Category: Community Banking
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3 Ways Foundations Can Maximize Their Impact with CNote
For foundations, every dollar matters. Whether it’s funding local initiatives, empowering underserved communities, or advancing crucial research, your capital needs to work as hard as your mission. But what if your foundation’s funds could do more than just sit in an account waiting to be spent? What if every dollar could earn returns while helping
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How Your Idle Cash Can Empower Your Local Community
Many institutions hold cash that isn’t actively generating value for their business or the greater economy. This idle cash often sits in low-yield accounts or accounts that don’t drive impact in the community, leaving opportunities to support your local economy untapped. But what if this idle cash could be put to work, not only benefiting
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The First Dollar: Why Pre-Development Lending Is the Unsung Hero of Affordable Housing
By Tamra Thetford When people think of affordable housing, they often picture the finished product: ribbon cuttings, newly housed families, and revitalized neighborhoods. But behind every successful project is an unsung hero—pre-development lending—the financial spark that makes it all possible. This initial phase—covering site acquisition, market studies, environmental assessments, architectural designs, and securing permits—represents just
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Investing for Returns and Real-World Outcomes
When most people think about investing, the first word that comes to mind is returns. And investing for returns makes sense. For decades, the core goal of investing has been to grow wealth, preserve capital, and generate income. But increasingly, individual investors are beginning to ask a new question: What is my money doing while
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How Community Banks Are Challenging Traditional Banks on Yield — And Why It Matters
When it comes to managing institutional cash, yield matters — but so does impact. Today’s treasury and finance leaders are increasingly seeking both competitive returns and opportunities to align their deposits with community impact. CNote’s latest Impact Cash® Money Market Rate Card demonstrates that community banks and mission-driven depository institutions are not only competitive but
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The Hidden Cost of Disaster Relief: How Disasters Strain Local Economies
When disaster strikes—be it a hurricane, flood, wildfire, or tornado—the physical damage is obvious: homes reduced to rubble, businesses shuttered, and entire communities uprooted. But beyond the wreckage lies an often-overlooked reality: the lasting financial toll on local economies, especially in underserved or rural areas. Disaster relief isn’t just about rebuilding—it’s about economic resilience, and
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From Idle to Impactful: How Foundations Can Put Their Cash to Work for Good
Across the United States, foundations play a pivotal role in addressing society’s most pressing challenges. Yet, while their grantmaking programs drive meaningful change, a powerful opportunity often sits unnoticed on the sidelines: idle cash reserves. These funds, typically held in low-yield money market accounts or traditional banks, are crucial for liquidity and operational needs—but they
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Are Corporations Leaving Money on the Table by Overlooking Community Banks?
In today’s economic climate, uncertainty is a given. Interest rates are fluctuating, markets are shifting, and corporate finance teams are being asked to do more with less—while still preserving capital, ensuring liquidity, and managing risk. In times like these, the way companies manage their cash matters more than ever. Many corporations are reevaluating their treasury
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Why Geography Matters: Rethinking Where You Bank
When most people think about where to keep their money, they focus on interest rates, digital convenience, or brand familiarity. Rarely do we consider geography — the physical location of a bank or credit union — as an important factor in that decision. But geography plays a surprisingly powerful role in how your money is
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florrent and CNote: A Mission-Driven Partnership for Impactful Treasury Management
florrent is a minority-led, Massachusetts-based startup pioneering high-performance energy storage solutions. Their next-generation supercapacitors provide a cost-effective and sustainable alternative to traditional power quality and reliability technologies, ensuring firm power at every level of the grid. More than an energy innovator, florrent is committed to reshaping the clean energy economy to benefit all communities, building