Florence Bank Customers Show Dakin the Love

Shelley Daughdrill (left), retail banking director/SVP of Florence Bank presents Meg Talbert, executive director of Dakin Humane Society, with a $5,000 Customers’ Choice Community Grant.

Florence Bank’s annual Customers’ Choice Community Grants Program, founded in 2002, allows customers of the bank to vote for their favorite local nonprofit to receive a share of grant funding. Every year since it started, the program has recognized and honored Dakin with a grant.

Last month Dakin Executive Director Meg Talbert was one of more than 100 nonprofit leaders representing 40 organizations across the Pioneer Valley at the reception held for grant recipients.  Meg was presented with a $5,000 grant amount, the highest amount possible, which Dakin has received for the past 13 years.

Voting takes place all year long online and at bank branches, and each customer has only one vote. To qualify for a community grant, organizations must receive at least 50 votes. In 2024, 40 nonprofits were eligible for a grant.

According to Dakin’s Director of Development and Marketing Stacey Price, “When we go to the ceremonies and customers have selected Dakin, we see this as ‘we’ve done all this together.’ It’s remarkable to see the longevity of the relationship. Dakin is about people and pets, not just pets. Florence Bank’s customers chose us because they believe the same thing.”

Thank you to each and every supporter of Dakin in the Customers’ Choice Community Grants Program. When compassion brings us together, we open the door to a better world for animals and their people.