How Frost Bank Makes Philanthropy its Competitive Edge

Since 1868, Frost Bank has called Texas home and has been providing individuals and businesses with financial tools and advice to thrive in a fast-paced world. Frost Bank, one of the 50 largest banks in the country with over $50 billion in assets, calls itself “a Texas bank where people matter most.” One way they set themselves apart is through their Philanthropic Services.  

Through their Philanthropic Services solutions the Frost team oversees the administration of scholarship, grant, and student lending programs on behalf of their clients. These clients are typically foundations, universities, trusts, or other charitable organizations, with funding they want to distribute into the community, but limited resources to handle the day-to-day logistics of that work. 

The team manage the administration of these programs, but they needed a streamlined solution for their clients. 

Frost’s employees take on that administrative work. But they realized that they had the potential to expand the program much further. If made more scalable, this strategic offering could really escalate, with ample opportunity to attract new clients and grow existing relationships.

Not only are we representing our company and culture, but we're also representing that of our clients. It's like a double weight on your shoulders. And so obviously, we would like to have a lot of control over exactly the experience that everybody receives.

Emilee Sargeant

Senior Vice President & Manager of Middle Office, Frost Bank

Hitting the limits of their legacy process 

Emilee and her team found that the limitations of their current processes were negatively impacting employee experiences, in-turn affecting the client experience and limiting growth. These were standing in the way of Philanthropic Services’ true potential. 

Problem #1: Inconsistent client experiences

While Philanthropic Services had for several years been offered around the state, it was not a consistent offering. As Emilee says, “Everybody who was handling these types of relationships and providing these services in some manner was having to do it differently.” 

The teams offering Philanthropic Services had implemented various tools and processes. From a strategic point of view at a customer-centric institution, this created an issue. “Clients were getting different experiences around the state,” as Emilee puts it. It was impossible for Emilee and leadership to ensure all client experiences with Philanthropic Services were top-notch with so much variability. 

As Emilee explains, “Not only are we representing our company and culture, but we're also representing that of our clients. It's like a double weight on your shoulders. And so obviously, we would like to have a lot of control over exactly the experience that everybody receives.”

Problem #2: Spending time on workarounds

Another area where the various processes employed were falling short was the ability to fully control their programs. “We did not have access to the data,” says Bailey George, Trust Officer at Frost. And without the data, they didn’t have a clear view of what was happening.

Trying to chase down the data they needed, or finding workarounds to live without it, took up time for the Frost team.  “We've had people all over the state doing this, taking away time they needed to be with clients,” Emilee says.

Problem #3: Not realizing growth 

Within Frost’s Philanthropic Services, there was no scalability. Until they could establish a more consistent, controlled client experience and efficient process for their team, they weren’t able to lean on Philanthropic Services as a means to expand client relationships or win new business. 

Tapping into their full potential with Submittable

To realize the potential of Philanthropic Services as a differentiator to grow Frost’s business, the team knew something had to change. They turned to Submittable (then WizeHive). 

1. Better control of client and applicant experiences 

With Submittable, the Frost team is able to better support applicants to scholarship and student loan programs. “They really like the fact that everything is right at their fingertips,” says Bailey. No one is chasing down data. 

With more control over their data, she and her team have a much better view of what’s happening with client programs and their applicants. “We can better answer their questions, because we can go straight into the system and say, OK, this is what's wrong or, yeah, we've done this for you.” 

Using Summitable Frost has direct access to the student’s profile, so they can quickly answer questions, identify application gaps, and provide feedback in real time. This allows the team to process applications more efficiently. 

This access to data and support helps the Frost team connect in a new way by creating positive and reliable experiences for their clients and their applicants alike. 

2. Smooth for employees 

Bailey sums up her team’s experience succinctly: “It has definitely made things a lot easier on my employees.” She continues, “We've had pretty good communication with everybody. I really like the fact that everybody's really taking the time to show us how to do things in the system.”

Krista Comfort, who is also a trust officer, started at the bank recently and began helping with Philanthropic Services right away. She adds, “It's been very easy to learn how to use the system…I found it very easy to understand.” This was all the more appreciated because, brand new at Frost, she was having to learn a lot of new systems at once. If she did need some personal help, she could reach out to Submittable directly. “The team was always super helpful anytime I had questions,” Krista says.

Bailey continues, “I really like the fact that for the most part, everything is housed in one place. It's easy to just access everything at once. So that has really eased the burden on myself and my other team members.” 

It’s a lot faster now, too.

“What would take us, you know, six [months]…now, it takes us two and a half. So it's so much easier to use this system,” says Bailey.

With Summitable, it is also easier for reviewers. Reviewers can access all their assigned applications in one dashboard.  This also allows the Frost team to better track the number of outstanding applications and saves time on making copies and filing paper applications. 

3. A confident growth strategy

What’s most exciting to the Frost team about the change to Submittable, though, is the potential that it unlocks for the future. With Submittable, the team has developed a “super repeatable process,” as Emilee says. “You don't have to figure it out again. You just plug and play.”

She goes on, “Bailey's team is scalable. They can do 10 foundations in the amount of time it takes another team to do one.” 

And boy, does the Frost team have plans to scale!

Krista, Emilee, and Bailey are based in San Antonio and Houston. So the first step is to expand Philanthropic Services across the rest of the Lonestar State. 

“What we'd like to do is go visit the other regions where we have offices and talk about our improved line of service and how it can benefit both our existing clients and future clients,” says Emilee. 

Next up is expanding grants—first focusing on current investment clients with granting needs. “We have a good small pipeline where we currently have trust accounts that we're performing these services for already, but we're just doing it manually,” says Emilee. 

She continues, “Our peers around the state…are either using paper or maybe they have hired somebody to help them do it outside. We're gonna bring all of that in house and do it with them and try to take the workload off of our advisors so they can go out and be with clients.”

Being a part of something bigger

Emilee, Bailey, and Krista expect their plans for growing Philanthropic Services to have a big positive impact on their clients, colleagues, and Frost’s business. “Philanthropy comes up with almost anybody who is a potential client,” Emilee explains. Frost’s Philanthropic Services continue to help them stand out. 

But it’s about more than just that. 

As Emilee says, “It helps us help our clients help the community—so we can't take credit for it, but we get to be a part of it.” 

As they look ahead, the team continues to stay focused on that collective mission of helping their clients do more good out in the world.