Commitment to inclusion

Nearly 30% of the bank’s mortgages in 2020 went to first-time homebuyers. For those already in their homes and in lowmoderate income communities, the bank offers MyCommunity, a home equity product specifically designed to revitalize LMI neighborhoods.

To power the underrepresented business ecosystem, Berkshire Bank’s Reevx Labs provides opportunities for nonprofits, small businesses, and entrepreneurs to access technical assistance, professional development, financial education,, and pop-up retail space to test their concepts. Matched with the bank’s innovative Friends & Family Loan, a CD-backed community-underwritten loan, entrepreneurs can access financing.

Berkshire, which has assets of $1.5 billion, witnessed the outsized impact it was having on underrepresented groups who were having difficulty accessing government programs. It deployed its capital through an innovative loan program called The Futures Fund in collaboration with the Black Economic Council and MA LGBTQ Chamber to provide more than $1 million in funding to businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A number of human and financial resources have gone into the development, implementation, and success of the bank’s economic inclusion programs. It includes nearly $1 million in direct philanthropic support to programs with nonprofit organizations that help power financial wellness along with nearly 2,000 hours of volunteer service in which employees provided financial coaching to individuals and businesses. The bank allocated more than $3 million to support loan programs aimed at helping underrepresented small businesses through The Futures Fund and raised $3 million in CDbacked investments to power the Friends & Family Fund loan program, which provides seed capital to small businesses run by marginalized and underrepresented populations.

The two Reevx Labs spaces have full-time community coordinators who manage programming in the spaces as well as two “Relationship Managers'' who help consumers with financial planning and access to a suite of socially responsible products and services. A fulltime community programs officer helps manage consumer programs. These full-time resources complement front-line bankers who all play a part in delivering programming, products, and services. Partners across business lines were involved in the development of the products and services offered through the economic inclusion program.

If businesses run into challenges as a result of uncertainties in the environment, the bank offers The Futures Fund, a very low-interest line of credit, accessible to people with lower credit scores and even prior criminal histories, to help get them through and build back stronger.

Veterans, when you’re struggling, soon becomes later becomes someday becomes ...when?

Don’t wait. Reach out .

Whatever you’re going through, you don’t have to do it alone.

Find resources at VA.GOV / REACH