Carol Cone:
I'm Carol Cone and welcome to Purpose 360, the podcast that unlocks the power of purpose to ignite business and social impact. Welcome to Purpose 360. And today we have a delicious episode for you because there's so much learning in it from someone I have great admiration for. And it's Lynette Bell and she is president of the Truist Foundation. In 2019, two storied banks in the southeast, SunTrust and BB&T both founded in the 1890s changing their names over the years. They came together as a merger of equals and they created Truist.
Lynette didn't start out being president of a foundation. She has a deep background in operations, banking operations, regulatory affairs, bank examinations, compliance, and when the two came together, Lynette was offered this opportunity to be president of this new foundation. We're going to talk about the focus of the foundation. It's very focused. We're going to talk about their significant response to Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina because Truist is a Charlotte, North Carolina based company. And we're also going to talk about some of their innovations in terms of their Inspire awards, which I just love. So welcome to the show, Lynette.
Lynette Bell:
Thank you so much, Carol for having me. And it was great to see you in Orlando as well. To connect personally is just so wonderful
Carol Cone:
And now we're going to have even a richer conversation, so I'm thrilled. So Lynette, can you share with our listeners your general background and then how you ended up in foundation, philanthropy, doing good, tying to the business your evolution.
Lynette Bell:
Yeah, that's a great ... An interesting story. It's not very linear, which is probably a good thing in this particular sector of business. I'm Lynette Bell and I'm president of the Truist Foundation, which again is the philanthropic arm of Truist Financial Corp. Truist Financial Corp is the seventh-largest bank in the US and we're a purpose-driven financial institution and the foundation hopefully embodies our purpose, mission and value, which is to inspire and build better lives in communities. In my role, I get to oversee innovation in the philanthropic space as we work with partners and collaborate and focus on our two strategic pillars. And we took a journey, Carol, quite frankly, when we started the foundation in 2020 around building out the new strategic guidelines or guideposts. And so our two strategic pillars are simply strengthening small businesses and building career pathways to economic mobility to sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to thrive. I've served in this role since 2020 as I stated and prior to that as we talk about backstory or origin story, I've advanced into many roles in my career at the bank. I've done everything but make a loan at the bank. Keep telling them they should have given me lending authority, but I started out-
Carol Cone:
I wish they did. We kind of have it.
Lynette Bell:
That's right. I graduated, left Florida State University, came home, didn't have a job, and so banking or citrus processing plants was in the Southeastern part of the US where I grew up. And so I went to work for a bank. Then I started out in operations of all places, understanding the mechanics of how does the bank work and how do we help payments with clients who were making payments and how do we operationalize some of the work we do around lending. So I started out in a very big area of the company and then progressed to different opportunities. I moved from operations to ... At that time it was called internal control, but it's actually our internal audit team. I went from there to mergers and acquisitions. I went from there to where I stayed the longest time was in compliance and risk. And then I moved to what is regulatory driven in this day and age was the Community Reinvestment Act. And so I was a community development manager for the entire enterprise of SunTrust banks at that time.
And so I have participated in almost every merger, which is like seven or eight of them since I've been at this bank. And so this final stint of opportunity came and so I managed community development for the enterprise and we had this big merger of equals that happened in December of 2019. And an opportunity came along and said, "Hey, Lynette, do you want to lead our foundation?" Now I had worked with the foundation indirectly in my role as head of community reinvestment because again, they helped to support and fund a lot of our nonprofit partners who helped us to beat regulatory requirements. And so I had worked indirectly with them, but when the opportunity came at the close of the merger, I was like, "Heck yeah. Sign me up. Where do I sign?"
Carol Cone:
Many of our listeners ask, how do I get a job Lynette's, and what is the career track? And I love the fact, Lynette, that your career was not straight and that you were in the business in a lot of areas from operations, regulatory affairs, bank examinations, compliance, et cetera. So I think that again, that's a key learning. I want to ask a few questions just about the merger. So the first one is the name Truist. And I bet you were part of that development. But what does the name Truist mean to you?
Lynette Bell:
Carol, what a great question to me. So when we were looking at it and they came to do the big reveal of the name, almost like we're playing the final four and putting our basketball tables in like who's got what words that was in both names. And so I was like, they stuck an I in middle of trust and and called it Truist.
But for me, I think it talks about the trust. And having some level of responsibility to support not only clients, but support our communities that the work we do each and every day should be reflective of the people we're trying to serve and should be reflective of the neighborhoods and communities that we place our assets in. So if we're going to go through the big investment of putting branches and ATMs in locations ... And yes, we have platforms that span across and outside of what we call our traditional footprint, but if we're going to make those kind of commitments, then to me that's a level of trust that the community has given us to do the hard work and do the right thing and be reflective of what we say our purpose, mission, and value is, which is to build better lives and communities. So for me, that's what it means.
