yet.

Recently, someone on our Facebook Fanpage, RBC Bankbook, asked if the newly proposed tax free savings account (you can find details here) is going to be a good thing for students…

We've checked with Max Thompson, the Head of GICs and Savings here at RBC, and the short of it is that TFSAs will be awesome for anyone who is 18 or older. Right now, the legislation for TFSAs still needs to pass through the House of Commons and receive Royal Assent.

At that point, it will become law… RBC thinks that the new Tax Free Savings account is great and we're very supportive of it, but without having all of the legislative details finalized, it's really hard to say exactly how and when we'll be able to offer this product…

Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available!!

Week 1 Recap!
RBC p2p has launched, live with real students and all. Not those fake students you often find on the shelves of your local big box department store!

If you haven‘t been here before, welcome! Be sure to check out my video on RBC p2p Blogger Bootcamp, where we put the RBC p2p bloggers through their paces!!

Also, be sure to check out my little video blurb about why we’re here and what we’re doing!

On Saturday March 1st, the RBC p2p bloggers debuted with their first vlog entry, followed on Monday by their first text entry… You can find them here…

• George
  
• Kate
  
• Nathan
  
• Henry
  
• Zach
  
• Nick

While you’re at it, be sure to have a look at what people have been saying about RBC p2p since our launch:

• Darren Barefoot wrote this entry with his own personal review of our blog
  
• Mike Gotta from Collaborative Thinking posted some news around banks and their approaches to social media way back in December
  
• Colin Henderson over at The Bankwatch wrote this article about RBC p2p in September, just after we had launched the RBC p2p national blogger search competition

If you’re enjoying this blog so far, be sure to sign up for our RSS feed to be kept up to date on all the latest entries and news!!

Interesting stuff...

I'm surfing the internet in my apartment the other day, and I come across a website. Ok, so, you might say that coming across websites is to be expected if I'm surfing the internet. Sure. That might happen if one surfs. The interesting thing about this website was that it had a big RBC logo on it.

Not all that astounding, considering that I work for RBC and that I come across the corporate logo pretty much everywhere I turn. The unusual thing about this website is that my first thought was (and it was a half asleep thought at 5:30am on a Monday morning) "Hmmm… This isn't an RBC website." So after putting a significant amount of brain energy into processing this fact, (remember, pre-coffee here… You don't want to see Michel pre-coffee) I realized that this was a website for the Canadian Snowboarding Federation. Apparently RBC is a big supporter of the Canadian Snowboarding Federation and there's even a program named RBC Riders… Direct quote from the document describing the program:

RBC Riders is a program that can be operated by any organization affiliated with the CSF, including clubs, mountain resort activity centres, snowboard shops, and schools. The program consists of a minimum of three competitions. Although additional competitions may be added, they must respect a ratio of 30% competing to 70% training (including free riding) over the season.

I thought that was pretty awesome… RBC supporting local snowboarding… Random, but awesome. So, this gave me a thought. I have to admit it was later on in the day when I came around from my half-dead zombie-walk morning state. What else does RBC support that I don't know about ('cause I sure as sun rises in the morning didn't know about this one)??!

So, after a bit of research, I found a couple of things... (and these are things that are of interest to me… Gord Nixon, RBC's head honcho (mad props), knows we support way more than this.)

• The Olympics
• The RBC Canadian Track and Field Championships
• Freestyle Skiing (those crazy people who go up crazy jumps to spin a crazy number of times in the air)
• The RBC Canadian painting competition (25 000$ for winning art… impressive!)
• Local Hockey (through the Local Hockey Leaders Program)
• Scholarships… A lot of them. (I knew about this one… I had an opportunity to present a scholarship on RBC's behalf at the Credit Association of Greater Toronto's gala dinner…)
• The Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC) (yeah, really random)
• The RBC Bronwen Wallace awards for emerging writers

And my list could go on and on… I don't have a clue as to why we do this… I think I might just follow up on this one and find out.

More information to come on this stuff!!

Michel

So, a short quick explanation of why we're here!! A little late, but I've had some formatting issues with this video. Enjoy!

Hope you are all having a great Tuesday (as far as Tuesdays go!) and that you’re not as tired as I am! I stayed out much past my self-imposed bedtime Sunday night because of the Super Bowl, and I'm still recovering. While I’m not a football fan in any way, shape or form, the opportunity to get together with a group of friends to laugh at bunch of grown men jumping all over each other in pursuit of a ball proved to be too irresistible.

Overshadowed by the 42nd undertaking of this event was Wiarton Willie’s prediction of an early spring. Here in Toronto, it would seem that spring is already here, with a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius having been predicted for today!

For those of you who have been following the progress of our blog from it’s beginning, or just reading it for the first time now, here are some photos from Blogger Bootcamp:







Stay tuned for further updates from Blogger Bootcamp!

Goodbyes and Salutations!

Michel

Hello everyone and happy launch day!!

Now that our previously chaste blog has revealed its true nature, we’d like to bring you some amazing content to fill in all the white spaces. Hopefully you’ve checked out who the winners of the RBC p2p competition are, because they’ve made it here because of your votes!

I would personally like to publicly congratulate Nathan, Henry, George, Kate, Nick and Zach on winning the competition, and getting the best jobs since slicing bread. They will be writing entries and posting videos on this blog for the next year, really making it for students, by students. For more information on the six winners, be sure to take a look at the bio page, for their individual bios.

I’ve had the opportunity to get to know the team over this past weekend, as they were in Toronto for Blogger Bootcamp, and I must say that I’m glad that you have such great taste in blogger selection! (Selecting them, not eating them. There will be no eating of our bloggers). I’ll be posting some videos of our really awesome weekend next week, so stay tuned. The whole weekend was geared to give them the tools and access they need to get you the answers you want! Your six amazing peers have been here in the T-dot over the past 4 days, meeting our top level executives, getting training in various areas such as Video Production, Media Relations and Creative Writing concepts.

We’ve also been out on the town quite a bit!!

The team went to see We Will Rock You (the musical based on Queen’s music), had dinner at the Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar (AMAZING FOOD!!), took in some comedy at The Second City and took a tour of the town in the RBC p2p limo! On top of all of that, they also got 17” MacBooks, video cameras, all the accessories, and some pretty awesome threads. (Not stuff that Grandma would wear!)

The bloggers are now on their way back to their homes and will spend the next month writing their first blog entries and making their first video. In the meantime, I would encourage you to come back and read, as I will be posting regular updates. You can also sign up for our RSS feed on the right side of this page! We’re going to bring you a recount of our experiences as students, as consumers, as normal, everyday people who eat peanut butter.

Also, check out our Facebook group (RBC Campus Connection) regularly ‘cause I’ll be putting up a few pictures from our Blogger Bootcamp weekend for your viewing pleasure.

So, now that we’re open and being all honest and stuff, (~tear~) I wanted to let you know that we’re now also open for questions… so get the bloggers working for you! You can send questions in a few ways, either via email at p2p@rbc.com, or via comments on individual blog posts. While we’re still being honest and open, I love you Mom. (and you all too!!)

Goodbyes and Salutations,

Michel