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efforts, Moriarty noted. “I think it exacerbated the need to help people with their basic needs, even more than during a normal cycle, outside of a pan- demic. Again, with so much need out there, we strive to eliminate it.”
PeoplesBank recently announced a record level of charitable contributions in 2021, with dona- tions reaching $1,315,000 over the past year with
a total of close to $11 million donated since 2011. The bank has doubled its donations in the last five
“I would say 90% of our grant requests fit into one of those categories,” he said. “The other cat- egory is community, which is anything that doesn’t fit another category. For instance, fireworks or First Night Northampton — things that are good for community spirit.”
The bank has donated meals to frontline responders during the pandemic (as has UMass- Five and other institutions) and PPE, actions which are unique to the current environment, but most
its employees donated $8,880 to various local non- profits in 2021 through the bank’s Team Giving Ini- tiative Friday (TGIF) program.
“Western Massachusetts is not only the bank’s home, but home for many of our team members,” Moriarty said. “We work here, live here, and raise our families here. We are invested in the well-being of the local landscape and ensuring that our neigh- bors’ needs are met.”
Through the TGIF program, bank employees elect to donate $5 out of each of their paychecks to employee-selected nonprofit organizations that support the bank’s local communities. Since the program was launched seven years ago, MSB employees have donated a total of $45,170 to vari- ous charitable organizations.
“The TGIF program is just one example of our employees holding up the bank’s value of helping our neighbors in need,” Moriarty went on. “I often refer to us as a team here at Monson Savings. The TGIF program is a true team effort. Participants of this program donate just $5 out of their pay, and each donation comes together to create a large impact.”
Mission Driven
O’Connor said Westfield Bank, like other institu- tions, looked at new and different ways to support the community as a result of COVID, with many of them being public-health-related.
As one example, he cited the bank’s support of vaccination efforts in Springfield in a partnership effort with the Basketball Hall of Fame and other entities.
Banks
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      CRAIG BOIVIN
“During the pandemic, we were thinking creatively about what else can we do that’s different than what we’ve done in the past to support different folks. In some cases, it was really kind of
people negatively impacted by COVID tend to fall into one of PeoplesBank’s traditional philan- thropic focus areas, like housing needs, food insecurity, or social services.
“We’ve given to specific COVID causes as they’ve come up over the past couple of years,” Bannister said. “We’ve done that over and above the normal giv- ing we do anyway.”
He noted that, “even giving what we give, we’re still not able to give to everyone who asks; the needs out there are pressing.” To further address those needs, the bank’s employees donate 10,000
 doubling down on our efforts because the needs jumped more than expected.”
  years.
“We do have funding focus areas, as we call
them, that are probably similar to other banks,” said Matt Bannister, the bank’s senior vice presi- dent of Marketing and Corporate Responsibility, listing among them economic development, food insecurity, housing, social services, sustainability and the environment, and literacy (both early- childhood and financial).
volunteer hours per year, and 74 of them have served on 54 different nonprofit boards.
Florence Bank takes pride in similar efforts, Day said. “We encourage all our officers to be part of the nonprofit community in some way. And our employees are involved in roughly 125 organiza- tions in the area, as board members, volunteering at events, and so on.”
Monson Savings Bank recently announced that
            Michael Lynch
Barbara-Jean Michael James Michael Henry "Hank" Joe Doug
Deloria Moriarty Montemayor Davey Downey Kulig
Gilbert
To us,
To us,
business is personal.
business is personal.
 florencebank.com/business-banking
Member FDIC / Member DIF
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