ShoreBank Blog
The ShoreBank Blog is your place to find ShoreBank news, new product information, and our insight into the banking world.
Posts Tagged ‘socially responsible investing’
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
This guest post from Aldra is part of ShoreBank’s new 5th Tuesday ShoreBank Fan post series. Aldra is a grant writer who found her way into the non-profit sector via her membership with AmeriCorps VISTA. With more than 10 years in the non-profit industry, she learned the fine art of living a good life with a small salary and a commitment to social justice. She is the author of Consciously Frugal and a ShoreBank Facebook Fan.
Although personal finance books are quite popular, few have garnered the notoriety enjoyed by Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin (later editions include author Monique Tilford). Even though Your Money or Your Life was first published nearly 20 years ago, you can still find a study group in virtually every city working the book’s holistic, nine-step program.
The program asks participants to base their earning, saving and spending patterns on their core values. My core values are simple. I believe that my purpose on this spinning blue ball is to ensure that all people have the right to health, safety, security, and happiness. If I truly believe that, then I must pay attention to the how and who of the products that I purchase (Is it sourced from sustainable practices? Are the workers fairly treated and compensated?). It eventually dawned on me that this sort of thinking should extend to all my fiscal activities, not just when I buy stuff. But in a culture devoted to upward mobility and the material trappings of “success,” reorienting our financial lives to an internal compass is a radical concept.
As I began to align my finances with my values, I investigated the world of banking. What was my monolithic bank doing with all those billions of dollars? Who was benefiting from my deposits and the interest I paid on loans? To whom did they market their credit cards?
I didn’t like much of what I found. I discovered that I was putting my money into a system that seemed to disempower and exploit people. I knew that there had to be a better way. The primary thing I wanted to see in a financial institution was an active engagement in bettering the community. I also wanted to see a measure of respect for clients, regardless of income levels or portfolio dollars. Community reinvestment is a concrete example of that respect.
After spending a few months hunting for a bank that invested in communities, I found ShoreBank. Through ShoreBank Direct’s online savings account, I am earning interest on my savings far above that being offered by my previous bank while knowing that my money is also being put to good use.
However, what I have most enjoyed about transitioning to a community development financial institution is the human connection. Through blogs, email correspondence, and Facebook interactions, I have been able to engage with staff and fellow ShoreBank customers, and discuss political, environmental and social issues important to us all. It gives me hope that amidst all the economic doom and gloom of late, we can find ways to create a values-based economy in which all of us are respected and empowered.
Love ShoreBank Voices? Help me tell others that where they bank does make a difference and leave a comment or subscribe to the ShoreBank Voices feed.
Tags: community development, move your money, ShoreBank Direct, socially responsible investing, your money or your life
Posted in Outreach | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
Raise your hand if you spent your adolescent summers doing household chores, attending camps, or volunteering? Do you still summer like that? I don’t. After years of Girl Scouts service projects, band camp attendance, and hours of daily household chores, I now do little more in the summer than pack organic picnic baskets and attend free concerts in the park. But what if I put the baskets away and actually created a to-do list similar to the one I had as a youth, only with a triple bottom line goal instead? What impact could I make with these summer 2010 triple bottom line to-dos?:
Financial:
- “Green” clean my finances. I am going to sign up for as many autopilot online and paperless banking products as I can.
- “Green” my budget. I need to revamp my food, housing, and entertainment budgets for the appropriate amount of organic product, air conditioning (or in my case – a lack there of), and travel expenditures.
- Re-evaluate my 401(K) to participate in socially responsible investments. I did evaluate my 401(K) as promised in my 2010 resolutions; however, I want to verify that my portfolio has not modified in whom it invests and re-adjust my investments accordingly.
- Go 2 weekends without drinking non-water beverage and donate the savings. According to MSN Money, Americans spend more on beer from Memorial Day through Labor Day than at any other time of the year. There is more than one nonprofit that can use my donation.
