We have been approached to donate to a program that gives grants to Title I schools (75% or more on free/reduced lunch) to work on the arts and humanities areas. Since the donation would specifically benefit LMI students, I think this would be easy CRA investment credit. Am I correct, or does the fact that it is for arts/humanities negate the benefit to LMI students? Thanks for your thoughts.

Many banks get CRA credit for arts programs that benefit low/mod students as long as you can document the LMI status.

Thanks for the quick reply Kaybee.

The schools have already been selected so that is easy. The application the group is using for the grants also states the 75% free/reduced lunch requirement.

Kaybee,

Would this hold true (receive CRA Credit) for a donation to a booster club (e.g., band, sports, drama, etc.) at a LMI school?

Also for clarification, is MarieR saying that the criteria for LMI school is 75% of students are eligible to receive free or reduced meals or was she stating the fact that school in question happens to have 75% of students are eligible to receive free or reduced lunch.

I was stating that this program requires a 75% free/reduced lunch. I am not sure of the requirement percentage. I contacted my state education department and got a list of all the Titile I schools in our AA and an even further list of those with 50% or higher free/reduced lunch.

As long as you can prove the "primary purpose" is serving low or moderate income people or tracts you will get credit. Most examiners will want to see documentation to that effect. I have a couple of banks that send a letter to the groups stating that they would like the funds to be used to help low or moderate income people. They also ask for a letter in return stating that the group will use the funds for that purpose and the banks have received credit for those donations.