Our Communities
We as a company and our employees as individuals are dedicated to serving the communities we call home. Our investments in our communities reflect our commitment to making a positive difference in people’s lives. We want everyone to prosper and thrive, and we want to be part of helping them do it.
Financial Literacy
We want to help people develop the skills and knowledge to make positive financial choices. To that end, we have a blog on our website dedicated to financial education and literacy. Our employees also teach education classes in the community through programs like Junior Achievement™ and Lifestyles Unlimited®.
We are also a proud partner of Boss Club Foundation™. Boss Club Foundation's™ mission is simple: Inspire confidence and ignite creativity in students through the pursuit of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a cross-curricular learning vehicle to build up responsible leaders equipped with work ethic, people skills, and financial literacy and stewardship. Their curriculum and business kits provide students with practical hands-on projects which demonstrate the real-world value of what they are learning.
Community Development
We are pleased to provide information on how we are investing in the community under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which is designed to encourage banks to help rebuild and revitalize communities through sound lending and good business judgement that benefits the banks and the communities they serve. At the end of 2021, a total of 69 of these investments were outstanding, including school and municipal bonds, and small business investment company funds, totaling approximately $57 million.
In 2020, we also contributed CRA-qualified COVID relief donations to 23 different organizations totaling nearly $200,000 and originated almost 1,950 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, totaling nearly $210 million. In 2021, we originated nearly 1,340 PPP loans totaling nearly $100 million.
Volunteerism and Donations
We are an integral part of the communities we serve, and we strive to be excellent corporate citizens. We demonstrate our commitment to our communities by being active in them. In 2020 and 2021 we supported organizations like Toys for Tots, Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). In 2020, we provided nearly $320,000 to 278 organizations and 61 Guaranty employees reported nearly 1,500 hours of service to 105 different organizations. In 2021, we provided more than $307,000 to 277 organizations and 84 employees reported nearly 3,100 hours of service to 131 different organizations.