Community:
- Meet My Neighbors. Not only does it improve community cohesion, but it also increases my safety, as neighbors you know are more likely to alert you if there is suspicious behavior around your neighborhood.
- Support local businesses at street festivals. Street festivals can really provide an economic impact for a community.
- Volunteer for at least 4 hours per month. Volunteers reduce organizational cost while helping to improve the community. And when a community is doing well as a whole, its individuals are better off, too.
Environment:
- Pick up litter for at least one hour. According to Every Monday Matters, if every person picked up one piece of litter today, there would be over 300 million fewer pieces of litter.
- Invest in a urban window garden. I still haven’t completed this resolution! But I think I have added another 3,000 pounds of CO2 from flying this year. It is time.
- Eco-shred all of my hoarded paper. I don’t know how paper adds up, but somehow, all of a sudden, I have stacks of unsolicited credit card offers and napkins everywhere!
Think about the impact that I alone can make with this triple bottom line to-do list! Help me stay on track and join me in becoming a triple bottom line summer activist. The “What does ‘Green’ mean to me?” Facebook photo contest runners up have already gotten on board! Who else is with me?
“What does ‘Green’ mean to me” Facebook Contest Runners Up Photos:
Tags: community development, green banking, socially responsible investing, triple bottom line
Posted in Outreach | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
Is travel for tourism a human right? Although we might question this recent argument by the EU for subsidizing travel for low-income citizens, I agree with one reason behind its proposal – that travel for tourism can have positive economic, community, and environmental benefits, especially for small towns and local businesses. The more people who can travel, the greater than impact! But, I also think there is quicker low-cost way to responsibly increase access to travel. That way: a staycation to a low- or moderate-income neighborhood.
According to Wikipedia, “a ‘staycation’ is a period of time in which an individual or family stays at home and relaxes or takes day trips from their home to area attractions.” Many amazing things to see and do are nestled in low- or moderate-income neighborhoods. For example, in Chicago, you can take in jazz at the Sunset Café in Bronzeville, the Pullman Historic District in Pullman, or golf at the South Shore Cultural Center. Or, in San Francisco, you can check out the murals in Balmy Alley in the Mission, music at the Great American Music Hall in the Tenderloin, or watch the World Cup at The Pig & Whistle in Western Addition. If you look for it, almost every low- to moderate-income neighborhood has something great to see or do.
Not only are staycations fun, but they can also be far less costly, both financially and environmentally, than a traditional vacation. The American Automobile Association determined the average North American vacation would cost $244/day for two people for just lodging and meals. That doesn’t include travel and carbon output. Can you imagine the economic and environmental impact we could create if we spent the same amount of money in low- to moderate-income communities without flying there? Our reallocated tourism dollars might help create the same support in our city’s neighborhoods that the EU is trying to stimulate.
Many people want to make socially responsible actions, but get inundated by the plethora of options. A staycation is one step that everyone can take. Try it!
1.http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7100943.ece
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staycation
Tags: community development, green transportation, socially responsible investing, socially responsible travel, ways to reduce carbon
Posted in Outreach | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
Most banks offer their customers the option of banking online in addition to writing paper checks and conducting transactions at brick-and-mortar branches. However, at ShoreBank we see online banking as more than a way to provide convenient banking options (though it certainly does that). We also see it as an integral component of our commitment to the environment and our position as a triple bottom line institution.
The environmental impact of paperless, electronic banking should not be underestimated. We’re talking about more than the occasional four-by-two inch ATM receipt. For example, Greendig.net estimates that if every household in the U.S. switches to electronic banking, it would save 16.5 million trees each year. That’s paper for envelopes, paper for stamps, paper for checks…all being saved.
Many customers also seem specifically attracted to the green aspects of paperless banking. In 2008, Newsweek reported that 57% of U.S. consumers expressed an interest in green banking when polled about it.
