Green America first launched its Break Up With Your Megabank campaign in 2009, in the wake of the financial crisis in which almost 10 million Americans lost their homes. One of the chief causes of the crisis was large financial institutions making risky subprime adjustable rate or interest-only mortgage loans to people who could not repay them.  

That same year, Rainforest Action Network and a coalition of environmental groups launched the annual Banking on Climate Chaos report, documenting the billions of dollars in financing each year from the world’s largest megabanks to the fossil fuel industry. This report, endorsed by Green America and hundreds of other organizations, shines a light on the money pipeline that has plowed trillions of dollars into climate chaos. 

Other organizations have documented megabank funding for destructive industries worldwide, such as work by Friends of the Earth to expose billions of dollars in financing to industrial livestock production, and work by the Global Alliance for Banking on Values to spotlight financing for the weapons industry. 

All of this work feeds into our Break Up With Your Megabank campaign, explaining how megabanks use your money to finance destructive industries, and helping you find a community development bank or credit union that uses customer money for good.

Endorsements

The Green America Get A Better Bank map has been endorsed by the following organizations:

About this website 

As the nation’s leading green economy organization that helps consumers, businesses, and investors use their money to build a more sustainable and equitable world, Green America has long sponsored our Get a Better Bank map, listing hundreds of community development banks and credit unions nationwide.  

This website takes our Get a Better Bank map to a new level. 

• We expanded our listings to over 3000 financial institutions with over 17,000 branches nationwide, to help you find a better bank or credit union near you.

• We show the memberships and certifications each bank or credit union met to be listed on this site. We list only mission-driven institutions that serve their communities as certified by federal designations or third-party organizations, or are members of value-driven federations of financial institutions. Many banks and credit unions in this directory meet more than one of these criteria!   

• Where applicable, we let you know if an institution is minority or women-owned, and if it provides its banking services entirely online. 

We hope our Get a Better Bank map helps you identify a community development bank or credit union that can serve your banking needs. Be sure to check the website for any bank or credit union you are considering to find information about its hours, products, and services.  

Acknowledgements 

Green America’s Get a Better Bank website would not be possible without the work of web developer Nanda van der Meer of Studio Lake; research lead Mike Moore, and researchers George Millican and Joel Mattheis; and Green America project managers Anika Harden, Cathy Becker, and Todd Larsen. Thank you for your contributions!