CN Railroaders in the Community

CN is proud of the hundreds of employees, their families, and retirees who give generously of their time to local causes through our CN Railroaders in the Community (RRITC) program. These volunteers are part of the social fabric of the many cities, towns and villages across our entire North American network, helping to make their communities better places to live and work.

CN supports their efforts by providing charitable donations to the organizations where CN railroaders volunteer. Each hour of volunteer work earns a $15 reward, up to a maximum of 220 hours or $3300 per retiree per year (including volunteer hours completed by their spouse/surviving spouse). There is no limit to the number of organizations a CN retiree and the spouses/surviving spouses of CN retirees can volunteer with.

We are also happy to confirm that if you have already started volunteering in your community this year, any volunteer hours accumulated since January 1 for a recognized charity will qualify for a reward in the same calendar year

Thanks to CN's digital platform SPARK, you can easily track your volunteer hours and see when the donation to your charity was made. Rewards are transferred electronically to the eligible organizations on a monthly basis. Check out the exciting new features of the Railroaders in the Community program at SPARK

Word of Thanks for 2024 Efforts

Hello Railroaders,

Thank you for your participation in the Railroaders in the Community program. Many of you have shown your commitment and generosity by volunteering your time and skills to non-profit organizations which matter to you.

Here are some of the amazing results that our retirees have accomplished through the program in 2024.

Volunteers submitting hours increased from 511 in 2023 to 572 in 2024 - an increase of 12%

Those 572 volunteers raised a total of $940,473 for their favourite charities

The 2024 total of over $940,000 was an increase of 42% over the $662877 raised in 2023

Thanks in part to you, the Railroaders in the Community program was once again successful in 2024.

We are proud of your achievements, and we welcome your feedback and suggestions on how the Railroaders in the Community program can be further improved

SPARK User Guide

CN Railroaders in the Community FAQ

To login the first time:

Username: your CN PIN number.
Password: the first three letters of your first name + the first three letters of your last name + the 4 digits of the year you were hired at CN + !!

Example: The password for Jane Smith, hired in 1999, would be: jansmi1999!!

Once logged in for the first time, you must change your email address to a personal email and you will be asked to change your password. If you previously accessed the site while as a CN employee, you will need to change your email. Surviving spouses of retirees should contact railroadersinthecommunity@cn.ca for assistance with the login.

NOTE: For those retirees who have tried to log in for the first time and have followed the new log in procedure, but are still experiencing difficulties accessing the new platform, please email railroadersinthecommunity@cn.ca . Please be sure to include your full name as it appears on your CN Pension Statement as well as your CN PIN number. If it is just a password issue, they can assist you by creating a new password for you. However, if it turns out to be a technical issue, they will be unable to assist you until the issue has been resolved between CN and Benevity. Until then, CN advises those retirees to keep track of their volunteer hours so that they can be entered into the system once CN notifies your access to the system has been fixed.

Incentive Bonus: If you are a contributing member of the CNPA (paying your $1 per month membership), CN will give an additional reward of $100 to one of the charities you volunteered for. This is another great reason to become a member of the CNPA (if you're not already one) and to enter your volunteer hours for the current year into the platform before Dec. 31.

How the Incentive Bonus Works: At the end of each calendar year, the CNPA will send a list to CN of all retirees who have paid their membership fee. CN will cross-reference this list with the retirees who applied for volunteer awards in RRITC in that calendar year. Through the Spark website, CN will send $100 to a single charity that each member volunteered for. If a member volunteered for more than one charity, CN will contact the retiree in early January to ask them which charity should receive the bonus $100. The bonus payments will be entered in January with the funds being transferred by mid-February.

Please note that there is one (1) $100 bonus per PIN and applies equally to surviving spouses.

As the RRITC program ends December 31st and restarts January 1st annually, all awards are reset. Therefore, any volunteer hours for the current year should be entered into Spark in that year in order for the bonus to be paid out in January/February. In order to qualify for the bonus $100 for your charity, the minimum volunteer time is just one hour.

Should you have any questions about this incentive bonus, please write to: railroadersinthecommunity@cn.ca.