Bankinter holds its sixth ‘Involvement and Solidarity’ ceremony

Bankinter held its sixth annual ‘Involvement and Solidarity’ (Implicados y Solidarios) ceremony yesterday, an event attended by NGOs, foundations and associations from all over Spain to learn the five projects selected to receive donations from customers who have put 5% of their purchases made with the Visa Solidaria card toward social initiatives. Almost 200 projects were submitted, up 40% from last year. The event’s guest of honour was Teresa Perales, a champion swimmer with 26 Paralympic medals who is an example of personal and professional excellence.

Projects were announced and promoted internally by Bankinter employees and executives who sponsored the various causes they represented. Votes were cast both internally by bank employees and externally by over 7,300 of Bankinter’s followers on Facebook, each of whom voted for a project on the bank’s page on the social network.

The following initiatives were finalists: the winner of the Tarjeta Solidaria Oro (‘gold’) prize for 13,000 euros was Fundación Dacer, with the ‘NAO Therapist’ robot project, an innovative therapeutic tool for children with brain damage.

The Tarjeta Solidaria Plata (‘silver’) prize for 11,000 euros went to Fundación Jaime Alonso Abruña for the ‘Cada niño importa’ (‘Every child matters’) academy, which provides academic support to 40 children with different abilities.

The Tarjeta Solidaria Bronce (‘bronze’) prize for 9,000 euros was awarded to As Neves-Zona 0 and its ‘Plantando vida’ (Planting life) project to spread awareness and set up initiatives to recover the forests area reduced to ashes in a fire that affected 90% of the town of As Neves.

Secondary prizes of 6,000 euros were given to the runners-up, Fundación Exit and its ‘eDuo’ project to provide youths at risk of social exclusion with training in secondary schools and internships; and to Cooperación Internacional, with its ‘Kankindi’ project. 2,000 euros were also awarded to each of the remaining five finalist projects. In total, 50,000 euros were donated to solidarity projects. Bankinter increased the prize money for this year’s event and intended to continue to increase it for future editions.

The award ceremony took place at Bankinter’s corporate headquarters on Paseo de la Castellana, in Madrid. Bankinter’s chairman, Pedro Guerrero, who also chairs the bank’s sustainability committee, gave the closing remarks. Mr Guerrero expressed his thanks to the representatives from the organisations, foundations and associations that participated in this year’s ceremony. He praised their dedication in particular, saying, ‘The not-for-profit sector is more and more important. Your attitude and selfless commitment to helping others makes you the best example for society’. 

‘Involvement and Solidarity’ is an initiative that brings together various groups linked to Bankinter: customers who use the Bankinter Visa Solidaria card; bank employees who submit several social projects; the company, which participates and divulges them on social networks; and the bank’s senior managers, who sponsor them.

This initiative is part of the Bankinter’s 2016-2020 sustainability plan called ‘Three in a row’, which aims to manage business in accordance with the economic, social and environmental dimensions of corporate social responsibility.