SOURCE: Inside Business

By Bill Cresenzo

bill.cresenzo@insidebiz.com

TowneBank has been named the inaugural winner of the 2013 Corporate Darden Award for Regional Leadership.

The bank will receive the award on Dec. 10 at the Norfolk Waterside Mariott from the CIVIC Leadership Institute.

Cathy Lewis, executive director of CIVIC, said TowneBank was chosen for its efforts to improve the quality of life for people in Hampton Roads.

Since 1999, the bank and its foundation have given more than $22 million in donations, scholarships and grants to more than 200 organizations throughout the region, Lewis said.

“At the end of the day, no one will remember the exact dollar amount of our deposits, loans or net income for any given year,” said Bob Aston, chairman and CEO of TowneBank. “Instead, they’ll remember the friendships they’ve formed along the way. It’s important to remember that the quality of life is not about how much money is made. It’s about how we choose to use it.”

Recent gifts from the bank’s foundation include $250,000 to the Williams School in Norfolk, $1 million to Eastern Virginia Medical School and $250,000 to WHRO.

“It’s such a wide array of things that we give money to,” Aston said. “I don’t know that we always choose them as much as they choose us. We try to support really everything that is community-oriented.

“I would divide our giving into two different categories,” Aston said. “One would be what I would call purely philanthropic giving, which consists of larger, multi-year pledges such as the Chrysler Museum or a school. Then there is the community piece, which would entail a wide range of community sponsorships, like the Stockley Gardens Festival or Harborfest,” as well as supporting the sports teams in the region.

Bank employees also spend lots of time volunteering, Aston said.

“We have an enormous amount of volunteeerism from people who work here, out doing the grassroots stuff that doesn’t show up as dollars,” Aston said.