Our priorities
As a bank owner, investor, and practitioner, we have a unique model that allows us to bridge the work of grassroots organizations, policy makers, professional associations, and the banking industry. As both a nonprofit shareholder of Beneficial State Bank and an advocacy organization, we are able to evaluate the social and environmental impact of the bank while engaging in policy advocacy for systemic change.
Policy Advocacy
Working in coalition, we advocate for an equitable and triple-bottom-line banking regulatory and policy agenda.
Field Building
We advance the field of equitable banking by partnering with advocates and campaigners to build their capacity, convene and connect the field, and promote solutions to the public.
Industry Relations
We engage directly with banks and industry associations to develop, adopt, and spread equitable and triple-bottom-line bank standards, practices, and behaviors.
Impact Measurement
We develop leading-edge impact measurement tools and practices by tracking triple-bottom-line bank behaviors, engaging openly in standards-setting with partners, and translating what we learn into policies, protocols, and guides that can be adopted by the broader banking industry.
Underwriting for Racial Justice
We convene underwriters, impact leaders at financial institutions, regulators, innovators in alternative underwriting, and borrowers of color from across the country to develop solutions to increase credit access to people rising from longstanding systemic inequities and barriers.
Clean Vehicle Assistance (CVA) Program
We administer the CVA Program in partnership with Beneficial State Bank. The program provides grants and affordable financing to help income-qualified Californians purchase hybrid, electric, or plug-in hybrid vehicles, making clean vehicles more accessible and affordable.
Our bank
Founded in 2007 by Kat Taylor and Tom Steyer, Beneficial State Bank is a B Corp Certified community development bank with branches in California, Oregon, and Washington. One hundred percent of the economic rights of Beneficial State Bank are owned not by private shareholders, but by nonprofit organizations, including Beneficial State Foundation. As nonprofit shareholders, we reinvest all distributed bank profit back into communities to promote thriving people, a healthy economy and a prosperous planet. This ownership structure allows us to learn and develop new metrics and standards as Beneficial State Bank tests and implements equitable banking products and practices.
Learn more about the origins of Beneficial State Bank.
Looking for information on Beneficial State Bank’s local community events sponsorship program? Click here.
Our partners
Beneficial State Foundation works with a wide variety of organizations in our communities through memberships, coalitions, campaigns, and other partnerships.
