Ranking: 29
Industry: Banking
Mission: A socially responsible community bank that solves social and environmental problems and sparks community development. They provide financial solutions that help their community thrive, helping community partners realize success through sustainable innovation. Operating from 8 branches to serve the greater Twin Cities community, and offer further services to customers nationwide.
What 3 words best describe your company culture?
Entrepreneurial. Mission-focused. Innovative.
What quote best exemplifies your company?
“Our success relies on the success of the communities we serve” — David Reiling, CEO of Sunrise Banks
How is your product or service having a positive social and/or environmental impact?
Sunrise Banks is empowering financial wellness through accessible and affordable financial products that help low-to-moderate income consumers build credit and escape predatory debt cycles.
As a Community Development Financial Institution, Sunrise Banks makes 60% of its loans in low-income census tracts; in addition, the bank has expanded its mission nationally and globally through its fintech (financial technology) partnerships division. Sunrise partners with like-minded fintechs that help consumers obtain financial wellness through streamlined user experiences and convenient access to financial products.
Examples of Sunrise Banks’ impact include:
- A partnership with Aeon, the Minneapolis Foundation, the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, and the Frey Foundation that created a Community Development Corporation (CDC) fund to retain approximately 600 units of affordable housing in the Twin Cities.
- Successfully using five prior rounds of New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) allocations — a total of $243 million — to finance projects in impoverished urban communities.
- Helping more than 95,000 individuals build their credit through our partnership with Self, a fintech focused on building consumers’ credit history.
- Committing to monitoring the greenhouse gas emissions created by our loan investments over a period of three years as a member of the Climate Change Commitment through the Global Alliance for Banking on Values.
- Donating a minimum of 2% net income to charitable organizations every year as part of the banks’ continued support of local nonprofits.
At its core, Sunrise Banks is a mission-driven institution that looks to effect positive change in underserved communities.
What is your company’s vision for the future?
Sunrise will continue working to provide financial products that are accessible and affordable for all. We hope to be able to create just as much — if not more — positive change in the next ten years as we have over the last decade.
In particular, we’ve set a goal of changing 250 million lives by 2028. How do we do this? Through continued innovation that emphasizes equality and financial empowerment. By our count, we’ve currently impacted around 40 million lives.
We define changing someone’s life as creating a positive outcome for them. This could be through an Individual Tax Identification Number mortgage loan for a recent immigrant to the United States; it could be providing a Paycheck Protection Program loan to a struggling small business; or it could be packing a lunch to be served to the homeless. Our goal of changing 250 million lives is a lofty one, but we’re confident we can follow through on it. And we look forward to doing so.
Sunrise will also continue to leverage responsible technology to better serve our clients. Every industry, including banking, is shifting to a digital-first landscape and we will continue to create fintech partnerships in order to keep up with technological trends and provide the best service possible locally and across the globe.
