Remember when a group of women replaced a bank? We will, for a really long time.
This, friends, is how our banking story ends:
With a female-fueled explosion of creative, conscious, and cooperative capitalism.
Like any good end, it’s also how we as a community might begin…
To support people over profits.
To fund meaningful new projects over pointless repetitive growth.
To wake up antiquated thinking and to shake up sleepy ways of doing.
It’s also an invitation to co-create a more harmonious approach to capitalism that benefits local neighbors over distant bankers.
And, like any good story, its characters have something pretty powerful to say, whether they knew it or not.
Eight weeks ago, a bank bailed on this business. That same day, we asked a question—What would it look like if we partnered with customers instead of bankers?
After over 100 customers reached out, we fully replaced an entirely uninspiring banking institution with lending from people and organizations who live in our neighborhoods, sit in our pools, and embody our mission.
All in under seven days.
And those people, it turns out, are ALL WOMEN!!!
At nearly every stage, women approached this opportunity, unlike anything we had seen in a previously male-dominated banking process. Down the road, we will open our doors to what we saw, learned, tested, tried, and ultimately co-created.
Today, we simply stand in awe of a powerful truth—that the status quo systems and norms shaping our blocks CAN CHANGE if we open up to new ideas and tools.
If you visit Maple, your customer dollars will not line the pockets of baggy-suited bankers. Instead, they are reinvested into the soggy swimsuits of fellow guests.
Women who stepped up when institutions stepped out.
Your money is also fueling two community revolving loan programs that fund small businesses that banks won’t touch.
