We have learned to expect that bank partnerships will start with opportunities that might seem small at first, but with potential to grow as trust and the recognition of benefit grows. How this develops will be based on your mutual experience and needs, though there are things that you can do to nurture this relationship. Success in partnership growth will likely depend on your leadership, which combines the responsiveness of a strong project lead in managing funder relationships with the insights of a successful business service specialist in maintaining valuable employer connections. We have outlined a few practices here that will be useful.
What might seem a simple courtesy is actually a very valuable and important component for banks in their documentation and reporting of their CRA activity to federal regulators. More than courtesy, it is customer service.
In addition to communicating your enthusiasm for this new partnership, this template incorporates information that most banks require to demonstrate the relevance of their contributions to your agency and the people it serves in meeting the requirements and objectives of their CRA plan. The information to include in the linked guidance and template for a “Thank You” letter to a bank both establishes a strong tone for partnership and includes valuable information for banks for their documentation and reporting.
Of course, the background that you gather in your discussions with your bank partner will provide you with additional insight into information that is useful to include – but this template is suggested as a starting point.
- Thank You Letter to a Bank Partner (DOCX, 24KB)
Sharing information with the bank partner on the ongoing status of the expenditure or investment of a financial donation is important to a bank, as well as the investment of the federal match that is leveraged by the donation.
Partnership grows when the mutual benefit of the activity is experienced. It is important to share the success you experience from your partner’s investment so they are able to experience the same success.
Never underestimate the importance and power of the stories in your activity for your bank partner! In the third section of this toolkit, we included a resource to support you in structuring your story in an initial meeting with bank representatives. Stories about the impact of your collaborative efforts on the lives of individuals are valuable for your bank partners.
As you share information in terms of project progress, federal match for donations, numbers of individuals served and outcomes for those individuals, we encourage you to include stories of individuals and the impact your project has had on them. Sharing the successes of people served by joint ventures is something that partners do, and banks will often delight in passing these stories on to others in celebrating the impact of their contribution in the community.
All relationships require invested effort. What you feed grows.
Often cited throughout this toolkit is the importance of starting on a small scale in partnership. Examples include the engagement of bank expertise in providing Financial Wellness training for your staff and the people you serve or using a small financial contribution to support vocational rehabilitation (VR) members in completing a credential. The opportunity to complete an effort successfully allows you to learn more about each other and recognize greater opportunities to build on that relationship to increase the impact you have on your community – together.
As your relationship grows, keep the following suggestions in mind:
- Follow up with your bank partner on a regular basis, to ensure the partnership continues to meet their needs and objectives. This can be much like the ongoing contact you might maintain with an employer that you are engaging with for member job placement opportunities.
- Keep in mind that banks are employers and your opportunity to support them in talent acquisition in addition to your partnership activities can strengthen your partnership.
- Maintain your ongoing reporting on project progress, along the agreed-upon timelines, sprinkling in those stories mentioned earlier as you have them.
- Identify the banks objectives in their community development planning (CRA plans) for opportunities where your collective synergy might have a stronger impact.
- Don’t forget to celebrate accomplishments together – in person – and in public recognition of accomplishment.
As we move forward in time, how do we know if our partnership activity meets our shared expectations for benefit? Are there ways to strengthen our partnership and impact overtime?
It is not uncommon for the initial relationship with a bank to seem more like a contractual relationship than a partnership. The relationship might start out kind of like getting a grant and making regular reports. It is important to note that many banks might welcome opportunities to strengthen their sense of partnership, whether it might be in serving as a member of your State Rehabilitation Council or having a role with your leadership of your shared project in the implementation oversight. The latter opportunity is desirable for multiple reasons including:
- Increases the sense of partnership and investment by the bank
- Increases the community expertise available to the project’s overall success, because of the wide network in which your bank partner operates
- Involvement of a bank partner in the ongoing project evaluation and improvement process provides leadership with a valuable community impact perspective which will “round out” the overall evaluation and improvement process (if oversight is provided by all “like-minded” individuals from the same agency, important things are likely to be missed)
Of course, not all banks will be willing to support the project activity on this level, but where they are willing, this would be a wonderful opportunity!