ShoreBank has always seen its environmental commitment as integrally connected to its community development mission. For example, supporting businesses like Indie Energy—a company that designs and builds environmentally-friendly, renewable energy systems throughout the Chicago region— creates jobs for people in the community while making their homes more energy efficient and affordable. By encouraging energy-efficiency whether by financing a green business or providing homeowners with free energy-audits—ShoreBank is helping homeowners lower their utility bills and tackle global warning by working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Want to learn more? One easy-to-use tool for gaining a better understanding of the link between environmental and economic community development can be found on our new website, https://www.sbk.com/. It’s a fully-functional bank website with state-of-the-art technologies to make it easier to manage your money. It also has stories that will engage you in ShoreBank’s mission. Now you can manage your finances and build wealth while seeing, through customer stories, how we are building stronger, healthier communities and reinvigorating the lives of our customers.
So I am encouraging you to browse https://www.sbk.com to help “put a face” onto the opportunities and people we work with —both through online and good old fashioned brick-and-mortar banking. I think you’ll enjoy learning more and hope from these stories you will either begin or continue supporting ShoreBank in its mission.
Tags: community development, environmental sustainability, green banking, ShoreBank, socially responsible investing, triple bottom line
Posted in Green Collar | 2 Comments »
Friday, January 16th, 2009
35 years ago ShoreBank was founded on the South Side of Chicago to provide people unfairly denied credit with access to financial resources and information. And next week a new President with be sworn in – one who started his career in the same areas ShoreBank has been active.
ShoreBank has always been committed building sustainable communities That mission continues today as ShoreBank is one of the nation’s only triple bottom line financial institutions.
Communities, of course, change . As Joel, our manager of triple bottom line innovations, noted in an earlier post, all he has to do is look out his window to see the transformation that has taken place in the local community – other banks have appeared on many street corners. But not just the neighborhoods have changed – the way people want to bank is also evolving too.
When I speak at events here in Chicago I often meet people who are very interested in the way ShoreBank does banking. And they want to invest in this work. They love the stories of local entrepreneurs creating green collar jobs , green businesses, and of homeowners making energy efficient improvements – and they love that we work with borrowers in-person. But like people across the nation they want to manage their savings from a computer at home. And on a freezing day like today I am definitely in this camp.
Banking online is part of “green banking” and it supports our mission to preserve scarce resources and leave as small an environmental footprint as possible. We provide statements electronically instead of in the mail and we don’t need to build extra branches to serve our customers. But how do we create a sense of community when, increasingly, we like to bank alone?
We saw this same challenge in politics this year as now President-elect Obama found a way to engage people using technology – but he still met with countless individuals face to face. We too are working to broaden the ways we connect with the community of people interested in supporting our traditional personal, one-on-one lending. So our online presence is changing. You have already seen some of these initiatives; in fact, you may have opened an Online High Yield Savings Account because of them. We have created a website with stories and videos of our customers and we have included features that make it easy to share items that interest you. We launched this blog and welcome your comments. We hope these stories and information are useful, so please share with us your comments and what other features and subjects you would like covered here too And don’t forget to visit our new Facebook page (Admittedly it is not as well known as the Obama page). This is all relatively new for us and somewhat unusual for a bank.
Even with these new electronic channels, ShoreBank continues to partner with borrowers with traditional personal, one-on-one service. Our ability to be a part of the community – working with potential borrowers, understanding their stores and finding them the best product for long term success – is, and will always be at the heart of what we do.
But in a world were my friend’s three month old daughter already has an email account we know online capabilities will be a significant part of the our future. We look forward to building community in this space too.
Tags: community development, green banking, high yield savings, ShoreBank Direct, social media, socially responsible investing, triple bottom line
Posted in Community | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Happy New Year! For those of you undecided on your New Year’s resolution, you might consider one that will help to change the world in 2009. The homeless and “at-risk” population is greater than ever. Nonprofits, which often depend upon decreasingly wealthy corporations and philanthropists, find themselves supporting this unprecedented demand with an ever-decreasing coin coffer. Even if you cannot give huge sums of money to your favorite cause, you can still make a difference by contributing your spare change. Small donations, one donation at a time adds up and can play a large role in transforming peoples’ lives and building stronger communities. That is why in 2009, I am pledging to help change the world by becoming a social microfunder.
