Good community is good business. We believe our business can only thrive in healthy communities and we are therefore committed to improving the prospects of the communities we serve. Our preferred approach is to talk to local leaders about their aspirations and concerns and see if we can use our skills to improve their community's prospects.

Often this centres on the provision of banking and financial services, but we have also been able to develop a range of initiatives designed to help communities reach their potential. Many of these help communities to channel their co-operative spirit into commercial enterprises that help retain and build local capital. These may be broadly grouped under Community Banking and Community Enterprise™.

Our Charitable Foundation

Through Bendigo Bank's charitable arm, the Community Enterprise™ Foundation, we are also able to create a pool of money to help build stronger communities through funding programs for families, youth, health, education, the environment, the arts and lots more. We do this by collecting donations in a tax-effective way from individuals, businesses and governments. Bendigo Bank and the Foundation's own trustee, Sandhurst Trustees, are two companies which have already committed to make ongoing donations.

Our Foundation also offers communities with a unique opportunity to build their own pool of funds for distribution by our Trustees in consultation with their own community representatives. Effectively, each community has access to its 'own' charitable foundation.

Through the Foundation, Bendigo Bank is also able to support worthy public appeals. In 2005, for example, we raised well over $1 million for tsunami relief work in Asia.

Lead On (youth development)

We need to engage our young people in civic and business life, promoting their development and inculcating in them a sense of community and an appreciation of the contribution they can make to their district's prospects. Bendigo Bank is the underwriter of the Lead On youth development program started in Bendigo in 1999 and expanded into 19 centres by early 2006.

The program is open to any and all young people and aims to work with local businesses to engage youngsters in commercial and community projects which give them a better understanding of how their community works.

Environment

Sustainable growth requires good environmental practices. Bendigo Bank has introduced incentives for Customers to reduce their impact on the environment. Our range of Green Loans helps Customers to build homes incorporating energy and water efficient design features.

We are improving the Bank's own resource usage, which can also improve our financial performance. Already we are fully offsetting the emissions of our vehicle fleet through contracts with a company reafforesting water catchments in northern Victoria. We are currently working with consultants on tools to manage the total demand for energy across our network. This includes looking at ways to build smart technologies into our buildings to better control lighting and airconditioning systems. Our new Bendigo head office will be highly rated for energy efficiency.

Sponsorship

Throughout our history we have sponsored community events, believing that investing in bettering communities is good for our business. Each of our retail bank regions has its own sponsorship budget to support the Bank's core corporate sponsorships. We continue to meet our aim of spreading sponsorship support across a wide group of activities including schools, charities, sport and the arts.