Banking On Natural Capital

Whole Earth, Spring, 1998 by John Haines

I'm still envious of his nineteen-week pirogue trip down the Niger River, bamboo-poling his way to Timbuktu.

RELATED ARTICLE: Socially Responsible Banks

by Whole Earth staff, with help from Co-op America's Green Pages and the GreenMoney Journal

Most offer all the usual services: checking, savings, money market accounts, CDs, IRKs, and loans to individuals and businesses, along with the features noted.

Albina Community Bank

2002 NE Martin Luther King Blvd., Portland, OR 97217; 503/288-7286.

Mission is to accelerate the redevelopment of the community while ensuring that all groups, low-to-middle income, minorities, and women, have opportunities to share in the community's economic upturn. Microlending, affordable housing construction, and small commercial development. They hire people from the community--half the staff lives in the target area.

BankBoston

(First Community Bank) 100 Federal Street, Boston, MA 02110; 617/434-8267, fax 617/434-2631, gsnowden@bkb.com.

Finances wealth creation and economic development in low- and moderate-income, underserved, and emerging markets through creative partnerships, loans, investments, and retail banking services.

Bank of Newport

1000 SW Broadway, Suite 1100, Portland, OR 97205; 503/224-4245, fax 503/220-4226, www.westcoastbancorp.com.

Deposits in the program are used exclusively for loans and short-term investments in small business, affordable housing, and community development.

Blackfeet National Bank

PO Box 730, Browning, MT 59417; 406/338-7000.

This institution, 94 percent owned by the Blackfeet tribe, focuses on developing the reservation economy. Approximately 90 percent of loans made go to reservation residents.

Community Bank of the Bay

1750 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612; 510/271-8400, fax 510/433-5431.

Specializes in small business lending, loans for development of affordable housing, and loans to nonprofit organizations.

Community Capital Bank

111 Livingston Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201; 718/802-1212, fax 718/243-0312.

Full-service bank supporting community development in New York City.

Elk Horn Bank and Trust

601 Main Street, PO Box 248, Arkadelphia, AR 71923; 800/789-3428, 501/246-5811, fax 501/246-5284, stiffler@ehbt.com, www.ehbt.com.

The first rural community development bank focused on enterprise and job creation in distressed southern Arkansas communities. Open a socially responsible Community Deposits checking, savings, money market, CD, or IRA.

First Trade Union Bank

25 Drydock Avenue., Boston MA 02210. 617/482-4000.

The only bank in the country owned by union pension funds.

NCB Savings Bank

139 High Street, Hillsboro, OH 45233; 800/322-1251, fax 523/393-4064.

Helps cooperatives create housing, jobs, and important products.

Shorebank Pacific

PO Box 400, Ilwaco, WA 98624; 888/326-2265, fax 360/642-4078.

See article above.

South Shore Bank of Chicago

7054 S. Jeffrey Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60649; 800/669-7725, fax 322/753-5607, deposit@sbk.com.

National depositors and local borrowers rebuilding urban neighborhoods.

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