The Most Powerful Women in Banking NEXT No. 23, Dominique Goss, M&T Bank

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Dominique Goss may not be armed with the financial resources of Yield Giving's MacKenzie Scott, but the way in which she supervises the development, allocation and impact of a $50 million annual budget in charitable giving and sponsorships is no less worthy. Under her leadership as executive director, the M&T Charitable Foundation has given more than $142 million to organizations within M&T Bank and Wilmington Trust's footprint. An additional $11.4 million has been distributed via community sponsorship, including the 2025 forecast.

"As significant as those funds are, we are absolutely not just throwing money at problems," Goss said. "More important than deploying funds is deploying time and talent to ignite innovation. My job is to honor the legacy of what was in place at the bank, and to modernize, simplify and optimize it. I am a banker, and just as important, I am a connector."

Goss started with a staff of six and has grown the team to 24. All of them understand that they are the backbone of the bank's mission to support the communities it serves. "You can't do business in a community that is not financially sound, and my executive leadership team would say the same thing," Goss said. "Our business is deposits and loans, so we have a vested interest in thriving communities with housing, retail, commercial, manufacturing and transit."

As she sees it, her job is to make the world a better place. "That is very cool, I love the warm and fuzzy aspects of that. … My background is in consumer banking, compliance and legal. My work is all about how the bank shows up in the community. We live in the communities where we make our investments."

Originally from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia, Goss had been at her previous institution 11 years managing various aspects of retail banking and administration when her "perfect" job was created: After a longtime senior executive retired, M&T decided to elevate its community engagement and philanthropy, which were part of that person's portfolio, to a larger and more comprehensive program under its own dedicated leader.

How the bank's legacy in charitable giving and sponsorships is unfolding under Goss' leadership is clearly about more than the allocation of money: "It's not just loans and grants. It's legal clinics to support permits and contracts; it's building a bench of leadership in the nonprofit sector of the cities we serve."

Goss' strengths in leadership and innovation are critical to the impact the bank is having in the community. "There is often not a good connection between need and capital. Philanthropy can model what is possible, but often struggles to achieve scale," said Joe Scantlebury, president and CEO of Living Cities, a collaboration of philanthropic foundations and financial institutions committed to closing income and wealth gaps. "Dominique is always thinking in terms of scale and engagement. She is so young and yet so wise. I've seen how she brings along people around the community and within her organization.

These may be uncertain times, but from where Scantlebury sits, what is always certain is this: "People need healthy communities, and that means engagement and investment. There is work to be done, and Dominique is helping to lead that work."