Wells Fargo Donates $500,000 for Austin-Area Revitalization Efforts
Local NeighborhoodLIFT grants support affordable housing, education and development
AUSTIN, Texas, November 17, 2017 /3BL Media/ - Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) today announced a total of $500,000 in donations for three local nonprofits to help revitalize Austin neighborhoods through the Wells Fargo NeighborhoodLIFT® program.
Identified in collaboration with City of Austin Mayor Steve Adler, the Wells Fargo NeighborhoodLIFT local initiative grants for Austin will provide support for affordable housing, education and cultural development.
“With these grants, Wells Fargo is helping Austin preserve affordable workforce housing at no taxpayer expense,” said Adler. “We need to better manage growth to make Austin more affordable, and I cannot thank Wells Fargo enough for its help.”
The Wells Fargo Foundation will provide grants to the following Austin nonprofits:
- Affordable Central Texas will receive $200,000 to support the launch of the Affordable Austin Fund to help preserve affordable housing for working families. The fund will allow for investments from foundations, investors and individual donors — an innovative approach to amassing the equity needed to preserve a large volume of affordable residential real estate. In addition, Affordable Central Texas will develop strategies for measuring the impact of affordable, stable housing on individual and family success.
- Austin Ed Foundation will receive $100,000 as an endowment to help ensure long-term support for Austin Independent School District students and teachers. Earnings from the Austin Ed Fund Endowment will support:
- Innovation grants for creative teacher-generated projects focused on whole-child development, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and literacy initiatives.
- The Student Opportunity Fund, providing college-readiness opportunities for first-generation college-going or economically disadvantaged students.
- Waller Creek Conservancy will receive $200,000 to help develop the Waller Creek park district in downtown Austin as a community asset. The project will transform 1.5 miles of Waller Creek into a robust urban park district featuring cultural and educational programming, trails, art installations, a healthy ecosystem and a relaxing green oasis. The investment will help bridge cultures, provide healthy recreation opportunities and serve millions of local residents and tourists.
The grants are funded through Wells Fargo’s NeighborhoodLIFT program, which was launched in August 2016 for Austin-area homebuyers with a $5 million commitment by Wells Fargo to boost local homeownership and revitalize neighborhoods. The NeighborhoodLIFT program has created more than two dozen homeowners in the Austin area so far by offering homebuyer education plus matching down payment assistance grants.
More than 300 down payment assistance grants of up to $7,500 each are still available for homebuyers in Travis, Bastrop and Hays counties. Interested homebuyers may contact NeighborWorks America’s local network member, BCL of Texas, or Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in Austin for information about eligibility requirements.
“Wells Fargo cares about communities, and we are making these investments to continue the revitalization effort to strengthen Austin,” said David O’Neil, Wells Fargo region bank president for Austin-Bryan/College Station. “These nonprofits are actively leading efforts for sustainable, affordable housing, high-quality education and opportunities that enhance quality of life. It’s another example of our efforts to build better communities.”
About NeighborhoodLIFT
NeighborhoodLIFT® program is the single largest corporate philanthropic effort of its kind in Wells Fargo’s history. In collaboration with NeighborWorks America, the Wells Fargo LIFT program has helped create more than 13,600 homeowners in 52 communities since 2012. A video about NeighborhoodLIFT programs is posted on Wells Fargo Stories.
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 8,400 locations, 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 42 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 268,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 25 on Fortune’s 2017 rankings of America’s largest corporations. News, insights and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.
# # #
