Why Bank for good

Because money can move the world forward.

Every time we bank, invest, or borrow, we’re helping to shape the kind of world we live in. When banks direct their capital toward innovation, clean technology, and community resilience, they become powerful engines for progress, strengthening economies, creating jobs, and improving lives.

Across the country, forward-looking financial institutions are already investing in:

  • Sustainable and affordable housing that keeps neighborhoods thriving.

  • Local businesses that create good jobs close to home.

  • Smarter energy and infrastructure that reduce costs and strengthen communities.

  • Education and innovation that unlock new opportunities for future generations.

Together, these investments build a stronger, fairer economy, one that rewards long-term value over short-term gain.

Bank for Good helps people and organizations find financial partners who are leading this transition – banks that measure success not just in profits, but in progress.

Building

A Better Future,

One Choice

At a Time

 

Every financial decision helps shape the world around us. When banks choose to invest in clean innovation, resilient infrastructure, and thriving local economies, they become powerful allies in building a stable and prosperous future.

Change happens when customers speak with their choices. Across the country, individuals and organizations are showing that their values matter – and banks are responding. We’ve already seen major financial institutions shift policies when their customers asked for greater accountability and transparency. The same collective power can accelerate the transition to a more responsible, future-ready financial system. It’s not about cutting ties – it’s about building new ones: between people, progress, and the planet we all share.

 

Climate justice is racial justice.

Black and brown communities already face a multitude of crises as a result of structural racism, and climate injustice is escalating those crises. This isn’t a coincidence: climate change is driven by the same greed and exploitation that birthed structural racism. There are too many connections to cover them all, so let’s start with a few.

 

Climate gentrification

Redlining—the discriminatory and systematic denial of mortgages, loans, insurance, and other financial services for residents of certain neighborhoods because of their race or ethnicity—has decimated the ability of Black Americans to accumulate generational wealth. Climate change adds a new dimension to this wealth and housing crisis: climate gentrification. As the seas rise, the rich are likely to buy up the so-called higher ground, leaving the rest to face floods and storm surges that put lives and homes at risk. As you read this, new policies are being discussed and implemented to remove entire communities from flood-prone areas, not always voluntarily. With the historic treatment of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx peoples in the United States, it’s not easy to trust that these policies will be applied fairly and preserve family and community resources.

 

Making it hard to breathe

Through redlining, company town housing, policing, and other means, agents of power have forced Black and brown communities into our cities’ sacrifice zones: areas where the air, water, soil, and buildings are unhealthy for people and compound the risk of lung disorders like asthma—and, now, COVID-19. This disproportionate burden of disease will grow as more hot, hazy, ozone-polluted days raise the risk of major respiratory crisis for children, the elderly, and the sick.

 

Increasing risk to parents and children

Low-income and majority-nonwhite urban neighborhoods tend to have fewer trees and less green space, meaning that compared to richer, whiter urban neighborhoods, they get hotter and more hazardous. Research shows that high temperatures are risky for pregnant people, fetuses, and young babies: high heat leads to lower birth weights (increasing the risk for other complications), more stillbirths, and more premature births. In 2016, Black infants were already twice as likely as white infants to die before their first birthday. Fetal mortality, or losing a pregnancy before end of term, is also much higher for Black Americans. Climate change is poised to increase the disparity even further.

Let’s get to work

Every bank, credit union, and financial institution listed on Bank for Good has pledged not to finance fossil fuel extraction or infrastructure.

That’s huge. The more institutions make this promise, and the more people decide to Bank for Good, the closer we are to containing and reversing the climate crisis.

Good financial institutions—get this—actually care about their customers and communities while still offering a range of financial products. Some have branches where you live and tellers who will know your name; others were built entirely online and have top-notch mobile apps and websites. 

Many are Minority Depository Institutions, or MDIs, which are owned by, led by, or dedicated to serving people of color. Some are Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs): they’re federally recognized and regulated as serving communities that have been shut out of many large financial institutions. And some are members of networks dedicated to doing good while doing business, like B-Corps or the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV). Whatever you’re looking for from your financial institution, you can find it here.

When you start an account with a Bank for Good participating institution, you’re joining a movement of people who are demanding a banking system that puts people before profits. You’re participating in a moment where powerful actors that once seemed invincible are buckling under the power of everyday people. You’re sending a message:

 

 

It’s time
to
Bank
for
Good.

 

 

Now is the time to make an impact

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