Bank Execs Build Home For Habitat, Ties With White House

(This article was originally published Monday.)

By Dawn Kopecki

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

BALTIMORE -- The typical construction crew doesn't show up to a building site with a private driver in an executive limousine.

But there wasn't anything typical about the crew assembled for a house-building project earlier this month in Baltimore.

Executives from Citigroup Inc. (C), Wachovia Corp. (WB) and others belonging to the Financial Services Roundtable donned blue jeans and tool belts one recent Saturday as part of a new alliance with the Habitat for Humanity. The project, which kicked off Aug. 10, involves building homes in eight cities through late September.

The Roundtable has enlisted more than 800 volunteers from 43 of its member companies - some of the largest banks, insurers and mortgage companies in the U.S. - to help with the Habitat project. The financial commitment for each company is minimal. The cost for materials for the eight Habitat houses runs roughly $50,000 apiece, a Habitat official said. The rest of the project's costs will be paid for in "sweat equity" from the volunteers.

It has already begun to pay dividends, providing some executives with rare face time with President George W. Bush and other administration officials.

U.S. corporations have clamored to take part in President George W. Bush's "call to service." Volunteer initiatives at 18 U.S. corporations were recently highlighted at an invitation-only forum at the White House.

CEOs such as Wachovia's Ken Thompson and Citigroup's Bob Willumstad personally met with the president at the Rose Garden event in June.

The White House also sent two administration officials to the building sites in Baltimore and Charlotte. N.C. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairman Don Powell, who regulates many of the participating banks, went to Charlotte, while John Bridgeland, assistant to the president, helped out in Baltimore.

The volunteer commitments from U.S. corporations have also given the president something to tout while pursuing his own "call to service" campaign. They've also been a smart move for the industry, both politically and economically.

"If community service is building a home, and it's good for their business, it's a confluence of interests," said Bridgeland, who is coordinating the volunteer initiatives among U.S. businesses in his role as director of the Office of the U.S.A. Freedom Corps.

The event also allowed the companies to highlight their own volunteer policies.

Allfirst Financial Inc. area President Mark Furst, who described himself as a stranger to the hammer, gives his employees 2 1/2 days of paid leave a year to volunteer. The 6,000 employees at the Baltimore-based regional bank logged at least 120,000 volunteer hours last year, he said.

Marriott Corp. has enlisted 25,000 seniors, who live at the company's assisted living facilities, to take part in the president's Senior Corps.

Wachovia Corp. recently expanded its volunteer policy to give four hours per month, or six days of paid leave a year, to each of its 82,000 employees to volunteer. The company had previously allowed employees to use that time only for education-related projects.

"We don't have any political ambition here. We're just simply trying to support the president in his call for volunteerism," Wachovia's Thompson said.

Employees at Citigroup don't get time off, but the company will donate $500 to any charity at which an employee spends more than 50 hours a year as a volunteer.

"Given our company's size, with the financial wherewithal and 270,000 employees, we think this is important - no matter who is in the White House," Willumstad said, wiping sweat from his forehead while taking a break at the Baltimore site.

Habitat made a good fit for the Financial Services Roundtable, executives said. It helps low-income individuals into homes, but requires them to work for the privilege. Potential homeowners have to help build other people's houses before they can qualify for the program, Habitat spokeswoman Kimberly Moore said. In addition to their "sweat equity," homeowners must pay a mortgage - usually a few hundred dollars without an interest payment.

Citigroup's Willumstad, who sits on Habitat's national board, said prospective homeowners "get treated like every other homeowner."

The same can't be said about the construction crews.

Willumstad, whose grandfather was a carpenter, jokingly complained of the unskilled hammering techniques possessed by some of his fellow CEOs at the Baltimore building site.

"Looking at these crooked lines, it's a wonder they ever get a house built," he said.