When you think of community centers, you probably think of libraries, churches, and the YMCA. Are banks ever on that list? They should be. No, they’re not third spaces where you gather outside of work and home, but ethical banking and financial institutions are powerhouses when it comes to local development, especially when larger institutions like megabanks and government fail us.
Megabanks invest astronomically in fossil fuels, actively fueling the destruction of a healthy planet and a healthy future for all living things. The 65 largest banks worldwide contributed $906.4 billion in 2025 alone, according to the 2026 Banking on Climate Chaos report, up from $842 billion in 2024. These global forces also feed wealth inequality by consistently denying loans, mortgages, and other monetary aid to marginalized people. And instead of ensuring equitable access to these financial resources and holding institutions to account, our politicians fail to pass policies protecting everyone’s financial opportunities and futures.
This is where credit unions, community development financial institutions, and ethical finance professionals come in.
Locking Financial Literacy and Throwing Away the Key
Wealth inequity has not dramatically improved in any category in decades.
“There is a financial cost to being anything other than a white man in our society,” Diana Yanez, a financial advisor with Natural Investments{GBN}, puts it plainly. “The pink tax refers to the fact that a woman will likely get a higher interest rate when applying for a loan than a man or a heterosexual couple.” She added that women disproportionately caretake, make a lower income, and suffer from financial literacy failures.
This is intentional, Yanez points out, noting the history of redlining and the destruction of Black wealth, illegally stealing and occupying Indigenous land, and predatory lenders predominantly targeting women, BIPOC communities, LGBTQIA+ people, and more.
The difference that access to large financial resources can make for a healthy future cannot be overstated. For our communities, ethical finance practices support conservation and economic growth.
Loans for projects focused on sustainability, like solar panels or local community gardens, help anyone green their community by minimizing greenhouse gases and promoting healthy soil. Money deposited in credit unions and CDFIs fund these loans, unlike megabanks which use deposits to fund fossil fuels and other harmful investments.
When wealth is more fairly distributed, economies boom. A broader ownership of assets allows people at all income levels to increase responsible consumption, empower entrepreneurship, and investment in human progress (education and skills training, the arts, science and research). Imagine better schools, more small businesses, and economic stability in your community—that’s what wealth equity can do, and to get it, we need to collectively pry open the door to financial literacy.
A Healthy Financial Future at Every Age, for Every Age
Generation over generation, financial literacy drops—Pew revealed 18- to 49-year-olds in 2024 ranked highest among those who know the least about core subjects like budgeting, debt management, saving, and investing. If you think financial literacy simply comes with age, as a person obtains a personal and disposable income or starts investing, you’d be forgiven. But the younger a person learns, the fewer mistakes they make, like unknowingly investing in fossil fuels or lacking a savings account. And the younger you are, the less you’re taught.
Eight in 10 Americans who attended high school say they wish they had taken a personal finance class, but over half of all students added their school didn’t offer any, according to the National Endowment for Financial Education.
Community banks and credit unions are trying to pick up the slack from a flawed public education system.
“It started with listening to our members and to the students in our own community as well,” explains Terri Mickelsen, CEO of Clean Energy Credit Union. “When we looked at our rewards program, we realized it was leaving a whole generation out.”
The institution’s new Carbon Zero Teen Account is for teens aged 13-17 and includes a debit card with 3% cash back. This is one of the highest student cash-back offers, coming with other benefits like no monthly fees, no minimum ongoing balance requirements, and access to 30,000+ surcharge‑free ATMs.
Mickelsen said the account was born from a simple belief: “Your card should give something back when you use it without pulling you into debt while supporting a healthier planet.”
Even the debit card is bio-based and compostable. With no overdraft fees (transactions simply don’t go through) and intentional spending, the program’s aim is to teach and make finance rewarding rather than punitive.
As students get older and enter new stages of their financial journey, larger concepts are introduced. Yanez says the most common and difficult hurdles early in life are accruing debt, primarily student loans and consumer credit cards. However, in a society that mandates credit, learning how to use it safely is key.
Next, Clean Energy Credit Union is planning to offer “small, purpose-built loans” for practical and sustainable assets like bikes or someone’s first EV or hybrid car. Mickelsen stresses the goal isn’t to introduce debt, but to “offer fair, transparent financing when life actually requires it” and build credit deliberately.
Yanez agrees, describing the most effective forms of financial education as “just in time” lessons.
Learning about mortgages in high school is not effective because it will be forgotten when actually needed,” she explains.
Instead, she compares finance to language: “It needs to be practiced to be understood thoroughly.”
Communities who work together, with everyone, promise a more equitable, stronger, and robust future.
