Changes for Impact

The communities we serve are the main character in our story of change. The Provident Bank Foundation has always tried to understand our communities’ needs. After seeing a large uptick in decline rates for our applicants, we realized that something needed to change. As such, we took a year to step back and explore how to help our communities in more effective and efficient ways. Our experience has told us that the more trust we can build with our community partners, the more impact we can have. Everything about our plans for the future are designed to build more trust and make meaningful impact for change in the story of alleviating the cycle of poverty.

As a result of this project, which was driven by input from community members, nonprofit organizations, partners, Board members, and more, we have arrived at some commitments that build on the legacy and strength of The Provident Bank Foundation while shifting the way we work to better respond to the needs and hopes of the nonprofits and communities that we support.

Most critically, we don’t want to waste our grantees’ time with long and resource-heavy grant applications. We want to respond to the changing needs of our sector and communities. We want to work with organizations who are aligned with our communities’ priorities.

Internally, we want to work differently in order to serve our communities more effectively. We are changing the way we work to show up ready to provide more focused support to our grantees—to be the kind of partner that leads with trust and helps you do the work you do best: serving our communities.

Our Strategic Plan is an articulation of how we plan to do all that; in other words, what we will prioritize in order to become the kind of funder we want to be, and to preserve what we know has been working over the past 20 years. We underwent this process alongside our partners, and we will continue our evolution alongside you as well. We welcome your input and feedback and are excited to continue to serve you.