Non-Profits: Is Your Bank a Good Fit?

BY: Sam Huntington


Lake Ridge Bank has a long history of working with local philanthropic organizations, as well as contributing to the communities where our employees live and work. We’ve learned a few things in our 114 years partnering with community organizations, and we're always willing to share best practices with non-profits of all sizes and complexities. 

When choosing a bank, non-profit organizations need to consider many factors when determining the best financial relationship for their size and operational needs.

Culture

Determining the best cultural fit might take a little more research than simply looking for a convenient location, but it may be the most important factor in a successful banking relationship. Some questions to ask of a prospective bank include:

  • Can you tell me about the bank’s involvement in local communities?
  • What types of organizations do you support?
  • Do your leaders and owners live and work in the same communities you operate in?
  • Are your employees engaged in the local communities and local non-profit efforts?

At Lake Ridge Bank, we give back to our communities through a corporate giving plan targeted to benefiting local charities and non-profits that serve our communities. And not only do we encourage employees to volunteer their time to local charitable organizations, we pay them to take time off to do so.

Security 

We know that non-profits are often targets for fraudulent activity, and that even a minor security compromise could cause donors to question the safety of their charitable contributions. Any non-profit knows that loss of public trust can be difficult or impossible to recover from. Unfortunately, criminals know that many non-profits are lean operations and strive to maximize the impact of their donations by allocating a smaller budget for operational expenses such as an IT security team than a for-profit company. These fraudsters may try to take advantage of these efficiencies by means of cyber-attacks and targeted payment fraud attempts. Your bank needs to understand these constraints and provide fraud mitigation tools that offer layers of protection from risks such as check fraud and unauthorized electronic debits.  

Two types of anti-fraud tools we suggest all non-profits take advantage of are Positive Pay and ACH Filter. Both of these services use anomaly detection to determine when unrecognized checks and electronic withdrawals attempts are made. Our automated system notifies you of an exception item and gives you an opportunity to view the transaction before it is paid, allowing us to reject the payment attempt before it posts to your account. Our system has the capacity to learn who your trusted trading partners are and alert you when we don’t recognize the transaction or some elements are suspicious.

Account Accessibility

We work very hard to balance security with your need to reliably access your accounts and conduct business. Our goal is to authenticate authorized users quickly and securely, making the account login process both painless and secure. We work with our non-profit clients to set up specific levels of authorities for users and require multi-factor authentication requirements for users who have the ability to make payments and transfer funds out of the bank. Online banking can provide access to all your accounts and see incoming and outgoing payments in real-time to allow easy cash management and balance monitoring. We also provide electronic statements for no cost to all our business clients, allowing you to safely access your bank statements on our secure website the first business day of the month instead of waiting several days for the mail to arrive and risking theft. 

We also know that even though you don’t always have the time to run to the bank to make deposits, you still want to deposit donated funds deposited quickly and securely. We offer ways to deposit funds with use of a desktop scanner and also by using your phone wherever in the world you can connect to the internet. Timely deposits are a critical element of good management and having access to multiple deposit channels allows your organization to put these funds to work sooner.

Fair Pricing & Opportunity to Earn Revenue on Excess Funds

We understand that non-profits want to put as many dollars as possible to work furthering the mission of their organizations. As a community bank, we are focused on delivering value and providing ways to manage your accounts efficiently and securely, so we provide multiple ways to partially or totally offset account fees. We also have multiple options to help you generate revenue from donations. In addition to the security of bank savings accounts and money market funds, our wealth management area works with many non-profits to provide short-term and long-term investment opportunities to earn higher yields on reserve funds and endowments. 

Another lesson we have learned in our decades of partnering with non-profits is that every organization has its own unique needs, so we avoid makings assumptions before sitting down and listening to a client’s individual circumstances. I would love the opportunity to meet and hear more about your organization’s mission, needs, and plans for the future. Please reach out to me at (608) 826-3516 and let’s talk about how Lake Ridge Bank can be your non-profit’s financial partner.

Author:

Sam Huntington

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