Discover makes a variety of donations to nonprofit partners. Many of these are made at a corporate level, but we also take advantage of our position as a trusted banking partner to encourage charitable giving among our customers and employees. In addition, we provide funding to our operation centers, so they can volunteer and make contributions that benefit their local communities.
Here are just a few of the many organizations we support:
Beau Biden Foundation
In 2018-19, Discover launched a new partnership with the Beau Biden Foundation as a Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) initiative. We have committed $150,000 to the organization’s Shield of Protection designation, an initiative launched by the Beau Biden Foundation in 2017 to provide a holistic assessment of the child protection policies, procedures, programming, and resources offered by nonprofit organizations serving youth and schools. Our contribution will allow 50 of our youth-serving nonprofit partners to participate in the Shield of Protection assessment free of charge.
In 2018-19, we contributed $50,000 of our total commitment, and four of our nonprofit partners received their Shield of Protection designation.
Blood Bank of Delaware
In 2014, Discover contributed $250,000 to establish the Delaware Community Foundation (DCF) Social Impact Fund, in partnership with the DCF and Longwood Foundation. We have made additional contributions of $50,000 in 2017, $55,000 in 2018, and $44,000 in 2019 to keep the fund fully capitalized. These contributions are part of our CRA initiatives.
In 2018-19, the Social Impact Fund made a $450,000 pay-for-success investment to the Blood Bank of Delmarva. Pay-for-success investments provide a sustainable funding source to nonprofits based on the achievement of social impact goals. In this case, if the blood bank secures 500 units of blood from Millennial donors over three consecutive years, the Longwood Foundation will replenish the Social Impact Fund with an additional $450,000, plus a premium, that can be used for other social impact ventures.
Delaware Center for Homeless Veterans
In 2019, the Bank provided a $10,000 grant, another CRA initiative, to the Delaware Center for Homeless Veterans to close out a capital campaign for a mobile outreach center, an RV that will meet homeless veterans in community settings to provide services.
FIRST NATIONS Development Institute
Discover is supporting the First Nations culturally centered financial program to help Native Americans understand the basics of financial management, financial markets and financial instruments for borrowing and saving to create brighter financial futures for themselves and for their families.
The Nora Project
In 2018-19, we started supporting The Nora Project, an early-stage nonprofit organization that offers an elementary-school curriculum, pairing students with a peer with disabilities in classrooms to teach empathy, normalize difference and create meaningful connections among students. We provided $130,000 over the course of two years, funding the launch of the organization’s Community Friendship Events Program and its Annual Teacher Training Camp. Both initiatives have impacted dozens of local schools and neighborhoods, hundreds of parents and educators, and thousands of students across Chicagoland.
provided over the course of two years to support the Nora Project