Closed for Good

BNZ is running a campaign called Closed for Good. No, they’re not closing down permanently, they’re closing their branches and offices just for the day on Wednesday, November 4, so almost all of their 5,000 staff can work on community projects.

Now the cool thing is they have not unilaterally decided what projects to work on. They want local communities to suggest projects to them. You can do this through their Closed for Good website. Some examples are helping at the local SPCA, cleaning up a beach or stream etc.

BNZ’s guidelines are they’d rather do projects that help local communities, match the number of people they have in the area, and have an organiser present on the day. They’d like to avoid political projects, projects that benefit commercial organisations, and projects that would normally be the job of local or central government.

You can submit your ideas for Closed for Good up until 27th of September. You can also follow them on Twitter @ ClosedforGood. Plus you will see ads promoting Closed for Good on this blog and some other sites.

While BNZ branches will be closed on the 4th of November, Internet and telephone banking will still be operating of course. If you’re anything like me, you visit your branch around once a year and do online banking several times a week, so won’t even notice the day that they’re closed!

If you do submit an idea for a good project to Closed for Good, feel free to comment here with a summary of what it is.