Santander Bank Contributes Nearly $2.9 Million To 109 Non-Profit Organizations

Nearly 50% of funding supports affordable housing and financial education programs in low- and moderate-income communities

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Santander Bank, N.A.

Jul 18, 2017, 14:37 ET

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 [email protected]. 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 [email protected].

*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.