Carol Cone:
When you created the name Truist, did you then follow on with a process to develop the purpose?
Lynette Bell:
Yeah. It's a really good question. I think before even the name got finalized, Carol, I think very leaders were coming together and figuring out how will we be differentiated in the marketplace? What's going to help us to stand out? Again, it's a very competitive landscape and feel when you look at the top 10 banks. And we kept aligning around purpose. We want it to be purpose driven or have a purpose mission. And so as the name was being created, I think there was a lot of dialogue and conversation about starting up with a purpose-driven focus and an area to land in.
Carol Cone:
And you call yourselves a purpose-driven financial services company.
Lynette Bell:
Yes.
Carol Cone:
So the company was created in 2019, and then you had the wonderful follow on years of COVID. I just want to ask, how's business with this combined ... And both of the derivation of your firms were in the 1890s I think, so you get a lot of heritage going on there.
Lynette Bell:
Yeah. We did. We did. And a lot of opportunity to create a new culture. But for the foundation, they were like, "Lynette, you get to blow it up and start over." So we were all excited, Carol. So the first 90 days we're like, "Okay. We're going to look strategically at what we do." We pulled the curtain back and started looking at our processes, our risk brainwork, and building out those apertures. And then COVID happened. Literally 90 days past the merger closure COVID happened. And all our grandiose ideas flew out the window because now we had to recalibrate and become a triage for rapid response.
the Center for Disease Control Foundation was pinging us going, "Hey guys, you might want to pay attention to what's happening. There's a pandemic." New words for us. Then we had the United Way Worldwide, another partner got a separate for us and they were pinging us because their call center's volume had increased from whatever it was at a flat line to 2000%. So United Way Worldwide started reaching out to us as well to give us some of the research that they were seeing.
And so part of their data that they supplied to us as a partner was that their call center volume had gone from a flat line to an increase of about 2000% identifying that partners, husbands, wives, spouses were now suffering some of the ill effects of the early stages of COVID. So immediately we created the triage and a rapid response team. And the unique thing about the Truist Foundation, our application portal, Carol is open. So during COVID, the company said, "Hey, let's go ahead and push out 25 million." I think we might've been one of the first ones out of the gate with that. Within the first 90 days we had to put all 25 million. The company came back and said, "Do another 25." Because every Thursday I can remember I was cutting my teeth on this. Every Thursday we were decisioning applications that were coming through that open portal as people were dealing with the early effects of COVID that was happening across the country.
Carol Cone:
So when you were offering the 25 million, which then doubled to 50, who was the focus of those grants?
Lynette Bell:
So we really wanted to go back to that value of care. So it was for immediate care and the immediate relief. When a hazardous situation occurs and we have to give support an agency for relief, that's exactly what we did. It was around those nonprofits that were dealing with individuals who could not make mortgage payments or nonprofits who help first time homeowners or people who had gotten a first time job providing that wraparound service that because of the illness they were now out of work. And so it was anything from hospital foundations, Carol, to a local nonprofit in Miami, Florida that was supporting seniors.
I can never forget, I got a call, we just made a big contribution to a hospital in Georgia. And one section of Georgia had the highest incidences of COVID than anybody else. And I remember seeing the hospital on TV. They were taking surgical sheets to make masks for doctors. The critical demand for supplies was so real, and so we made a contribution to them. But then I got a call from this nonprofit that supports seniors in Miami, Florida. We sent a small check for $25,000. When I say that director was in tears thanking me. I don't know how she got my number and I got to her. But she was in tears thanking me about the level of support we gave them to support her constituents in that community, because otherwise they hadn't had anything else at the time. And they were applying to other organizations but our rapid response was just that we were trying to get dollars out the door really quickly to address that critical time period.
Carol Cone:
And it seems that when that went out the door in 90 days and you just refilled the 25 million, I am assuming that came from your senior leadership. Your CEO got it and your bank, you support communities and you just said, we have to do this, I'm assuming.
Lynette Bell:
Yeah. They were like, "You know what? The pandemic is here. CDC foundation was correct. This has a long tail. Here's another 25 million." And again, we got very strategic with that because the other piece of it was the data that we were using to inform decisions was that while small businesses are really impacted and nor were they ready for this type of disruption, to go from a face-to-face B2B, to go back room or go underground and still deploy whatever goods or services they were providing. To take it offline.
Carol Cone:
Absolutely. I want to just say again, I've said it a million times for our listeners, focus is your friend.
Lynette Bell:
And I'll add to that, being transparent in our giving, using that open application process and really leveraging our resources to empower was what we were trying to do when crisis happens.
Carol Cone:
You�re deeply committed to serving communities with humanity and grace. Gosh. For a bank? Can you explain a little bit about that?
