Sunflower Bank, N.A. Announces 2022 Community Impact Year in Review

We are pleased to celebrate the efforts of our employees and Community Affairs Office in 2022 and their work to create meaningful and beneficial community impact. Within the first year of its establishment, the Community Affairs Office and its four community development officers enabled Sunflower Bank, N.A. to achieve improvements in community volunteerism and community development across all lines of business and geographies in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington. 

“Community engagement activities completed in 2022 by Sunflower Bank, First National 1870 and Guardian Mortgage resulted in significant achievements in employee volunteerism, Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)-related programs, community lending and investments, charitable giving, community partnerships and empowering bank products,” stated Danny Spears, senior vice president and CRA director at Sunflower Bank.

Highlights of our 2022 community achievements include:

Employees of Sunflower Bank, N.A. volunteered over 8,500 hours in their communities of which nearly 4,000 hours benefitted low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities. Of those hours volunteered by employees, over 2,000 hours were committed to board service, financial literacy opportunities, technical assistance to organizations servicing LMI communities, and other CRA-qualified service hours.

Sunflower Bank, N.A. held 15 community listening sessions in five states across fourteen markets with 110 organizations participating. Some key accomplishments resulting from those meetings were:

• A partnership and $525,0000 investment with On the Road Lending, a nonprofit auto lender in Texas that provides character-based affordable loans for reliable cars.

• The establishment of a Laundry Love in Barton County, KS. This program works with local laundromats to wash clothes and bedding for LMI persons and completed 606 loads of laundry for 102 area families.

• Joining with Communities in Schools of New Mexico (CIS) as a Community Partner to provide coordinated, financial literacy courses to students within the CIS network.

In 2022, over $121 million in Sunflower Bank, N.A. community development lending resulted in expanded partnerships with organizations such as LISC Strategic Investments - Dallas Housing Opportunity Fund, National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority, and Native Community Capital.

Sunflower Bank, N.A. directs charitable giving to organizations that make a positive impact in the local communities it serves. More than $200,000 in donations were delivered in 2022 to recipients including Southern Dallas Progress CDC (TX), Southwest Human Development Foundation (AZ), Artists Helping the Homeless (KS), Reading Quest (NM), and Hope Communities (CO).

In 2023, we plan to continue enhancing these efforts of investing, lending, and community service in all the communities we serve.