Wells Fargo Donates $55,000 to Nonprofits and Schools in the Inland Empire

Wells Fargo held their annual Inland Empire Community Connections Breakfast in which $55,000 was donated to nonprofit community organizations and schools across the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley. The heartwarming event was held in Corona at Eagle Glen Golf Club, where 55 Wells Fargo community bank leaders selected an organization to donate a $1,000 grant in unrestricted funding.

Exclusive photos by Richard Sandoval

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To open the event Evelin Martinez, Wells Fargo Inland Empire area president; David DiCristofaro, Greater Los Angeles lead region president; Jonathan Weedman, head of the Wells Fargo Foundation locally; and Jack Olree, Wells Fargo Inland Empire community relations vice president delivered remarks.

“We are proud to continue this tradition of honoring local nonprofits and schools, because at Wells Fargo we know we can only be as strong as the communities we serve,” said Martinez. “We would like to recognize the organizations that are doing important work in our communities and helping our neighbors who need it most.”

“This breakfast event really is my very favorite day of the year,” said DiCristofaro. “This is the one day when we are able to say ‘thank you’ for the truly significant, and often challenging, work nonprofits and schools are doing every single day to make our communities better.”

Wells Fargo first introduced the Community Connections Breakfast program in 1999 in Los Angeles to allow team members the opportunity to select community organizations to receive an unsolicited charitable contribution. Since then, Wells Fargo regions across the country have adopted the program allowing managers nationwide to participate and reach more local organizations.

“In 2013, Wells Fargo donated more than $275 million across the country, with $3.45 million of that donated right here in the Inland Empire,” said Weedman. “In fact, because of this focus on philanthropic giving and volunteerism, Wells Fargo was recently named among the ‘top corporate philanthropists’ in the nation by The Chronicles of Philanthropy.

The 2014 Community Connections Breakfast grant recipients included:

About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.6 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 locations, 12,500 ATMs, and the internet (wellsfargo.com), and has offices in 36 countries to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 265,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 29 on Fortune’s 2014 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. For more information, visit www.wellsfargo.com.