Investors Bank Turns Bank Accounts Into Fundraisers

Bake sales, popcorn sales, car washes, tricky trays: If you’ve got a kid in any public school or activity in Verona, you’ve had a lot of fundraisers. And many of those fundraisers probably required more effort to manage than the funds they generated.

Investors Bank, which has a branch in Verona at the intersection of Bloomfield and Fairview avenues, might have a better solution. It’s a new affinity program called Care2Share and it effortlessly turns ordinary bank accounts into fundraising tools.

Here’s how it works. Any group, sports team or house of worship that is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit can set up a Care2Share program at the bank. The group’s members link their checking or savings accounts at Investors to the Care2Share account and, once a quarter, Investors looks at all the balances and makes a contribution to the non-profit based on those balances. The contribution ranges from .15% on the average monthly balance of a savings account to .25% of the average balance on a checking account.

There’s no charge to set up a Care2Share account and no charge or minimum balance for an Investors checking or savings account, though your group must have at least 10 linked accounts to qualify for a donation from the bank. Investors does not share information about your account with the non-profit you’ve linked to–or with any of the group’s members. What’s more, since Investors now has branches all over New Jersey, New York City and Long Island, groups can invite support from friends and relatives who don’t even live in Verona (and they don’t have to worry about delivering cookies or wreaths to their doors).

“Investors prides itself on its commitment to charity,” says Lisa Bernardo, an assistant vice president at Investors and manager of the Verona bank. “Our logo stands for the four things that are key to us: community, commitment, cooperation and character.”

Participating accounts can only be linked to one organization at a time, but since Investors accounts are free, individuals could easily set up one account to benefit a sports team and another to aid their house of worship, for example. Donations made through Care2Share aren’t tax deductible since they are not made directly, but you also don’t have to go searching for check stubs and receipts at the end of the year to satisfy your accountant.

Once a group is set up for Care2Share, Investors provides a comprehensive marketing kit that it can use to inform its members about the program, with everything from handouts to ready-to-use copy for emails and press releases.

You can learn more about Care2Share here, or pick up a brochure at the branch.