Lynette Bell:
Yeah, I think for me, Carol, it's easy for a foundation to say, "Hey, this is our strategic direction and focus, and we're going to be intentional in our giving because we believe in drive and concentrated impact." But I will say when we think about ... And I'll use disasters as the example for this, when we had disasters happen in an area of the country, so specifically in Western North Carolina when Hurricane Helene came in and created clear devastation in an area that was not prepared already for that. And so preparedness is really critical for disaster recovery and relief. But the National Disaster Relief Fund talks about the ever-changing landscape and how storms are becoming more intense and more vicious in how they deploy in length of time on land. And so when that happened in Western North Carolina, our CEO at the time was like, "We got to do something to support Western North Carolina."
So when we think about grace and dignity and agency, we not only activated the Truist Foundation to put 25 million in Western North Carolina, but we really activated our entire company and levered it in a way that says, "We're going to make a $700 million commitment for recovery of Western North Carolina." And so one of the simple things that the company did is part of that is not only everybody else brought all of the needed supplies from water to whatever into the marketplace that was devastated, but you realize that lines were cut, roads were eroded, and the devastation was so high in Western North Carolina we were like, "What else can we do to support that area?"
We know that 250,000 homes were impacted in that area across 39 counties in Western North Carolina and numerous small businesses. So we decided to make the investment in a way that says, how do we find the right opportunity to build recovery and do it with so people have grace and dignity? And so I talked about bringing supplies in. And one thing that I'll add is that one of the things, and it's on video somewhere, but we also brought in showers. When you think about water lines being eroded in a community ... We brought a truckload of showers in. We take that for granted. I'm going to take a shower, wash my face, take a shower, and I'm good for the day. But this young lady came, took a shower. She hadn't showered in 10 days. And so she was like, "I can't believe a bank would provide like this. I haven't showered in 10 days." And she said, "The mental weight lifted for me that I could take a shower." And so we brought that in as part of that. And so it's about identifying what's the real need, and that's immediate that we can address in the community when devastation happen. Yes, we're going to turn on mortgages.
Carol Cone:
Yeah. Again, committed to serving communities with humanity and grace.
Lynette Bell:
So we're going to turn on small business lending and other debt structure. Of course, philanthropy is there, but what are the critical needs of individuals?
Carol Cone:
An absolute real life example of committed to serving communities with humanity and grace. Can you talk about the three plus year commitment to the region and it's large and it's using all pieces from the bank, all areas of the bank. 700 million plus. Why did you decide not just immediate relief, but long-term?
Lynette Bell:
Yeah. One of the things that's really evident when you talk about crisis management, everybody jumps in for immediate care and immediate relief and we have great partners who we do that with them. We want to be there for that. But the long game or the long play of intentionality is helping that community recover. And recovery takes a long time because there's going to be stages of recovery and based on the level of devastation, 250,000 homes decimated over 39 counties, infrastructure lines eradicated, we knew that it would take a long time. And so our leadership team, along with the foundation, felt it was critical that we get in for the long period. And so we started having conversation internally of what can we do to help our clients but also help the community? And that was the reason why. Showing again that care and again, listening to the community because what we did was provide immediate relief, but also now we're in the part of let's make sure we're addressing in the phasing that's going to happen, phase one, two, and three, and four of the needs that are going to take three to four years to help, or three years to help rebuild and redevelop that area.
Carol Cone:
That makes total sense. And you work with the Center for Disaster Philanthropy.
Lynette Bell:
Yes, we do.
Carol Cone:
Yeah. And you gave them a $20 million disaster recovery grant. How do you work with them in terms of the short-term and then the medium-term and longer-term?
Lynette Bell:
Yeah. Again, Center for Disaster Philanthropy has been on this journey with us since we started the foundation, and as I stated, that 70-30 methodology, they've been an expert in recovery work. They know how to do it. It'd be easy for Lynette to pretend I can do recovery. I know the components of recovery, but to be there as a long-term partner to ensure that that particular community is resilient again, that's why we picked CDP. Because they understand recovery and they really build in that resilience factor. We've worked together to hold listening sessions with community leaders and partners. They continue to have dialogue with local experts who are there to talk about and identify what are the best partners and the best ways to apply for that type of funding. And we know that CDP will again be the partner because they do this kind of episodic support around the country. They're a national partner, and they do this every single day. And so we have a lot of faith and assurances that they're going to be able to help us have a success story in Western North Carolina, doing that hand-to-hand kind of work with community partners.
Carol Cone:
At the beginning of a conversation, you talked about innovation and the work that you do, and I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about your Inspire Awards. You work with MIT Solve, which we adore, and you're now going to your third year. And we understand the awards are to fill gaps in the current small business ecosystem in the US. Talk about the award itself, how it came about. It's a significant amount of money, and I just think they're great.
