Pamela Feingold joined the former Wainwright Bank in 1991, after working for several banks and graduating from Bowdoin College in 1984. She started her new job in community development banking unsure of whether banking would be the right career path. But that first day, “I met Kip Tiernan of Rosie’s Place, and I was hooked! Social justice and community involvement became a passion,” she says in an email. She would come to manage the community development group for more than 20 years.
Feingold worked with Wainwright co-founder Robert Glassman on what she describes as cutting-edge social causes, developing ways to finance them. In 1992, Wainwright Bank was one of the first to support lending for housing for people with AIDS within the city of Boston. The bank would go on to help create more than 75 percent of all the housing units for people living with HIV/AIDS within the city.
Since then, Wainwright has created financing for affordable housing, supportive services for the mentally challenged, the physically challenged, the elderly and homeless, and support for the gay and lesbian community, as well as environmental projects and homelessness prevention. In the latter category, she once authored an article for the Massachusetts Bankers Association that served as a tutorial for bankers on how to underwrite affordable housing loans.
When Wainwright Bank was acquired by Eastern Bank two years ago, the community development group got more support and a larger platform for its lending and charitable giving. She has built the team from one person – herself – to four, when Wainwright was purchased, to nine now. Feingold notes that Eastern bought Wainwright specifically for its community development initiative as well as its retail market.
Her board affiliations include the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, which she currently chairs; past president of the Child Care Investment Fund; past chair of the fundraising golf event for Project Place; Victory Programs; Boston Rescue Mission and Greater Boston Legal Services. She has also volunteered at the Pine Street Inn, Boston Food Bank and Goodwill Industries, among other organizations.
“She has earned the respect of so many – her colleagues, her customers, her partners in the city of Boston and state of Massachusetts – all of whom have called on her countless times to help get projects done. She has undoubtedly helped improve millions of lives,” says one of her nominators for the 2013 Community Bank Hero Award.
One of the principles of an organization Feingold has served characterizes Feingold as “the glue that has held together many of the affordable housing projects for homeless people over the past 20 years.”
“I am in awe of my customers’ commitment to the their different causes,” Feingold says. “ I tend to develop relationships with all of them, and as a result, I sit on many, many boards of directors of these organizations. I am so fortunate to love what I do, work for an organization that embraces social justice and be respected in my community for the work I do.”
She adds, “I am officially a ‘zealot’ for community development!”
