Since our founding in 1889, Northern Trust has actively advanced a culture of caring and a commitment to invest responsibly in the communities we serve worldwide.
We invest in our communities through progressive community investments, contributions to service and community organizations, employee volunteerism, gifts in-kind, supplies and other knowledge services and directorship guidance to charitable and civic boards. Our approach to supporting our communities considers the impact on our clients, shareholders and employees, and we execute each activity with these priorities in mind.
Part of our brand strength relies on community sponsorships and alignment with highly respected, nonprofit institutions.
Charitable grants, event sponsorships, charitable and civic board representation and employee volunteerism are integral to our marketing strategy and serve to help raise brand awareness and brand equity in our target markets around the world.
In 2020, we introduced a new, highly focused philanthropic strategy that concentrates our volunteerism and contributions on four key areas of fundamental impact: educational excellence, food security, accessible healthcare and affordable housing. We have committed $20 million over the next five years to extending access around the globe to these essential human needs.
Through our efforts, we will create more equitable opportunities to achieve long-term financial success for those who face unfair hurdles because of their race, ethnicity, gender, geography or socio-economic conditions. Programs we support are now providing shelter for children in India and ensuring health services for vulnerable populations in London. In Chicago, through the new Northern Trust Foundation, we are expanding access to resources that address the needs of young people on Chicago’s South and West Sides.
In 2020, Northern Trust made charitable contributions of $16 million, over 1% of our pre-tax net income. Throughout the past 10 years, we have given nearly $160 million to charities globally.
We have committed $20 million globally over the next five years to expanding access to resources that address essential human needs.
Community engagement opportunities and paid time off for volunteerism enhance our communities and provide a competitive advantage in employee recruiting and satisfaction. Options for employee volunteerism are consistently a priority for college graduates considering future employers. Nonprofit and civic board involvement is integral to talent management, as it provides employees with leadership experience, skills development and networking opportunities beyond the scope of their responsibilities.
In 2020, Northern Trust launched iVolunteer, a new global engagement platform that helps employees identify, engage and develop relationships with local charities. During this past year of virtual work, a crucial component of this platform was our Virtual Volunteer Hub, which enabled employees to find and participate in virtual volunteering activities. This platform helped enable employee participation through our volunteer campaign, Achieving Greater Together. During the 2020 Achieving Greater Together campaign, our employees contributed more than 5,500 hours of service, supporting more than 180 global charities. To further encourage employee involvement in their local communities, we offer all employees two full days of paid time off to volunteer with approved nonprofit organizations. Over the past 10 years, our employees have contributed nearly 1 million cumulative hours of volunteer service. Despite the challenges brought about by COVID-19 restrictions, our Achieving Greater Together campaign enabled employees to participate in activities such as virtual mentoring to underserved youth and writing letters to frontline healthcare workers, seniors in retirement homes and sick children.
The Neighborhood Entrepreneurship Lab invests capital, shares networks and offers expertise to budding entrepreneurs in neighborhoods throughout Chicago. Established through a partnership between Accion and the Chicago Community Trust, the program pairs promising local entrepreneurs with investors, advisors and project associates. Northern Trust employees have served as a project associates since the program’s launch in 2018. This year, 10 Northern Trust employees served as advisors to entrepreneurs, conducting nine months of regular coaching and hosting specialty workshops reflecting their business areas of expertise. Through their ongoing, in-depth guidance, our employees have helped the entrepreneurs increase revenue, improve profit margins and expand their number of employees.
To support those communities most impacted by COVID-19, we committed $3 million in philanthropic support to nonprofit organizations around the world, including those that provide healthcare, food and other humanitarian relief. These included the Global FoodBanking Network, the United Nations Solidarity Response Fund of the World Health Organization, the United Way Worldwide, Doctors Without Borders, Feeding America and Meals on Wheels.
Through this London-based opportunity, more than 30 employee mentors were paired with business school students from diverse backgrounds, many of whom are the first in their families to attend institutions of higher education. Our employees helped to build students’ professional confidence, develop employability skills and prepare for a successful transition to graduate-level employment. Since 2011, more than 300 employees have participated. Some mentees have joined our internship program, obtained full-time positions with us, and even become mentors themselves.
