Charity Case: How TD Bank Gets Local Do-Good Organizations to ‘Sell’ Its Products

For TD Bank, a higher calling means greater deposits.

That appears to be the case with its affinity program, which has local organizations of seemingly every strip selling TD Bank’s services to its constituencies in exchange for charitable donations.

The program, certainly timely with the holiday’s coming up, is a prime example of how you can do better by doing good.

Yesterday, I got an email from my old friend Alan Brown. Alan is an amazing story: a wonderful guy, Alan was paralyzed in a swimming accident when he was a teenager. Instead of doing nothing, he’s been an advocate for spinal cord research and lives an vibrant life.

He’s always on the go, and yesterday he offered this new pitch in the email:

Do you bank with TD Bank (formerly Commerce Bank)? The Alan T. Brown Foundation needs at least 50 Members to join the TD Bank Affinity Program which will earn the Foundation an annual donation. There is NO COST TO YOU! Five minutes of your time could help make a difference in someone’s life. Just visit your local TD Bank and ask to be added to the Affinity Program through the Alan T Brown Foundation, and they’ll take care of the rest.

ATBF is not alone in pursuing the affinity program at TD Bank. The list of organizations “selling” TD Bank through the program is ecclectic and emblematically “local.” A sampling:

-Christ the King Regional High School
-United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism New Jersey Region
-Mater Dei High School
-Lacey Little League
-Brock University
-Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America
-Mount Olive Soccer Club
-Hindu Samaj Temple of Mahwah, New Jersey

TD BANK’S “SALES TEAM”

TD Bank’s affinity program helps charities by donating 50 basis points of the average balance on all checking accounts and 25 basis points of the average balance of all savings, money market and retirement accounts, as well as other interest bearing instruments to the customer’s participating organization.

Getting someone else to sell your service is always better than selling it yourself — and that is exactly what TD Bank is accomplishing with the affinity program. Holiday cheer, indeed!