Fidelity Bank Donated More than $400,000 in 2018 through its LifeDesign Community Dividend

Fidelity Bank donated more than $400,000 to more than 250 worthy organizations, events, and causes  in several Central Massachusetts communities including Worcester, Fitchburg, and Leominster in 2018 through its LifeDesign Community Dividend, which is money the bank sets aside for this purpose each year. On Blue Jean Fridays, employees donate five dollars to wear jeans to work, which Fidelity Bank matches. Fidelity Bank has given out nearly two million dollars since the program was renamed in 2013. Fidelity Bank is state chartered, mutually owned financial institution with assets of approximately $900 million.

“The LifeDesign Community Dividend is the best example of how we fulfil our LifeDesign promise of being a team of caring people, who take a caring approach, to provide caring solutions,” says Fidelity Bank Chairman & CEO Edward F. Manzi Jr. “We are proud to support the work local nonprofits and organizations do to help people in their communities.”

The largest beneficiary of the  2018 LifeDesign Community Dividend was the Worcester based nonprofit  the SHINE Initiative, which was founded in 2004 by Fidelity Bank with input from its employees to reduce the stigma of mental illness, end discrimination, and raising awareness and understanding about mental illness in children and young adults as a mainstream health issue. Other recipients of funds from the LifeDesign Community Dividend include United Way of North Central MA, March of Dimes, YWCA of Central MA, Greater Worcester Community Foundation, 15-40 Connection, NewVue Communities, Heywood Healthcare,  Horace Mann Educational Associates, Monty Tech Foundation and Center for Women and Enterprise.

In addition to the LifeDesign Community Dividend, in 2018, Fidelity Bank also gave a $10,000 grant to The Boys & Girls Club of Fitchburg and Leominster to support the Boys & Girls Club Gardner Clubhouse after school program as well as gifts ranging from $2,500 to $5,000 to four nonprofits based in Gardner and Winchendon In recognition of the completion of their merger with Colonial Co-Operative Bank, which had branches in those communities prior to the merger. Former Colonial Co-operative Bank President Joseph D. Guercio serves as President of the advisory board, which chose the nonprofits who were honored. “The charitable contributions allow us to dramatically increase our level of support for important local organizations,” says Guercio.  The organizations were  Alyssa’s Place: Peer Recovery and Resource Center  in Gardner , Montachusett Veterans Outreach Center in Gardner, The Gardner Community Action Committee , and The Wendell P. Clark Memorial YMCA in Winchendon.