Social MicroFunding is the process of using social media websites, such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, to make very small donations (starting at a penny). According to Leslie Poston, founder of Uptown Uncorked, “the power of social media has never been about solely about the conversation. . . Instead the power of social media is the ability to make genuine and valuable connections between businesses or people in a matter of moments.” You generate actual capital for your cause, simply by adding it to your social capital (i.e. befriending it on a social media site).
Consider these features of Social Microfunding:
• Low Personal Cost. The average micofunding donation range is from $0.25 to $4.50. That amount is less than a cup of coffee. You can skip the barista stand one-day a week and dontate the savings.
• Speed. It is quicker to donate then it is to brew a cup o coffee.
• Easy to Generate Greater Awareness. Click ‘Share with a Friend’ on Facebook or ‘Tweet it’ on Twitter to easily garner support for your favorite causes from across your degrees of separation.
• The “peace of mind” that derives from most social microfunding sites that use only trusted e-payment sites, such as PayPal, to collect your donation.
• Real Time Impact Evaluation. Most applications provide real-time funding updates so a donor can immediately see the impact of their microdonation.
The impact of Social Microfunding is truly astounding. In only two days time, Social MicroFunding raised $10,000 for a Tanzanian classroom and over a little longer period of time $2,200 was raised for the Salvation Army and $3,500 ws raised for Charity: Water. To learn more, please click here.
As somebody once told me when I said I could not give that much, “if everybody gave ‘not that much,’ imagine how much a cause could receive.” So let us resolve in 2009 to become a family of social microfunders.
Tags: community development, green banking, ShoreBank Direct, social media, socially responsible investing, triple bottom line
Posted in Outreach | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
As we end this year of economic turmoil, now is a good time to reflect on how values influence financial returns. The financial crisis we experienced this year illustrates how closely linked business ethics and responsible investing are to long-term financial sustainability for individuals and our nation’s economy. The greed that drove some of the exotic products and non-prudent behaviors that are at the heart of the financial meltdown clearly are unsustainable. As a result, ethical investing or socially responsible investing has become even more appealing to those looking for a match between their personal values and their financial investments.
Socially responsible investing describes an investment approach that seeks to maximize both profit and social good, including community development and environmental sustainability. Socially responsible investors, rather than focusing on short-term results will concentrate on the long-term impact of their investments. Here is a short checklist of questions to help those who are considering socially responsible investing:
• What are your personal values? What do you want to support and what do you want to avoid?
• What companies and/or mutual funds line up with your values? Is there a priority set of values that you want to use to screen your investments?
• What metrics are available to compare investment opportunities against your priority values?
• What level of risk are you willing to take? How can you find a safe alternative for that portion of your investments that you do not want to put at risk?
It is important to note that if you wish to make as socially responsible investment, there are places other than the stock market to invest your money. Community development banks offer a good “safe haven” in which to invest and make a difference, providing FDIC insurance and a guaranteed rate of return.
Community development banks, like ShoreBank are performing well while still offering loans and banking services to underserved populations. Who would have thought that your 2009 SRI portfolio could include a savings account?
ShoreBank is considered a pioneer in socially responsible investing. As a triple bottom line company that measures profitability, community development and environmental impact, we find growing customer interest in our range of market rate, FDIC insured deposit products. Just as we measure our social responsibility, so you should also evaluate a company on its social responsibility, prior to investing.
CommunityInvest.org and SocialInvest.org are great additional references if you are considering taking the first steps in socially responsible investing. I also invite you to take a closer look at ShoreBank, both online (www.shorebankdirect.com) and by speaking in person with our Mission Based Deposit team representative at 1-800-669-7725.
Happy New Year!