In our Dublin and Limerick offices, a group of about 20 employees meet virtually to provide support to A Little Lifetime Foundation. Founded in 1983, the organization promotes healthy grieving for families who have experienced the loss of a baby at any stage of pregnancy or after birth.
Through a wide-reaching donation drive in our Manila office, employees supported families and individuals impacted by Typhoon Vamco, a deadly Category 4-equivalent storm that struck the Philippines and Vietnam.
Northern Trust donated funds to the Australian Red Cross in response to the thousands of devastating bushfires that burned more than 46 million acres, destroyed at least 3,500 homes and killed 34 people between September 2019 and March 2020.
Northern Trust is dedicated to building stronger communities by investing financial resources in the neighborhoods in which we do business.
We believe true community revitalization starts at the neighborhood level through the empowerment of community stakeholders and residents. The Northern Trust Company’s Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) designation as a “wholesale bank” allows us to concentrate efforts and resources on direct investments that have a sustainable community impact. The Corporate Governance Committee of the Board of Directors receives an annual CRA and fair lending report and approves our policy related to community reinvestment. We have maintained an outstanding CRA rating for 26 consecutive years. In 2020, we originated new Community Investments totaling over $1 billion. As of December 31, 2020, our combined community investments portfolio exceeded $3 billion and consisted of:
OBJECTIVE: Support the creation and retention of affordable rental housing and affordable homeownership in partnership with mission-driven lenders and developers.
Ability Housing produces supportive housing opportunities for adults with disabilities as well as individuals and families at risk for homelessness. Ability Housing is nationally recognized for the quality of its housing developments and its excellence in property management and supportive services. The returns from Northern Trust’s investment helped fund pre-development and acquisition expenses, allowing Ability Housing to act swiftly on new opportunities.
OBJECTIVE: Provide long-term capital and equity for the development of community and education facilities and programs such as charter schools, health clinics and day care centers.
The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless creates lasting solutions to homelessness by providing integrated housing, health care, and vocational and supportive services to homeless individuals. Northern Trust’s investment supported the Coalition’s development of the Recuperative Care Center and the Renaissance Legacy Lofts. Serving 500 individuals annually, the Recuperative Care Center provides primary care through physicians and nurse practitioners, nursing care, pharmaceuticals, behavioral health care and on-site case management. It also assists clients in their transition to longer-term housing, which may be located in the 98-unit Renaissance Legacy Lofts. Housing and services are seamlessly coordinated across multiple services systems, helping residents to maximize their self-sufficiency by addressing their underlying illnesses and causes of their homelessness while increasing life skills.
Serving 500 individuals annually, the Recuperative Care Center provides primary care through physicians and nurse practitioners, nursing care, pharmaceuticals, behavioral health care and on-site case management
OBJECTIVE: Support mission-driven micro-loan origination programs and the expansion of businesses and job creation through private equity funds.
According to the Urban Institute, outside of some core downtown areas, up to 30 percent of downtown Detroit remains vacant, more than a third of residents live in poverty, and job growth is stagnant or declining. In response to these inequities, key stakeholders partnered to create the Strategic Neighborhood Fund (SNF), which directs private investment toward community-driven projects in 10 high-impact neighborhoods outside the downtown core. Through our equity investment in the Live6 Fund, Northern Trust provides capital to SNF borrowers whose real estate projects in severely distressed areas of Detroit support commercial density and bring quality jobs to communities. The Fund extends the SNF’s available resources and helps cushion borrowers from the economic risks associated with launching ambitious projects in emerging neighborhoods.
To provide economic relief to small businesses that were adversely impacted by the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act established the PPP loan program. Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) small business lenders, which serve economically disadvantaged communities often not well-served by traditional lenders, needed capital to meet the needs of small business borrowers. Northern Trust acted quickly, providing over $100 million in low-cost investments and enabling multiple CDFI small business lenders to provide PPP loans to their borrowers.
OBJECTIVE: Invest in CDFIs and community credit unions that provide capital to meet the needs of the unbanked, underbanked and underserved members of our communities.
By offering depository and loan products in low-income communities, federally designated credit unions combat predatory lending, including high-cost payday loans. Northern Trust supports this mission through our investment in several community federal credit unions.
