Maybe it's time to consider voting with your bank account

My bank account, you say? Yep, you read that right.

By Bridget Newsham.

Bridget is an editor and writer based out of Chicago. She writes primarily about local politics, housing, and urban development but is always excited to take on new and interesting subjects. Her work has been featured in Chicago Magazine, VICE, and South Side Weekly.

Regardless of what side of the political aisle you are on these days, I think we can all agree things feel a little out of our control. Times are tough out there. We know you’ve been busy canvasing, having tough political conversations with family at the dinner table, and taking other important steps to impact change in our world—that’s awesome! But I am here today to make sure you take one quick step (it’ll take less than 10 minutes) to ensure you make the biggest impact with the least amount of effort: changing your bank account.

My bank account you say? Yep, you read that right. Although the other civic actions you’ve been taking are critical to making change, let’s be honest here: money makes the world go round, and banks are funding a whole array of causes that you might not agree with. You wouldn’t want the other hard work you’re doing to be wasted because your money in your bank is being used to undermine the very issues you’re fighting for, would you?

This idea isn’t new. The very first woman in the U.S. to charter a bank — Maggie Walker — a Black woman — was a school teacher and organizer who in 1903 saw that she and her neighbors could pool their cash and together invest in the interests of the community. So they started a bank. Around the same time, Black individuals developed more than 50 Black Townships in Oklahoma, realizing that the Black community pooling its resources could create vibrant economic centers, one of which became known as Black Wall Street, with its own Black-led bank. (The power of this economic coordination led to White supremacists tragically burning Black Wall Street to the ground.) Martin Luther King called for bank ins as a peaceful yet effective protest in the era of the Civil Rights Movement. In recent history, money has been moving to Black-led banks in waves in response to Black Lives Matter protests hitting a new fever pitch nationwide, and globally. Tribal Communities, protesting the destruction of their land by proposed pipelines being built through their communities, inspired cities and individuals to divest from banks funding pipelines through Tribal Communities without the community’s consent. There are hardly any women-owned banks across the country, so a group of Chicago women is starting up the First Women’s Bank. Green America and other organizations have been advocating bank local for decades. In the age of the pandemic, small businesses have turned to small business-focused banks for PPP loans, and have stayed as customers. Mighty seeks to bridge community-centric banking moments and movements throughout history by making it easy for everyone to access trusted information about what banks do with the money we all deposit. With this level of transparency, never before has it been easier to choose banks that use your money to finance your values.

The cool thing about all of this is that if you’ve got a few dollars in a bank, you can vote with that money by choosing a bank with intention, and bank without sacrificing anything. As a matter of fact, there are community-investing banks across the country, and with these banks, there’s a good chance you’ll get a better rate and lower fees.

Chicago native, tech entrepreneur and former banker Daniel Ramirez-Raftree recently moved to New York but decided to keep a portion of his money in a local Chicago bank because he knew his money would be used for good. “If you’re a civic-minded person concerned about social impact,” Ramirez-Rafttree said, “I can tell you you’re much more likely to agree with what community banks are doing with your money than what almost any other bank is doing with it.”

Eliot Abrams is a University of Chicago alumni who worked with fellow classmates to transfer one-million dollars of the University’s money to four community-focused banks. “Through some research, we realized the university had a ton of cash on hand at all times,” said Abrams. “So we thought there was no reason not to keep this money in a community-focused bank.” And the university agreed. The only restriction was that the money needed to be insured by the FDIC, but good news! The majority of banks in the country are FDIC-insured. Your deposits in all FDIC-insured banks are equally safe up to at least $250,000. And many banks offer multimillion-dollar deposit insurance.

The beauty of choosing among community-focused banks is that each is a little bit different. Some invest in Black-owned businesses, some invest in rural communities, others have a strong interest in the environment. Some do all of the above. Many have an explicit purpose beyond growing richer.

Embedded in communities, community-focused banks create flexible loan options, provide higher interest rates, and many being small businesses themselves, are well-suited to work with other small businesses. Though they may not have thousands of branches nationwide, most have online banking or mobile apps, and local market expertise. Abrams summarizes: “community-focused banks tend to have more flexibility in terms of what they can offer.”

By now you must be asking yourself, huh—maybe it’s time to consider voting with my bank account.