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Jason over at 37signals.com recently made me aware of a really interesting service being offered by Bank of America called Keep the Change. When you purchase something with your debit card, your purchase is rounded up to the next whole dollar–$1.35 is debited as $2.00. The difference is refunded to your savings account: in this case $0.65. The transaction is completely electronic, and after the accounting is done, you still paid $1.35 for your item, and you have put away $0.65 for a rainy day.

Why is this interesting? Americans are not currently good savers (it’s not just our government that can’t seem to balance the books). There are lots of reasons for this, from declining incomes to a consumption-centric society. Bank of America wants you to save more, and sees this as a way to have you save that is relatively painless to you. It makes sense for them–the more money we keep in banks, the better they do.

For the sake of argument, let’s say Bank of America was a nonprofit. Their mission would be to serve you in your banking needs. But they may also have a larger vision, one of a population that is more fiscally responsible. What they are doing with this program is to move you toward their bigger vision goal while staying true to their mission. It’s solving the small problem while keeping the big picture in mind.

I think it’s a powerful way for nonprofits to look at their work and how they serve their constituents. Serve the needs of your constituents, and they will remain your constituents. Serve them in a way that moves the world to your ideal vision, and everybody wins.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 27th, 2005 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Civics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.