Minnesota council of nonprofits partners with Bremer

Northwestern Financial Review, Jul 15, 2001

[chronicle]

The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits has partnered with St. Paul, Minn.-- based Bremer Financial Corp.

"Brewer has been working with nonprofits from the beginning," said Stephanie Ihbe, vice president/manager of civic banking. "The council had a list of organizations they deemed `strategic partners.' I got to wondering why Brewer couldn't be a strategic partner."

The $4.8 billion bank is offering the MCN's 1,000 nonprofit members standard banking services at reduced costs and interest rates. "We're giving them additional 10 to 30 basis points over our normal rates on things like money market, checking and savings accounts," said Ihbe.

The collaboration also features an agreement Brewer facilitated between its merchant credit card processor, Elan, and the MCN. The deal reduces the cost of processing increasingly popular credit card donations. "Elan bases the fees they charge for processing on the volume of transactions. Organizations are assigned a level - numbered one through six - six representing the most transactions and the cheapest rate," explained Ihbe. "We've pooled the MCN members together and used our leverage with Elan to put together a package that allows council members to start working with Elan at a level four, which still gives a tremendously favorable rate. Alone, none of these organizations would ever be able to approach that level and the subsequent savings."

Ihbe said Brewer has taken the agreement even further by extending savings not only to the organizations, but to the employees of nonprofits as well. The list of benefits includes free checking and bank cards, savings options with no minimum balance, no annual fee for loans, special deals on certificates of deposits, discounted rates on ready reserve accounts, no closing costs on home equity loans, free estate planning, free insurance evaluation and free financial planning.

"Brewer's heritage and unique ownership structure combined with our ability to deliver solutions to help clients reach their financial goals aligns with MCN's mission to provide information and services to help nonprofits carry out their missions," said Stan Dardis, president and CEO of Brewer.

The Otto Brewer Foundation owns 92 percent of Brewer Financial. The corporation's employees own the remaining 8 percent. "For every dollar we make," said Ihbe, "92 cents goes to the foundation, which gives money back to the communities we serve through a grant process." Brewer, with 110 locations throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota, doled out $18.2 million in foundation grant money last year alone.