Lynette Bell:
Yeah. I'm so excited that we started this. So when we were thinking of how do we continue to do some of the work ... Because again, we have the two strategic pillars, strengthening small businesses and building career pathways to economic mobility. But we're like, what other things are we missing as we try to provide solutions to some of the critical problems in both of these strategic pillars? And so when we look at the infrastructure for career pathways, what are some of the things that are occurring that we're not addressing? Or as we consider small businesses, what are some of the innovations that are happening to help small businesses or nonprofits who are helping small businesses get to that next level? And so we started looking for organizations who do that solution building from a big brain mindset or design mindset. And MIT Solve came to the forefront for us.
We had great conversations with them. And we came to a agreement of, wow, we want to do something innovative and unique and different. So we talked about creating Solvathons. So for the first two years, it was about small businesses and small business ecosystem. This year we switched to the other pillar around career pathways to economic mobility, and how do you help adult learners who are transitioning to a new high demand job as their job becomes obsolete, how do you help them and what are some of the innovations that might be missing.
Every year we've done it, Carol, we've had over 120 plus submissions. And then we narrow it down to 15 semi-finalists and then down to six or seven finalists who actually get to pitch to us live in a pitch competition in front of our executives, in front of our teammates. We actually have a live stream audience. We're actually right now in the phase of reviewing those submissions to narrow it down to our semi-finalists and then of course our finalists, which will have a live pitch competition in Charlotte, North Carolina on November 12th. So we're really excited.
Carol Cone:
And the prizes, listeners, are significant. First place is 250,000. Second place, which I love because it's still large, 150,000. You've got runners up. And then I love the last one, audience favorite. So that it's our understanding that it's 75,000 that could go to the first or second place winner or the runners up. So what fun. And I also do really like the fact that career navigation for the needs of adults in their middle or late stage of their careers, which they probably never get support like that. So that's fantastic.
Lynette Bell:
Now here's the other beauty of this program. It's not just about the grant that we're awarding, right? But they get wraparound supportive services. So we send those leaders of these nonprofits over to our Truist Leadership Institute where they get to go into classes and course works on mastering leadership dynamics. How do you set up the nonprofit so that once your term is over and has that longevity, in addition, we provide wraparound service of how to market your organization, how to do digital marketing so that you can continue to elevate and amplify the brand of your nonprofit. And so they get other wraparound services that really amount to a million dollars for the finalists.
Carol Cone:
And there you are, bringing your purpose to life, inspire and build better lives and communities. I love it. Now I'm going to embarrass you because you won the ACCP 2023 Trailblazer Purpose Award.
Lynette Bell:
I did. I did. I was so excited. So excited and honored to get that award. It was a very competitive field, but to be recognized by peers on some of the great work we've been doing around trying to support communities, and again, showing that trust and care in our marketplace was really just very fulfilling.
Carol Cone:
I hate to bring this to a close because you have so many pearls of wisdom, but I want to ask just a couple other questions about how does your work create business value for Truist?
Lynette Bell:
The way that we create that business opportunity is that a lot of our community-based organizations and nonprofit bring a wealth of research data to us. And of course, we share that with our lines of business because there's opportunities to build that shared value initiative as part of our learnings. I will say in the foundation, we have a learning agenda, and so when we have research and data that will inform other solutions for clients, we transfer that information over to the bank side of the house.
Carol Cone:
Great, great. So in closing, I always love to give the mic to my guest for some last remarks. So over to you.
Lynette Bell:
Well, Carol, thank you so much. It was such a pleasure to meet you in person in Orlando. But I would say for your listeners, philanthropic work is the marketplace for innovation and ideas and philanthropy should have that leveraging to make changes and make big impacts in our communities so that we can see changes that will show the trust and care that we want in our communities.
Carol Cone:
Beautiful. So Lynette Bell, winning that award was so well focused on you. I love the way you bring innovation and scaling ideas, but you also do it with focus. So to our listeners, remember, focus is your friend. It's really important. You can't be all things to all people. But if you just listen to some of the great pearls of wisdom from Lynette, I'm sure your work will be even better today and even more so tomorrow. So Lynette Bell, president of the Truist Foundation, thank you so much for joining me. It was absolutely a delight and I can't wait to see your ongoing work even go further. Thank you so much.
Lynette Bell:
Thank you.
Carol Cone:
People. And I'd love to thank them. Anne Hundertmark and Kristin Kenney at Carol Cone On Purpose, Pete Wright and Andy Nelson, our crack production team at TrueStory FM, and you, our listener. To be as high as possible as one of the top business podcasts available so that we can continue exploring together the importance and the activation of authentic purpose. Thanks so much for listening.
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