First Interstate Bank marks $100 million in donations at Laramie event

At 221 East Ivinson Avenue, First Interstate Bank turned its Laramie branch into a showcase for the money, volunteer hours and sponsorships that have pushed its giving past $100 million. The Tuesday open house put Albany County at the center of a corporate milestone, using a familiar downtown branch to show how a statewide bank says its philanthropy reaches local markets.

First Interstate says the $100 million figure covers total giving through First Interstate Bank and the First Interstate BancSystem Foundation since 1990. The company launched a 100-day celebration on Nov. 15, 2025, and scheduled open houses for April 21, 2026, from 2 to 4 p.m. as part of the effort. In Laramie, where the bank lists only one branch, the event gave customers and community leaders a chance to see the institution’s community work in a place they already know.

The bank describes that work as focused on local markets through grants, volunteerism, nonprofit partnerships and sponsorships. Its community scorecard snapshot lists more than 11.5K volunteer hours, 2,885-plus employees, 375 organizations and $170,000 in grants. Separate company materials say employees completed more than 60,000 volunteer hours in 2025 and that the Employee Gift & Volunteer Matching programs contributed more than $955,000 to local nonprofits that year.

Those numbers matter in Albany County because they represent the parts of a bank’s balance sheet that never appear on a quarterly earnings sheet: staff time at local events, matching dollars for charitable campaigns, and grants that can help keep neighborhood programs operating. A 2023 summary cited by a banking-industry source said First Interstate and its foundation provided more than $9.2 million in donations and grant support that year, a reminder of how quickly those local dollars can add up across the company’s footprint.

For Laramie, the open house was less about a distant corporate trophy than about the mechanics of community support. First Interstate’s giving model is built around the places where it operates, and the branch at 221 East Ivinson Avenue served as the local face of that approach. The milestone marked a long run of philanthropy, but it also pointed to the practical question behind the celebration: how a bank’s gifts become volunteer hours, grants and nonprofit support that can be felt on the ground in Albany County.