M&T strives to make a lasting impact through donations and volunteers

Leona Harper recalled the vital role played by the Delavan Grider Community Center in the wake of the May 14, 2022 racist attack at a Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue.

The center provided comfort, food and services to people who were afraid to go to places like a supermarket after the attack.

“The center was full every day,” said Harper, a longtime M&T Bank employee and volunteer at the center. “There were people coming in and going out all day long. And they felt safe. They needed a safe place to go, and we helped make it a safe place.”

It’s been two years since the attack that killed 10 black people. The M&T Charitable Foundation made $500,000 in donations to 18 area organizations over two years, including the nonprofit that runs the community center, through its Response Fund emergency 5/14. The $500,000 is in addition to the $8.3 million in contributions the foundation makes each year across Western New York’s eight counties, part of which goes to Buffalo’s East Side .

After the attack, M&T gathered feedback from inside and outside the bank to determine where to make contributions that would have the greatest impact. Harper, a 27-year-old employee who works in corporate banking, is part of M&T’s African American resource group. The resource groups were invited to make recommendations.

“We work with different organizations within the community, because most of us are the community,” Harper said. “We go out, we see what they want and what they need, and if we can help them, we will.”

Some of the recommended recipients were organizations that M&T already worked with. In other cases, the organizations were new to M&T. Donald Elick, regional director of the charitable foundation, contacted these organizations to identify their needs. The foundation then developed a contribution plan.

One of the beneficiaries was Every Bottom Covered, which provides diapers to families in need. M&T made an initial contribution to the nonprofit and later returned with a capacity-building grant “to help them grow and meet the growing needs and awareness of what they are doing in community,” said Eric Feldstein, M&T regional president for Western New York. “We continue to work with them.”

Open Buffalo received a donation in 2023 to cover the costs of its leadership development programs, which executive director Franchelle Parker called a “huge blessing.”

Parker said the goal of the leadership programs is to “train a new generation of community members who have really been forgotten, who never had a chance to have their ideas heard or supported.” The foundation really agrees with that.”

Some of the people who have been trained through Open Buffalo’s leadership programs have started nonprofits or run for office, Parker said. “It’s about giving them the confidence to not only protest or complain about an issue, but also to give them the tools to actually change it.”

Feldstein said M&T’s response went beyond donating 5/14 funds. The bank opened three distribution sites following the attack, receiving truckloads of donations from other M&T markets.

“For several weeks, we distributed tens of thousands of non-perishable products from hundreds of M&T Bank employees,” he said. “It didn’t last days. It lasted weeks and weeks.”

Feldstein remembers a question two community members asked him: “Eric, when the TV crews leave and the lights go out, where will M&T be?”

“I stepped up and said, ‘The M&T Bank family will be there for our community, both with community response and sustainability,’” Feldstein said.

In addition to its donations to the 5/14 Response Fund, Elick said M&T has sponsored other efforts impacting the East Side, including business programs at the Exchange at Beverly Gray, the Confident mentoring program Girl and Feed Buffalo. The bank also supports the development of a Build Promise shelter for homeless men.

M&T launched a Community Impact Week, held twice a year, during which bank employees volunteer with organizations that “uplift the City of Buffalo and Western New York ” Feldstein said. Other M&T regional presidents have asked how to start similar programs in their own communities.

The bank encourages its employees to volunteer with organizations such as these, Elick said. “We don’t want to just write a check, make a transaction and be done with it. We’re looking for the long term, and that often includes volunteers.”

Harper recently volunteered during Community Impact Week. She painted at the New Beginning Church of God on Herkimer Street, which serves the neighborhood.

“I love it,” she said. “I’m a community person, so I’m here. It’s in my heart. It’s what I do. If I could volunteer every day, I would.”

Want to know more? Three stories to catch you up:

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The Buffalo Next team gives you insight into the region’s economic revitalization. Email tips to [email protected] or contact Buffalo Next editor David Robinson at 716-849-4435.

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