Power of Partnership Part III: Collaborating with Banks and Financial Institutions

Nonprofit organizations and financial institutions share the unique responsibility of being trusted resources and service providers to their communities. Residents rely on the services, advice, and expertise of each valued neighborhood stakeholder, creating an atmosphere for collaboration. Traditional bank and nonprofit partnerships were superficial, often not moving beyond an occasional board membership or basic event sponsorship. Today, financial institutions and nonprofits are collaborating to create dramatic positive change in their service footprint while increasing the capacity and community investment of each entity.  Both banks and nonprofits may achieve mutual success for their organizations through solutions-oriented relationships, as their mutual focus and key attribute toward growth. During this webinar, we will explore the dynamics of successful partnerships between financial organizations and nonprofits. In addition, we will explore best practices and innovations producing highly effective initiatives involving nonprofits and financial institutions. 

You will learn: 

• Understand baseline information about the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and traditional collaborative opportunities for financial institutions and nonprofit partners.
• Overview of CRA evaluations to gain an understanding of examples where banks received CRA credit for community investment activities.
• Discuss how nonprofit leadership can perform due diligence, learning the bank's area of focus, to determine if pursuing the financial institution as a possible partnership would be a great fit and mutually beneficial. 
• Understand the courting process and how to build and maintain equitable relationships for effective partnership. Also, determine the financial institutions’ grant-making schedule to increase the approval chances and decrease inefficiency. 
• Understand the difference between community benefit and community impact and strategies to attain each through the partnership.