One example is E4E Relief, a Charlotte, North Carolina, social enterprise and 501(c)3 public charity that helps companies plan for and deliver financial relief funds to employees during crises such as disasters or personal hardships. Established in 2001 to serve the needs of those impacted by 9/11 in New York City, E4E Relief has scaled its operations to now serve over seven million employees on behalf of businesses ranging from Fortune 500 companies to smaller enterprises in the U.S. and around the globe. Nearly four years ago, E4E Relief, in partnership with Microsoft and KPMG, built a best-in-class platform in response to the significant demand for post-pandemic relief solutions. Since then and using this platform, in combination with payments tools like Recipient Select and Zelle®, E4E Relief processed a record 94,000 applications, awarded more than $69 million in relief grants and received over $126 million in donations during the 2024 disaster season (from June to November).
“I think most nonprofits in this digital age are thoughtfully looking for the best solutions to enable their mission in the most sustainable, cohesive and efficient way,” says Ashley Wilson Oster, E4E Relief’s vice president and director of marketing and partnerships. For many years, E4E Relief has implemented a variety of business banking tools that have enabled them to better serve their clients and better manage their own finances.
Secure disbursement at scale
When E4E Relief first introduced Zelle® as an alternative to manually writing out relief checks and sending them through the mail. For many grant recipients, this was a huge benefit — near-immediate deposits of much-needed funds. But not every grantee was on the Zelle® network, so in order to expand payment options to improve grantee experience, E4E Relief adopted a more comprehensive payments solution, Recipient Select, that allowed grant recipients to choose from a variety of disbursement methods — including Zelle®, Automated Clearing House (ACH), PayPal, real-time payments through RTP®, and pay-to-card.
While this sophisticated platform, which offered token authentication and confidential processing, had been developed with for-profit companies in mind, it proved a perfect fit for E4E Relief’s need to provide faster and more secure funds availability — especially in the aftermath of some of the most profound devastation wrought by several hurricanes, including Hurricane Helene in September 2024. The trend toward frictionless payments in commerce resulted in faster relief for people who encountered unexpected expenses after storms, floods and other qualifying hardships.
In the fourth quarter of 2024 alone, E4E Relief granted $33 million to individuals impacted by disasters, and the payment options offered dignity, flexibility and security to all recipients during a difficult time.
Recipient Select also integrates with E4E Relief’s enterprise resource planning platform and other backend computer systems via CashPro® API, delivering secure, seamless transactions resulting in easy reconciliation when books close each month.
According to Oster, another advantage is that it provides additional security. “Among our foundational operation principles is ensuring that everything on our end is compliant with regulations and provides security for our grant recipients, which is a good reason to have a banking partner who shares those goals and values.”
State-of-the-art treasury management
From processing donations and highly variable transaction volumes to daily operations and distributing funds while keeping data secure, nonprofits and charitable operations have a lot to manage. But they and their boards share the same high standards we all employ. “Our clients appreciate our extensive experience and fund management, but they understandably have high expectations that include data privacy, inclusivity and confidentiality,” says Matthew Pierce, E4E Relief’s CEO. “We’ve found that retaining the flexibility we need while meeting those expectations necessitates evaluating enhancement opportunities and using sophisticated tools.”
During the fall of 2024, E4E Relief transitioned to a new, enhanced-security treasury management and banking platform that helps manage working capital, make data-driven treasury decisions and reduce the risk of fraud, among other functions. The cybersecurity checks in place preserve valuable intellectual property and employee information while offering fraud protections, an area where nonprofits are particularly vulnerable, according to the Nonprofit Risk Management Center. Fraudsters target such organizations because they assume that they’ll have lax cybersecurity standards and little bandwidth to fight back or seek recourse.
Working closely with a sophisticated banking partner to get access to advanced platforms immediately helps secure operational support and delivers access to the same level of protection and rigor that small-to-mid-size businesses rely on as a matter of course.
