Spiral: New FinTech Company Puts the Heart in Banking
Look up #philanthropy on Instagram and you’ll find 1.5 million posts. #donate has just over 6 million. And #charity? Over 12 million. Impressive as this is, what really blew me away was a report in American Banker showing that, since the pandemic began, giving rates have been higher among Gen Z (defined as ages 18–24) and Millennials (ages 25–34) than among older age groups, 66% and nearly 75%, respectively.
Arguably, charitable giving has never been more important. The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted widespread economic pain and exposed longstanding inequities in health care, housing, education, and job security.
I work at the non-profit PIPs Education Fund (PEF) and was delighted when Spiral, a new financial technology (fintech) company that connects charities like PEF to donors, reached out. PEF’s charitable purpose is to help bridge the education equity gap by turning student engagement in health and sustainability into grant support for school.
With nearly half of all college students dropping out over unpaid debts of as little as $1,000 and a similar percentage facing some form of food or housing insecurity, PEF is meeting the urgency of the moment with its flagship PIPs for School (P4S) Scholars program. An innovative “action-to-study” opportunity, P4S Scholars gives agency to those who develop eco-healthy habits and strive to be better citizens. To learn more about P4S Scholars, check out this recent blog post.
PEF is thrilled that Spiral has selected it to be one of the company’s promoted charities, which means Spiral customers can donate through the Spiral app to PEF (and if it wasn’t already apparent, we’re super excited about that)! With “360 degrees of good” as our mantra, we plan to do our part to spread the word about Spiral. With Spiral, both adults with financial experience and young adults looking to start their first bank account can build their savings and giving all in one. Spiral’s singular purpose is to bring these two pieces together in order to help customers “build a better life while making the world a better place.”
Spiral was born from the desire to create “a different type of banking that is easy, transparent, and rewards those who give with exceptional benefits,” says CEO and Co-Founder Shawn Melamed. As a fintech company — not a bank — Spiral partners with nbkc bank to provide a suite of banking products and services to its customers. In addition to providing access to the features typical of most banking apps, Spiral allows users to donate to charities from within the app itself. Plus, they match donations up to $150 per customer per year and provide an end-of-year report of all donations to help users with tax returns.
Unlike many banks, Spiral’s platform has no hidden fees and instead promises that 100% of its customers’ donations will go to the charities they choose. “As someone who worked for a major financial institution for a decade,” writes a new Spiral account holder, “it is nice to be a part of a [cutting-edge fintech company] that cares [and is] creating a community of givers.” Join the growing Spiral community and manifest your values through both your savings and your giving!
To learn more about Spiral, visit https://www.spiral.us/.
Mikayla Zeitlin
Communications & Marketing Associate, PIPs Rewards LLC
