New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
M&T Bank announces $25M philanthropic initiative
BRIDGEPORT — M&T Bank, which completed last month its $8.3 billion acquisition of Bridgeport-based People’s United Bank, announced Wednesday the launch of a $25 million philanthropic initiative to support lower-income communities and underrepresented groups — with most of the funds set to be disbursed to Connecticut-based organizations.
Buffalo, N.Y.-headquartered M&T’s new Amplify Fund will be deployed over three years, “using a racial equity and justice lens,” in Connecticut and other northeastern states where People’s United had operated. M&T officials said that the initiative reflected extensive community input since the company’s announcement in February 2021 that it would acquire People’s United.
“We need to make sure that when we’re using philanthropy to improve communities we’re doing it with a lens around equity,” Mike Keegan, M&T senior executive vice president and head of community banking, said in an interview. “This is our commitment to helping organizations that are doing critical and meaningful work.”
While M&T has committed to distributing a majority of the funds to Connecticutbased organizations, it did not provide numbers on how much funding will be deployed in the state. It said the amounts will be determined through a requestfor-proposals process.
In Connecticut, recipients will include those making “mission-driven investments” and “organizations and coalitions with projects that address environmental justice and equity initiatives.”
M&T said it will distribute $9 million to $11 million of the funds by the end of 2022, with the balance being disbursed in the remaining two years. The M&T Bank Charitable Foundation will support the initiative.
The bank expects to fund approximately 60 to 70 organizations in the initiative’s first phase, with individual grants totaling as much as $100,000 per year.
In addition to Connecticut, the Amplify Fund will also support organizations based in the other states that were in the People’s United footprint — Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.
M&T officials said that they will release in the coming weeks more information, including RFP-related instructions, for organizations interested in applying for grants, at https:// www3.mtb.com/amplifyfund.
Public engagement on the bank’s philanthropic plans has been crucial to the new program. M&T officials said they have had more than 1,000 interactions with elected officials and community development leaders across states where the bank operates since the announcement of the agreement to acquire People’s United. Most of the conversations have been with people in Connecticut, according to the company.
“We talked with everyone we could possibly talk to and had conversations about what was important,” Keegan said. “It was at the state level with the Bridgeport delegation, with the Bridgeport City Council and their leadership. It was walking the east side and east end (of Bridgeport) and getting to know what was going on in the community.”
Among the elected officials whom Keegan and other M&T executives have met is state Sen. Marilyn Moore, D-Bridgeport. She said she supports the Amplify Fund, but that she would like to see the bank additionally help local nonprofit organizations by allowing them to hold meetings in available rooms in its office tower in downtown Bridgeport and making some of its staff available to work with nonprofits.
“I want M&T to keep their promise that they’re going to be engaged in the community, and I’ll be watching,” Moore said in an interview.
Messages left this week for a spokesperson for Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim seeking comment from him on the Amplify Fund were not immediately returned.
The Amplify Fund will supplement other philanthropic initiatives at M&T. During each of the past four years, the company’s charitable giving has exceeded $30 million, including a total of about $34 million in 2021.
Many layoffs announced, but still large presence in Connecticut
As highlighted by the green-font M&T logo installed last month at the top of the 16-story tower at 850 Main St., the former People’s headquarters has become a regional headquarters of M&T.
M&T is aiming to reach a total of about 1,000 Bridgeport-based employees by the third quarter of 2023. Today, it employs about 2,000 people statewide.
“There are some amazing things we’ve observed in the Bridgeport community and the greater Connecticut community, with grassroots organizations doing powerful work that we’ve learned from,” said Keegan, who is based in Albany, N.Y., but works frequently in Bridgeport.
Despite M&T officials’ numerous statements about the bank’s commitment to Connecticut, some elements of the acquisition have proved contentious. A number of elected officials were incensed after M&T disclosed last July that it planned to lay off 747 Connecticut-based employees as a result of the transaction. A few days after the layoffs were announced, Ganim said that the city would pull $30 million worth of accounts it had with People’s United.
“We are taking our money because we don’t trust them and they have not shown themselves to be responsible,” Ganim said at the time. “We met with them when the merger was first announced, and they did not leave us with the impression that anything like this would happen. This is going to have a huge impact on our community, and it makes no sense.”
M&T officials said this week that the total number of layoffs “will be significantly lower than 747.”
In total, M&T employs about 22,000 people across its 12-state footprint, which stretches from Maine to Virginia. Its network includes more than 1,000 branches and 2,200 ATMs. At the end of 2021, it had assets of about $155 billion.