Executive Summary:
2025 KEEP Impact Cash Report
Cash is often viewed as a passive asset—valued for its safety and liquidity but otherwise considered unremarkable. This report challenges that assumption and demonstrates that where cash is held is far from a neutral decision. It determines whether capital reaches the businesses, farms, municipalities, and communities that depend on it most, or remains concentrated at institutions without a deliberate focus on local economic impact. That distinction is at the heart of this report.
Although community banks and credit unions hold a relatively small share of the nation's banking assets, they play an outsized role in the economy by financing a significant share of small business and agricultural lending. KEEP was built to strengthen these community-focused financial institutions by aggregating deposits from advisors and their clients and directing them to a network of more than 1,000 local institutions across all 50 states. In doing so, KEEP provides depositors with competitive yields, daily liquidity, and federal deposit insurance, while transforming idle cash into stable, reliable funding for the lenders that know their communities best. Since inception, the KEEP network has directed more than $114 billion in deposits toward strengthening local economies.
This report explores KEEP's impact across four key areas:
Supporting Underserved Communities
In 75 counties across the United States, a KEEP network institution represents the only banking presence. The report highlights how targeted deposits strengthen financial institutions committed to serving communities that have limited access to traditional banking services.
Financing Agricultural Production
Agriculture depends on reliable access to capital throughout the growing cycle, with financing needs that peak during planting and harvest. Community banks understand these seasonal demands, and KEEP's flexible funding helps sustain the agricultural lending that supports rural communities and the nation's food supply.
Fueling Job Creation
Small businesses create approximately two-thirds of new jobs in the United States, and community banks remain their primary source of financing. Deposits placed through KEEP help support tens of billions of dollars in small business lending nationwide.
Catalyzing Local Infrastructure
From affordable housing developments to municipal water systems, community banks finance the essential infrastructure that enables communities to grow and thrive. KEEP deposits support both private investment and the public projects that strengthen local economies.
Together, these four pillars demonstrate a simple but powerful idea: when cash deposits are intentionally directed, it creates measurable impact in the real economy. Importantly, this is not a tradeoff. Safety, liquidity, and competitive yield remain fundamental to KEEP's approach. Rather, this report shows that through KEEP, depositors of all sizes can preserve the qualities they expect from cash while helping strengthen the communities that drive America's economy.