Schools bank on Wells Fargo
By Daily Press staff
DISTRICT HEADQUAR- TERS — If you signed up for a checking account or online banking through Wells Fargo, you helped raise more than $8,000 for the local school district.
Wells Fargo is donating $8,640 to the Santa Monica- Malibu Unified School District through its “Team Up for Our Schools program,” which was created to help support financially-strapped public school districts respond to unprecedented budget shortfalls this year.
Through the program, the district where the Wells Fargo store was located received $10 for every new Wells Fargo consumer checking account opened and an additional $10 when customers signed up and used Wells Fargo Bill Pay, a service to pay bills online. The program was offered at four branches in Santa Monica and Malibu, as well as other Wells Fargo banking stores across the country.
All told, Wells Fargo raised almost $1.4 million for school districts in California, which includes more than $450,000 for districts in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
“School districts throughout California faced more than $1.5 billion in cuts from the state's education budget this school year,” said Shelley Benson, Wells Fargo Market president, who oversees South Bay and Westside banking stores. “Wells Fargo felt a responsibility to create a program that would support our students and teachers in the Santa Monica-Malibu schools during these difficult budget times.”
In the past three years alone, Wells Fargo contributed more than $60 million to schools and educational programs across the country. In 2002 alone, Wells Fargo provided more than $2.5 million to fund programs that support pre-kindgergarten through 12th grade students throughout the greater Los Angeles area.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 6, 2003. Read the original PDF.