NEW YORK, NY - December 4, 2007 - Fast Company magazine and Monitor Group announced today that they awarded a 2007 Social Capitalist Award to ShoreBank, the nation's first community development and environmental bank. The award to ShoreBank (Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit) marked the first-time ever that Fast Company presented the award to a for-profit for helping to solve the nation’s most pressing social problems - ranging from unequal access to credit and quality affordable housing to the subprime mortgage crisis and global warming -- that has demonstrated the Chicago-headquartered bank's consistent and unusually large impact on society.

"This year we've seen an explosion of diverse experiments, many of them engineered by onetime Wall Street heavies, that attempt to bring new capital "“ and capital-market dynamics - to the realm of social good," said Fast Contributing Writer Keith Hammonds. "Through these deals, social entrepreneurs and businesses are raising the stakes, creating both business and social impact, and changing old-style capitalism as we know it"

Since its inception in 1973, ShoreBank has spurred the rebirth of underserved urban neighborhoods by providing individuals, small businesses, faith-based organizations, nonprofits and many others with access to the resources and information that fuel new development opportunities and growth.

In the early 1990s, ShoreBank began focusing on financing environmentally sustainable development. In Cleveland, the bank helped retrofit an unused commercial building that is now the first of its kind, a repository and resource center for green building design. In Detroit, ShoreBank is fueling the adaptive reuse of some of the city's most historical buildings such as the Book Cadillac that is helping to revitalize the city's central area and neighborhoods and making them a place where more people are choosing to live and visit.

In Chicago, the bank funded the Christian Industrial League's new headquarters which is one of nation's first green designed, supportive housing centers for ex-offenders that is reducing the recidivism rate by introducing them to new skills and careers in landscaping and the culinary arts. The building features ground-source heating, green roofs, solar lighting and other components that use less energy while reducing monthly utility bills. And ShoreBank was one of the first financial institutions to offer free energy audits and a mortgage rehab loan for energy saving improvements that are helping property owners recoup their investments, while reducing consumption and greenhouse gases.

Today, ShoreBank's Rescue Loan program is enabling homeowners in Chicago with rapidly increasing, subprime mortgages from other banks to obtain a fixed-rate mortgage from ShoreBank that builds equity while reducing monthly payments and stabilizing communities. With assets of more than $2 billion, ShoreBank continues to demonstrate that serving the triple bottom line of profitability, community development and conservation is realistic and achievable.

This year marked the first time in the five-year history of the awards that Fast Company partnered with the global consulting firm Monitor Group to assess the social performance of for-rofit companies, using Monitor's methodology usually reserved for nonprofits to evaluate and celebrate top-performing for-profits.

The Awards assess social entrepreneurial organizations of different sizes and ages across social sectors as an explicit effort to further performance measurement and accountability in the social sector in a highly rigorous, data driven, comparative approach. Organizations were rated on five critical components: social impact, entrepreneurship, innovation, aspiration and growth, and sustainability, based on an application that included two years of operating and audited financial data, a statement of mission and objectives, and answers to a survey to assess strategy and activities. Winners were selected by an independent advisory board of sector experts. In addition to the winners, the board also picked four high-potential organizations as "rising stars."

The winners are featured in Fast Company's /January 2008 issue (on newsstands December 4 - Jan. 22, 2008) and will be recognized at a ceremony at the Westin Washington D.C. city Center on Jan. 8, 2008. The keynote speaker will be Adam Werbach, sustainability adviser to Wal-Mart and subject of Fast Company's cover story. The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship will honor J.B. Schramm, founder of College Summit as the winner of its 2008 "Outstanding Social Entrepreneur" award. The event will be sponsored by Dow.

Social Profit Winners:
Better World Books (Mishawka, IN)
Developing World Markets (Darien, CT)
Domini Social Investments (NYC)
Equal Exchange (W. Bridgewater, MD)
Herman Miller (Zeeland, MI)
New Leaf Paper (San Francisco)
Organic Valley (LaFarge, WI)
Seventh Generation (Burlington, VT)
ShoreBank (Chicago, IL)
SustainAbility (Washington, D.C.)

Complete information on this year's nonprofit and for-profit Social Capitalist Awards winners, including expanded profiles and links that let you make donations to the groups you find most compelling, can be found online at www.fastcompany.com.

About ShoreBank:

ShoreBank is a subsidiary of ShoreBank Corporation, headquartered in Chicago, IL. With more than $2 billion in assets, it serves Chicago's South and Far West Sides, the East Side of Detroit and the Cleveland, OH community. Since its inception in 1973, ShoreBank has invested more than $3 billion into these communities to finance the purchase and renovation of more than 52,000 affordable housing residences and the creation of more than 12,000 new jobs for local residents. For additional information, visit, www.sbk.com or call (800) 669.7725.

About Fast Company magazine:

Founded in 1996 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures, LLC, award-winning Fast Company magazine (ww.FastCompany.com) covers the ideas, trends and visionaries that are sparking change and creating the future of business. With a total paid circulation of 746,161, Fast Company explores the profound innovation, creative breakthroughs, best and "next" practices that are driving the business world.

About Monitor Group:

Monitor Group is a leading global professional services firm working with corporations, governments, and social-sector organizations to help them drive growth. Employing over 1,500 people in 22 countries worldwide Monitor offers a blend of advisory, capability building and capital services. Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, Monitor can be reached at 617.252.2000 or on the web at www.monitor.com.

Urban Partnership Bank

Urban Partnership Bank

Urban Partnership Bank is an FDIC-insured, full-service, certified Community Development Financial Institution that was created in August 2010. The certification from the CDFI Fund acknowledges the Urban Partnership Bank mission of serving urban communities, building better lives, vibrant communities, and long term success.

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