Today’s Community Banking Month Member Spotlight is Pioneer Bank & Trust in Belle Fourche, S.D., which celebrated 100 years of continuous family ownership in September 2013.
Pioneer Bank & Trust, which was established in the buttes of Western South Dakota by brothers F.M. and H.W. Clarkson in 1913, has grown to offer a trust department and a complete assortment of state-of-the-art banking products and services. But the hometown community bank prides itself on its unique F.L. Clarkson Family Foundation, a charitable foundation that offers autonomy to local bank managers, according to Senior Vice President Jeb Clarkson.
The foundation, which disperses up to $200,000 annually to local charities, allots half of its annual distributions among Pioneer’s six branch managers for dispersal as they see fit. This localized autonomy for local bank managers allows Pioneer to fund the charities in local communities most in need of funding, Clarkson said.
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