Bankinter celebrates its fifth annual ‘Involvement and Solidarity’ event

Yesterday Bankinter celebrated its fifth annual ‘Involvement and Solidarity’ event, which was attended by NGOs and foundations from across Spain. The purpose of the event was to showcase certain projects selected to receive donations from customers, with 5% of the purchases they had charged to their Visa Solidaria cards going to social initiatives. In total, 136 projects were submitted, 25% more than last year.

Projects were voted on by both Bankinter employees and followers of the bank on Facebook. On Facebook alone, over 9,700 votes were registered, 24% more votes than in any other year of this event.

Five prizes were given to the selected initiatives: gold, with 12,000 euros; silver, with 10,000 euros; bronze, with 8,000 euros; and two runners-up, each receiving 5,000 euros. In addition, five other finalists each received 2,000 euros for their initiatives. In total, 50,000 euros were awarded to solidarity projects.

The foundation that took home the gold was Fundación Garrigou, with its project, Hábito de vida saludable (in English, ‘Healthy life habits’). This foundation, which works to educate children with disabilities, intends to develop an app to teach the smallest children about proper life habits while they have fun playing on their tablets. The silver prize was awarded to Fundación Síndrome de Down to finance its project, Focus, a training programme for youth with intellectual disabilities; and the bronze went to Fundación Carmen Pardo-Valcarce for its programme, No + abusos (in English, ‘No more abuse’), an initiative to help people with disabilities who have suffered sexual abuse. The two runners-up were Fundación NPH and Fundación Promoción Social de la Cultura.

During the event, held at Bankinter’s headquarters on Paseo de la Castellana, the bank’s executive chairman, Pedro Guerrero, spoke a few words, thanking all the organisations and foundations for the work they do. ‘In this increasingly individualistic world, the fact that there are people who, like you, dedicate part of their lives to others is the best award that we can all receive,’ said Pedro Guerrero.

‘Involvement and Solidarity’ is an initiative that involves several groups with ties to Bankinter, such as customers who use the Visa Solidaria Bankinter card; bank employees, who submit various social project proposals; the group, which takes part in, and publicises, the various projects on social networks; and the bank’s senior executives, who sponsor them.

This initiative is included within the 2016-2020 Bankinter Sustainability Plan, also known as ‘Tres en Raya’ (in English, ‘Three in a Row’), which aims to align business with its three elements of corporate social responsibility management: the economic, the social and the environmental.