Tags: community development, FDIC, green banking, ShoreBank, socially responsible investing, triple bottom line
Posted in Banking Industry | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
Hello! I welcomed you to the ShoreBank blog a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to check back in. I do a lot of work with consumer savings products and sustainable personal finance is an idea that comes up regularly. I wanted to take some time and dive into this topic today.
It has been amazing to watch the explosion of “sustainable” options in our daily lives. Organic food is a great example. Organic food once was a niche product … hard to find, sold in out of the way locations and not aimed at the general population. That’s no longer the case. These days, organics are widely available, and a much wider range of people are buying them. (I can even get organic versions of foods I never knew existed!) Not everything I buy is organic but I like to have choices and I like to know what the choices mean.
“Sustainable” options are also available in the broad category of personal finance. The choices often start with how people spend their money – before they even pick a savings vehicle. Certainly where you live, how you commute and what you eat are all part of the bigger financial picture. With any luck, however, after these choices there is some money to be saved.
Your money can work for you both financially and in support of sustainable initiatives. This brings us to the issue of asset classes – how much of your savings should be in cash or stocks or bonds or other assets. There has long been a Socially Responsible Investing industry, particularly with regard to stocks. They can include (or exclude) companies based on specific screening criteria like industry or employee practices.
Some portion of your money, however, will likely be in a form of cash. These products, like checking accounts, savings accounts and CDs, are found at banks and related financial institutions…but sustainable banking products do not seem to get much media coverage.
There are many ways to think about sustainability within the banking industry. The biggest one is to look at what the bank does with your deposit. Banks use deposits to fund their loan portfolios. So if your bank is making loans to companies that are local then your money is funding the local economy. If they are making loans to shoe manufacturers then you are supporting that industry.
Other areas to look at are the bank’s internal practices and the options they give you as the customer. For example, do they offer paperless accounts? Do they have a clear policy regarding internal energy use? Do they support “green” building practices?
ShoreBank is a community development and environmental bank – we track our loan portfolio against these two primary areas of focus. And we are working to make our operations more sustainable. (In fact we just opened a new office and incorporated many green features – I will share more on that in a future posting.)
We are working hard to provide you with options in sustainable personal finance – we look forward to continuing to innovate and to sharing our experiences along the way.
And if you are interested in banking with us the quickest way is to open our online High-Yield Savings Account at (it has a 3.50% APY* with a $1 minimum).
*The Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is effective as of June 4, 2008, and is subject to change without notice. APY is valid only with a ShoreBank online high-yield savings account. Fees could reduce earnings on the account. A minimum balance of $1.00 is required to open the account and obtain the stated APY.
Tags: community development, environmental sustainability, green banking, ShoreBank Direct, socially responsible investing, triple bottom line
Posted in Green Collar | 1 Comment »
Thursday, September 11th, 2008
Hello, I am Jean Pogge, the Director of the Consumer and Community Bank at ShoreBank. For many years, I have been fortunate to work with customers and colleagues who understand the importance of socially responsible investing. SRI investors want to make sure their investments and their banking are in line with their values.
Socially responsible investors have been particularly important to ShoreBank. As a community development and conservation bank, we are very active lenders. Critical to our ability to continue to make loans is our ability to raise deposits. Socially responsible or mission based depositors have been drawn to banking with ShoreBank by the simple proposition that deposits in ShoreBank are the fuel for the exceptional community development and conservation lending we do in underinvested minority communities.
Deposits in ShoreBank offer amazing value. They are FDIC insured just like other banks; they pay market rates of interest like other High Yield Savings Accounts; and each customer gets the satisfaction of knowing that their money is being used to rebuild communities and create a healthier environment.
I look forward to our conversations over the coming weeks as we explore socially responsible investing and the way you can use your bank accounts to help change the world.
Tags: community development, FDIC, green banking, high yield savings, ShoreBank Direct, socially responsible investing, triple bottom line
Posted in Banking Industry | No Comments »
