Strategic investments to strengthen communities

The Truist Foundation is setting course to strategically invest in historically excluded communities and address systemic inequities. The Foundation was formed in 2020 with a mission to inspire and build better lives and communities by giving everyone the equal opportunity to thrive. 

"Truist is a purpose-driven financial institution, and the Foundation aligns with that mission of inspiring and building better," says Lynette Bell, Truist Foundation president. "Our work goes beyond just distributing seed dollars into communities. We want to tackle and address systemic issues and inequities." 

Truist was formed after the merger of BB&T Corporation and SunTrust Banks. While the bank provides solutions for the everyday needs of consumers, small businesses, homeowners or future homeowners, the Foundation seeks to address more of the systemic barriers that exist today. "As we’re entering this space as Truist Foundation, we’re continuing to strengthen our giving by being intentional on our investment strategy," Bell says.

Before the Foundation was officially formed, Truist hosted listening sessions around the country, talking to nonprofit leaders, both large and small, urban and rural, about what types of investment would best address the inequities that exist in their communities. Using a data-driven approach, the Foundation has built a strategic framework based on two key areas: 

• Career Pathways to Economic Mobility: Investing in organizations, programs, and initiatives that help systemically disadvantaged workers navigate the employment journey.
• Strengthening Small Businesses: Opening more doors for racially and ethnically diverse and women-owned small businesses and entrepreneurs.

"Making sure that we focus on how to help communities that have been historically excluded gain access to capital, basic needs, and technical assistance was critical for us," Bell says. "For example, whether we were in an urban or rural area, there was a lot of conversation around the deep seeded challenges that stem from economic mobility and income inequality," Bells says. 

Truist Foundation is present in communities across their operational market, and the organization aims to provide concentrated investment to address the unique and differing needs of both urban and rural communities. 

Building for the Future

Launching during the pandemic underscored just how important it was that the Foundation embedded racial equity into its operational core. 

"Racial equity is becoming part of our DNA. It gets embedded into what we do every day as we make decisions on how we provide those concentrated investments," Bell says. "Black and indigenous people of color will be part of what we're defining as signature initiatives to address those systemic needs that exist in those populations." 

The pandemic also raised the importance of access to technology. The Foundation saw first-hand the need to support communities as nonprofits experienced a high demand on their resources and made the pivot to virtual, cloud-based solutions. 

"We know that transformational power comes with technology, and we can empower and support all individuals along their path to building that financial stability," Bell says. "Technology is critical because it helps progress the transformative work of nonprofits inside communities, and it builds a new pipeline of opportunities for individuals." 

Truist Foundation supports organizations with innovative, best-in-class solutions that are continually improving and growing in impact, Bell says. The Foundation is investing in technology by partnering with nonprofits that are making measurable differences in addressing challenges faced by underserved communities. It is through these strategic partnerships that the Foundation aims to fulfill its purpose to inspire and accomplish what is spelled out in the organization's mission and values statement.

NeighborWorks Compass®

The Truist Foundation is putting its strategy into action by supporting the development of NeighborWorks Compass, a state-of-the-art client management system. 

"We're proud to partner with NeighborWorks, an organization so closely aligned to our core mission and strategy," Bell says. "Investing in a community-led solution aimed at addressing those deep systemic inequities holding back individuals and communities across the country is critical, so funding NeighborWorks Compass was a way to achieve that financial empowerment and help drive the impact around opportunity and advancing stability."

NeighborWorks Compass is designed to support the counseling and education field. It's a completely new system – designed by counselors for counselors, and built on the Salesforce platform – that bears the administrative burden and supports counseling best practices and the unique milestones in the housing counseling process. 

NeighborWorks Compass will help housing counselors reengineer and streamline their support and delivery of services to their communities, while also advancing more equitable solutions and increasing accessibility which may have previously been restricted. Bell sees NeighborWorks Compass as a tool that is "future-forward" and is excited for features and enhancements that will continue to be added to the program.