News Releases

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Nov. 13, 2014) - BMO Bank of Montreal and ChangeIt today announced a partnership that offers Canadians the ability to donate to their favourite charities conveniently and securely on a day-to-day basis. Customers can sign up at www.bmo.com/community2014 and set 'round up' amounts on their BMO MasterCard purchases and donate the difference to more than 86,000 charities of their choice in Canada.

The announcement was made at The Hospital for Sick Children, with representatives from BMO, ChangeIt, SickKids Foundation, WWF-Canada and Kids Help Phone in attendance.

ChangeIt technology offers multiple tools and advantages to BMO customers, including the ability to:

• Track donations online and control rounding up preferences at any time;
• Set a monthly maximum and receive monthly summaries of donations;
• Receive an official donation receipt for Income Tax purposes for every penny donated.

"Consumers today are using electronic payments tools almost exclusively to make everyday purchases and payments, and this first-in-Canada partnership leverages that behaviour to make charitable giving easier for a large number of Canadians," said Mike Kitchen, Chief Executive Officer, ChangeIt.

Mr. Kitchen added that partnerships with key stakeholders such as BMO also provide charities and non-profit organizations with access to new, recurring revenue at a fraction of traditional fundraising rates.

"We're delighted to be the first financial institution in Canada to begin offering our customers this simple solution which will make the act of charitable giving easier and allow Canadians to be more generous on a day-to-day basis," said Nick Mastromarco, Managing Director, Loyalty and Partnerships, BMO Bank of Montreal.

According to the 2014 BMO Charitable Giving Survey, one third of Canadians said they would donate more if there was a more convenient way to give.

BMO MasterCard customers can sign up for the technology at www.bmo.com/community2014 beginning November 13^th. For more information, please visit www.bmo.com/community2014.

The survey results cited from the 2014 BMO Charitable Giving Report conducted by Pollara were compiled from a random sample of 1,003 Canadians 18 years of age and over between October 20 and October 22, 2014. A probability sample of this size would yield results accurate to ± 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

About BMO Financial Group

Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified financial services organization based in North America. The bank offers a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers. BMO Financial Group had more than $586 billion in total assets and approximately 47,000 employees at July 31, 2014.