Two weeks later a prominent civic group, Citizens for NYC, bestowed one of its New Yorker for New York awards on Anne Finucane, BofA’s new Northeast regional president, who isn’t even a New Yorker. Wasn’t that a little quick? No and yes.
Before the merger, as Fleet’s chief marketing officer, Finucane used a significant portion of her $100 million annual advertising budget to create a hometown New York identity for the Boston-based bank. (No matter that she’s a Bostonian and a Red Sox fan -- Fleet is a Yankees sponsor.) At the same time, as chairman of Fleet’s charitable foundation, she steered enough of its $25 million in annual giving to New York causes to earn the Citizens for NYC’s award for philanthropy. Retired CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite and several other New York luminaries were also feted at the gala dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel; the festivities included a film in which Mayor Michael Bloomberg, another transplanted Bostonian, called Fleet “one of the best corporate citizens.”
But Finucane, a savvy strategist who worked in advertising before joining Fleet in 1995, knew the question that was on her black-tie audience’s mind: Would BofA, which historically has concentrated its charitable contributions in the South and West, become a “New Yorker for New York?” Yes, she vowed: “Fleet, and now Bank of America, will continue our involvement in the philanthropic endeavors of our city.”
The 51-year-old Finucane says that the Bank of America Foundation will donate an average of $150 million annually nationwide over the next ten years. It’s unclear what the Northeast’s cut will be, but the total is $50 million more than the separate banks’ charitable budgets combined. However, as Finucane settles into a bigger job that includes corporate strategy and public policy responsibilities, she’ll get less credit for the philanthropy. Though she’s on the foundation’s board, it’s now headed by her boss, BofA chairman Chad Gifford. And Finucane is still only a commuting New Yorker: She’ll continue to live in Lincoln, Massachusetts, with her husband of 22 years, famed newspaper columnist and proud Bostonian Mike Barnicle.
