A Passion for Putting People First.

The Arts Partnership

Choice Bank invested $9,000 to launch The Arts Partnership Art For all Grant program in 2021, which awarded funds to seven Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo nonprofit organizations. Choice funded the grant program again in 2022, inspiring other businesses to sign on to support this grant, nearly doubling the amount of funding available. This grant provides funds for human services providers to incorporate the arts in their work to benefit underserved populations.

BIO Girls

Choice Bank has been a proud supporter of the BIO Girls program since 2016 and was named a BIO Girls Official Partner in 2022. BIO Girls is a 12-session program proven to increase self-esteem in adolescent girls. What began as one program in Fargo, ND, in 2013, has since grown to span the Midwest. Girls from all demographics can and do suffer from low self-esteem. Therefore, BIO Girls does not target a specific demographic. Choice Bank is a key supporter of the program’s scholarship fund, which ensures that financial barriers don’t hold girls back from experiencing BIO Girls.

Child Care Grant

Child care services are vital to supporting the families and economies of our rural communities. However, barriers to funding and a lack of resources make it difficult for child providers to remain successful.

The Choice Bank Child Care Grant provides financial assistance to rural child care facilities in North Dakota to continue providing their community with care and education for our children. Since this grant program was founded in 2021, we have distributed $150,000 to rural child care providers every year.

These grants have funded projects such as fencing to ensure the safety of children, educational and play equipment, and start-up expenses for opening a new child care center.

Great Plains Food Bank

Bettering the places we live begins with making sure our community is fed. This is why Choice Bank committed to donate $100,000 over the course of five years to the Great Plains Food Bank. Through an annual $20,000 donation, the food bank is able to provide 60,000 meals. Every year, the Great Plains Food Bank collects, warehouses, and distributes more than 21 million pounds of food that would have otherwise gone to waste, providing more than 17.7 million meals to those in need.

Hospice Care

Whether it’s our family, our neighbors, or our friends, hospice services provide care to terminally ill patients and their families no matter the distance and no matter the circumstances. This dedication to providing meaningful, compassionate care at the end of life is why Choice Bank supports our hospice organizations. For one day every year, we rally our communities together for an annual hospice fundraising celebration across North Dakota in Fargo, Dickinson, Bismarck, and Grand Forks.

Go Hawaiian for Hospice was founded in Fargo, ND, in 2012 by Choice Bank in partnership with a local hospice care organization. This event has become a growing and key event for Choice Bank and the communities we live in. Currently, Choice has raised $1,324,820 for local hospice service providers.

North Dakota High School Activities Association

Choice Bank signed a multi-year partnership with the North Dakota High School Activities Association (NDHSAA). We have a passion for putting people first. As the NDHSAA’s official banking partner, Choice Bank will support its efforts to encourage scholastic achievement among North Dakota high school boys and girls.

An important component of our People First mission is to better the communities we serve, which includes supporting local sports and building healthy communities. This partnership with the NDHSAA is a natural extension of our core values.

#PeopleFirst Pantries

Inspired by the Free Little Pantry movement, #PeopleFirst Pantries are a community-driven solution to meet immediate local needs. There is a #PeopleFirst Pantry in every community where there is a Choice Bank.

The #PeopleFirst Pantry promotes community engagement to address food insecurity. There may be people in our communities struggling with hunger and we might not even realize it. The #PeopleFirst Pantry addresses that need while bringing our community together for the shared purpose of nourishing our neighborhoods.

#PeopleFirst Pantries are open all the time, filling emergency food service gaps during times when the local food pantry is closed and making sure food is available to those in need.

Thielen Foundation

In September 2018, Adam and Caitlin Thielen launched the Thielen Foundation to help serve, educate, and inspire those in need. With a focus on youth development, the Foundation aims to create programs that serve, educate, and inspire youth to be equipped and empowered to reach their full potential in life.

Choice Bank is proud to be one of the first organizations to sign on in support of the foundation and create the opportunity for other organizations to partner with the foundation too. Choice Bank has supported the foundation’s initiatives, including a partnership championing patients in the University of Minnesota Health Pediatric Behavioral Health Unit, installing a new lighting system for the Brooklyn Center High School football field, and hosting a fundraiser gala to support the foundation’s mission.

Volunteerism

Putting people first drives our everyday decisions and influences how we treat our customers, colleagues, and community. In 2023, our employees gave 7,088 hours of volunteer service. From delivering food to people in need, to educating youth on financial responsibility, to coaching community sports teams—our team members have a passion to better the places we live.

Wishing Well

Every day, people in our communities face challenges that go unseen. We’re surrounded by them and may not even know it. So we asked ourselves, how can we help? And this is how the Choice Bank Wishing Well program was born.

Inspired by our #PeopleFirst philosophy, a group of Choice Bank team members came together in 2018 to present the Wishing Well concept as a way to better the places we live by giving to those most in need. Since then, we’ve granted dozens of wishes in our communities!

From a school library that needed more books, a new stroller for a boy with autism, supporting families in the wake of tragedy and health complications—no wish was too big or too small.

Local Decision Making

Fostering a strong sense of community remains at the core of who we are. We’re your neighbors and share the same interests as you. We understand that in each of our communities our customers may have different needs to be met. At Choice, we leave decision-making to individuals who know and live in your community, so we can quickly and expertly serve the needs of our customers.

We have the resources of a big bank with the heart and tailored service of a small-town community bank.

Taking Care of Business Educational Series

We want to see your business succeed!  We believe it’s our responsibility to help our business customers thrive, so we created the Taking Care of Business Educational Series to provide free ongoing educational opportunities for business owners, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and everyone else interested in their professional development. We offer free monthly webinars and newsletters about cybersecurity, benefit planning for employees, and more.

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