BOSTON, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Santander
Bank, N.A. today announced that, last month, it awarded nearly
$2.9 million in grants to 109
non-profit organizations throughout its Northeast footprint in the
first of three rounds of charitable grants the Bank will award in
2017. Financial education and first time homebuyer programs are the
primary areas of focus of these donations, with the greatest
percentage of dollars - more than $1.4
million - going to support 40 organizations that offer
financial education and home buying courses to low- and
moderate-income individuals and families.
"Affordable housing is critical for families, children and
neighborhoods to thrive and we are pleased to support a number of
strong community-based organizations with grant funding" said
Scott Powell, Santander Bank CEO.
"In addition to funding our non-profit partners, our colleagues
have led credit and home ownership workshops and volunteered more
than 8,900 hours this year to give back in the communities
throughout the Bank's footprint where we live and work."
Santander awards grants three times a year- Spring, Summer and
Fall -through the Santander Bank Charitable Contributions Program,
which invests in programs serving low-income individuals and
communities. In addition to supporting affordable housing and
financial education programs, grants from this cycle will also
assist organizations that provide community services, economic and
small business development and neighborhood revitalization.
Affordable housing grant recipients from around the Bank's
footprint include:
- New York Mortgage Coalition - $50,000 to support the pre-purchase homeownership
program and 11 housing counseling agencies, providing training,
certification, compliance, data reporting, and capacity
building.
- New Hampshire Community Loan Fund - $50,000 to support one-on-one credit counseling,
pre-approvals, and post-purchase troubleshooting for people in need
of affordable housing assistance in four target counties.
- United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley -
$75,000 to fund the
first-in-the-nation 'Pay for Success' initiative focused on chronic
homelessness. This funding supports mental health and counseling
services and provides at least 500 units of permanent supportive
housing for up to 800 individuals over six years.
Other large grants awarded during this funding cycle to support
entrepreneurship training as a learning and wealth-building tool
include:
- Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) -
$210,000 to support entrepreneurial
education programming for the Regional Youth Entrepreneurship
Challenge where middle and high school students compete for prize
money for the best small business plan.
- Esperanza - $100,000 to
support neighborhood-based small business development in commercial
corridors in Hunting Park, a primarily Latino neighborhood in
North Philadelphia.
- Rutgers University Center for
Urban Entrepreneurship - $50,000
to support small business technical assistance services for up to
30 African-American and Latino entrepreneurs operating retail
stores or restaurants in New
Jersey's Essex and
Hudson counties and assisting them
with the tools and resources they need to grow.
- ASSETS Lancaster -
$20,000 to support programs that
assist low-income entrepreneurs in Pennsylvania with credit-building microloans,
business education, networking and consultation.
Non-profit organizations interested in applying for a grant can
access Santander's grant application guidelines by visiting the
Santander Charitable Contributions Program or sending questions to
santandercharitablecont@santander.us. Applications for the final
rounds of grants in 2017 are due on September 8 and will be awarded in November.
As part of Santander's commitment to strengthening the
communities it serves, the Bank recently announced Cultivate
Small Business, a new initiative designed to help early-stage
entrepreneurs in low-and moderate-income neighborhoods in
Greater Boston build and sustain
their businesses, with a focus on women, minority and
immigrant-owned businesses in food-related industries. The program
will launch in October 2017 and run
through June 2018. Interested
applicants can contact Santander for more information at
entrepreneurs@santander.us.
*For a full listing of grants from this round of funding, please
visit www.santanderbank.com/us/about/media-center.
Santander Bank, N.A. is one of the country's
largest retail and commercial banks with more than $83 billion in assets. With its corporate offices
in Boston, the Bank's 9,500
employees, more than 650 branches, 2,100 ATMs and 2.1 million
customers are principally located in Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, Connecticut,
Rhode Island, New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania and
Delaware. The Bank is a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Madrid-based Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: SAN)
- one of the most respected banking groups in the world with more
than 125 million customers in the U.S., Europe, and Latin
America. It is managed by Santander Holdings USA, Inc., Banco Santander's intermediate
holding company in the U.S. For more information on Santander Bank, please visit
www.santanderbank.com.
Santander Holdings USA, Inc. (SHUSA) is a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Madrid-based Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: SAN)
(Santander), one of the most respected banking groups in the world
with more than 125 million customers in the U.K., Europe, Latin
America and the U.S. As the intermediate holding company for
Santander's U.S. businesses, SHUSA includes six financial
companies with more than 17,500 employees, 5.2 million customers
and assets of over $135 billion.
These include Santander Bank, N.A., one of the country's largest
retail and commercial banks by deposits; Santander Consumer USA
Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SC), an auto finance and consumer lending
company; Banco Santander International of Miami; Banco Santander Puerto Rico; Santander
Securities LLC of Boston; and
Santander Investment Securities Inc. of New York.
Media
Contacts:
Ann
Davis
617-757-5891
ann.davis@santander.us
Nancy Orlando
617-757-5765
nancy.orlando@santander.us
View original content with
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/santander-bank-contributes-nearly-29-million-to-109-non-profit-organizations-300490144.html
SOURCE Santander Bank, N.A.