The “Let’s Give Arizona a Hand Up Award” will be presented at the upcoming Champions of Change Awards through a partnership between AZ Big Media and Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona. Finalists for the award were determined based on how their company’s corporate giving and community volunteer activities are building a brighter future for Arizona nonprofits and making a direct and quantifiable impact on our communities. The Champions of Change Awards will be held Thursday, May 16, 2024. Each day leading up to the event, we will preview one finalist for the Let’s Give Arizona a Hand Up Award. Today, learn about FirstBank.
Sponsors of the Champions of Change Awards include BOK Financial (impact sponsor), Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona (spotlight sponsor), Stearns Bank (step-and-repeat sponsor), Maricopa Corporate College at Maricopa Community Colleges (photo booth sponsor), Lerner & Rowe Gives Back (name tag sponsor), REDW Advisors and CPAs (floral sponsor) and Center for the Future of Arizona (dessert sponsor).
To learn more about the Champions of Change Awards, click here.
FirstBank
FirstBank, one of the nation’s largest privately held banks with a focus on “banking for good,” began providing banking services in 1963. FirstBank’s emphasis on doing what’s right for customers, communities, and employees, or what it refers to as “banking for good,” has helped the bank reach record growth while making a substantial impact on the communities it serves. Since 2000, FirstBank has been recognized as a leader in corporate philanthropy, contributing over $85 million and thousands of volunteer hours to local nonprofits.
Over the past few decades, FirstBank has embraced philanthropy as a fundamental aspect of its business philosophy. The bank firmly believes in investing in local communities, nonprofits and small businesses. Here’s how FirstBank has made a positive impact throughout the Arizona community:
Arizona Gives Day: FirstBank helped launch Arizona Gives Day, an online giving initiative. Serving as the presenting sponsor from 2013 to 2023, FirstBank raised awareness for the event and actively engaged the community in driving donations to nonprofits across the state. To promote the event and drum up donations, FirstBank employees posed as grocery store baggers, gas station attendants, vet technicians, and more to surprise community members with a free tab, encouraging them to ‘give it forward’ to their favorite AZ Gives Day nonprofit. In 2023, the bank covered $12,000 in fuel costs for unsuspecting commuters across three gas stations. In the end, FirstBank helped Arizona Gives Day raise over $5 million for 876 local nonprofits last April and raised over $42 million for Arizona nonprofits since its inception.
Environmental Sustainability: FirstBank launched its Go Green campaign in 2023, which enabled customers to select an environmental cause of choice that FirstBank would donate to for each checking account opened. Customers also received Recycled Ocean Bound Plastic Visa cards, which sourced plastics from the sea. Thanks to its cause campaign, FirstBank saw a nearly 20% increase year- over-year in new account openings and contributed $60,000 to support three planet-saving causes, including reforestation, honey bee health, and water conservation. In 2021 and 2022, the bank also partnered with global reforestation nonprofit, One Tree Planted, to plant 100,000 trees across the Southwest — with the biggest reforestation effort occurring in Arizona.
Minority-Owned Business Grants: In collaboration with the Phoenix Suns, FirstBank helped launch the Empowerment Awards, a season-long program designed to strengthen marginalized communities through economic empowerment grants. Throughout the 2022-2023
season, FirstBank awarded $5,000 grants each to women, Black/African American, Native American, Asian Pacific Islander, and Hispanic small business owners. Since partnering with the Phoenix Suns and Mercury in 2019, FirstBank has contributed over $130,000 to the local community through donations to nonprofit organizations and small business grants.
