Business Ethics is proud to salute three outstanding companies,
for demonstrating leadership in ethics and social responsibility.

By: Skip Kaltenheuser

Sponsored By Sears

Even the website for Wainwright Bank & Trust Company (www.wainwrightbank.com) is infused with its sense of mission--telling of how this bank is "committed to all its stakeholders," with a "sense of inclusion and diversity that extends from the boardroom to the mailroom." What's impressive is that it's true. This $300 million Boston commercial bank, founded in 1987 by current co-chairs Robert Glassman and John Plukas, has one of the most progressive social agendas of any bank in the nation.

It is a national leader in financing shelters for the homeless, for example. And community development loans comprise an impressive one-fifth of its loan portfolio. Wainwright supplies over 60 percent of the financing for housing for persons with HIV/AIDS, even though it does less than 1 percent of the overall loan activity in Greater Boston.

Social agendas of many hues find welcome at Wainwright. Environmentalists will note that the bank is a signatory to the demanding CERES Principles (Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies). Feminists can point with pride to the fact Wainwright is the largest signatory to the Women-Friendly Workplace Pledge created by the National Organization for Women. And socially responsible investors can note that Wainwright recently made a major investment in Franklin Research & Development Corporation, the largest independent firm of its kind concentrating solely on SRI.

Since 1993, when lesbian Brenda Cole joined the bank's board of directors, the bank has deliberately tried to welcome gays and lesbians as employees and customers. For example, the bank tries to make gay couples comfortable opening joint accounts or doing estate or retirement planning together. And Wainwright attributes a fourfold increase in deposits--from $30 million to $120 million--between 1992 and 1995 in part to this outreach. Internally, the bank makes gays and lesbians welcome with the domestic-partner benefits it has offered since 1994. Indeed, the bank lobbied for the entire Massachusetts Bankers Association to be able to offer the same benefits to its 160 member banks--and succeeded.

The bank's commitment to diversity is across the board, with staff at all levels reflecting the community and customer base. Half of the banking officers are women, and fifty percent of the board of directors are women, minorities, gays and lesbians. The staff is cumulatively fluent in 17 languages. For co-founder Glassman, the importance of diversity settled in long before, when he was platoon leader in Vietnam, commanding as diverse a group of soldiers as America could offer.

The impact such diversity can achieve is evident in terms of the widely varied nonprofit groups that receive loans from the bank. For example, the Committee to End Elder Homelessness, founded by three retired nurses, received a $3.4 million loan that led to 40 units of housing. "These loans can be time consuming, sometimes taking years of meetings with grassroots groups, government agencies and inexperienced boards," said Steve Young, a bank vice president. But the attention pays off. "Our community development loans are by far the best-performing segment of our total loan portfolio," he emphasizes, "with less than a 1 percent default rate over the last six years." With that track record, Wainwright's involvement in a lead position can entice involvement by other financial institutions.

That Wainwright Bank is guided by a commitment to social justice is clear in everything the bank does. As Glassman summed up his philosophy: "I believe it is important to use the platform the Bank affords me to inform, educate and introduce different constituencies to issues of social justice. This work, alongside the culture of diversity we've developed at the Bank, is the most important legacy I contemplate leaving my children.

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