Bank of America and CitizensNYC: A Partnership Decades in the Making

by Jae Kim

A Bank of America volunteer introducing a chicken to children.

Citizens Committee for New York City (CitizensNYC), one of nation’s oldest micro-funding organizations with a history of supporting civic leaders, is celebrating its long and valued partnership with Bank of America.  For decades, Bank of America has supported CitizensNYC by providing resources to New Yorkers with dynamic ideas that are blooming across all five boroughs, and by serving as volunteers at every level of the organization.

Since 2002, top executives at Bank of America have volunteered their time and services as board members at CitizensNYC, including, Rena De Sisto, Global Arts & Culture Executive, Jeffrey Barker, New York State President, and Paulomi Shah, former Head of Operational Risk, Global Banking and Markets.

Another valuable employee of Bank of America is Anne Finucane, Vice Chairman, who in 2004, was personally invited by CitizensNYC’s founder, Osborn Elliott, to receive the Brook Astor Award at the New Yorker for New York Gala for her work in philanthropy especially in building the bank’s philanthropic, arts, and cultural media presence.

“Our longstanding collaboration with Bank of America has allowed our grantee partners to be trailblazers in neighborhood-based organizing,” said CitizensNYC’s CEO, Dr. Rahsaan Harris, “We couldn’t be more grateful for a true partnership, especially as we work to rebuild our city in the aftermath of the pandemic.”

Throughout the partnership, Bank of America employees have provided invaluable assistance to many grantee partners. At Mosaic Preparatory Academy (P.S. 375) in Harlem, whose mission is to help families transition to the United States by providing parents with counseling services, learning groups, and book clubs, volunteers worked on three murals and applied layers of protective gloss to keep them safe. They also cleaned out closets to be used as holiday food pantries and organized library books to prepare for a fundraising sale.

At another school, P.S. 363, Bank of America volunteers were able to help with the school’s Earth Day sustainability fair, which taught children about nature and the environment.  Volunteers helped kids plant seeds in cups to learn about growing plants, introduced students to composting through a video, and even helped children pet a live chicken.

At Green Oasis Community Garden, a community garden in the East Village, volunteers leveled out, re-tiled an area of the garden path leading to the gazebo and dug out, and spread grass seed in another section of the garden.  With a twofold mission to support artists and art in all forms, and to provide children with a safe space to play, the garden is has become such a stable in the community that children who visited the garden in its early days now bring their own children to experience what the garden has to offer.

Children and volunteers planting seedlings.

From volunteers to leaders, employees at Bank of America prove to be inspirational and committed to support New York City. CitizensNYC is proud to have a rewarding and fruitful partnership with Bank of America, not just for itself, but for all New Yorkers.