“We made several efforts with food pantries and organizations that were helping local communities deal with the pandemic, whether that was through mental health services or health and human services,” Rod Washington, Frost Bank’s Dallas regional president, said. “We also made some donations to the arts. The arts were really affected and our focus was trying to help employees of arts organizations.”
The $2 million contribution was the most money Frost Bank had ever donated, even surpassing donations to nonprofits in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, according to a press release.
“In addition to those one-time efforts, we annually contribute to organizations throughout the communities in which we operate,” Washington told Dallas Express. “We like to be engaged whether we’re sitting on boards or agencies.”
Frost Bank was also an active participant in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that was established by the federal government last year through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
“We had more than 19,000 loans and $3.4 billion that helped small businesses, their employees and families,” Washington said.
During the second PPP round, which isn’t over yet, Frost has issued some $1.4 billion in the form of 12,000 loans.
“At one point in Dallas-Fort Worth, Frost was No. 1 as far as the number of dollars loaned through PPP 2, and that’s just tremendous given that we have 15 locations open in Dallas, and 23 in Fort Worth,” Washington said. ‘We’re not the largest by number of locations, but we are proud of the fact that our folks work really hard to get dollars to our customers.”
Other charitable efforts include Frost Financial Services, which is focused on raising awareness of and increasing financial literacy among Texans of all ages.
“We partner with groups that are serving different populations ranging from youth to seniors, or we have our own financial services representative that will go into the communities and teach financial literacy, which we think will help communities be healthier,” Washington said.
But even Frost Financial Youth Academy has been curtailed by the pandemic. Normally, juniors and seniors in high school would learn in the classroom how to operate a budget, invest and how to handle loans and credit cards, according to Washington.
“It was difficult during the pandemic because a lot of the schools were either doing remote learning or were too concerned about others from the outside coming into the schools,” he said. “So, we had to adjust and now we offer those services remotely.”
For entrepreneurs and small business owners, Frost sponsors a four-month series called Building Business.
“We bring small business owners and entrepreneurs together who may be starting up,” Washington said. “We try to help them learn more about banking services and how to operate their businesses. It’s a program we’ve done in each of our markets. We had about 15 from Dallas.”