Fargo bank employees told to give — on a grand scale

She walked into the hotel ballroom in Fargo to thunderous applause, flanked by bodyguards and sitting down on stage with a local bank official.

It made some sense that the Queen of Talk, Oprah Winfrey, would be at State Bank & Trust's annual Christmas party Saturday when the announcement was made that its 510 employees were being given more than a half-million dollars, which they were to donate to charity.

"It was wild," said Michael Solberg, the bank's chief operating officer.

Only afterward were partygoers told that the woman on stage was an Oprah impersonator from Las Vegas. But the money was very real.

Inspired by Winfrey's similar move, the Fargo-based bank gave each employee $1,000 ($500 for part-timers) in its "Pay It Forward Challenge."

"I was up in the night thinking about how I'm going to spend it," bank teller Amber Dahl, of Fargo, said on Tuesday. "Everyone's so excited."

Dahl plans to give her $1,000 to a young couple who recently had a premature baby girl, the sole survivor of quadruplets, who will undergo surgery on Friday.

A Twin Cities philanthropic executive described the bank's charity as a "wonderful" and unprecedented move. Media attention has turned Solberg into an accidental star.

"I'll just pick up my phone and, all of a sudden, it's a morning show from Baltimore and it's live," he said.

By Tuesday afternoon, the BBC had snagged him for an interview and a camera crew from "Good Morning America" was en route to Fargo for a story slated for this morning. He's also been on CNN and CBS.

"This national publicity ... has been insane," Solberg said.

Winfrey was invited to attend the party, but declined.

Big, creative parties the norm

State Bank & Trust, which has 14 branches in North Dakota and Minnesota, is not demure when it comes to holiday celebrations.

The annual Christmas party is so legendary that employees spend all year speculating what grand scheme the secretive planning team has in store. Solberg, human resources manager Julie Peterson and assistant manager Jill Staffne are the masterminds behind the parties, which begin their journey to fruition just about as soon as the current party winds to a close.

"We kind of celebrate big at Christmas," Peterson said. "We started planning, and Oprah's our hero. We really believe in her philosophy of giving back."

The bank sets aside 5 percent of its annual earnings for its holiday efforts.

Last year, the bank staged a "Deal or No Deal" game show takeoff (Solberg donned a bald wig to play host Howie Mandel) where an employee won $500,000.

In on the scheme, the employee told Solberg that he just didn't feel right keeping the money, so he was going to split it with all of the employees.

"Everybody went crazy," Peterson said.

That year, employees also received $1,000 or $500, but to spend as they wished. Employees will still get a holiday bonus this year in addition to the money for charity, and everyone got video cameras to document their good deed.

"This is an unbelievably big gesture," said Eddie Reif, a loan officer in the Alexandria, Minn., branch. "It was a big step for the bank to say, 'Hey, you know where this money can best be used.' I think it's great."

The bank's act of kindness has had unexpected consequences. Reif said that at his branch alone, about 50 people have called wanting to open an account because they were so taken by the gesture.

He is entertaining a number of options for his money, from helping a summer school program for junior high kids with special learning needs to an organization that helps widowed elders.

Other employees have talked about helping families dealing with terminal illness, the Boys and Girls Club and the homeless, among many options. Many have discussed pooling the money or using it as a jumping off point for raising even more.

All proposals must be approved by the bank's human resources department and meet three criteria: employees can not give to their families or to co-workers and the good deed must be documented by June 30 with the video camera.

"I've never heard of any organization doing anything like it before," said Lauren Segal, president and CEO of the Greater Twin Cities United Way. "I'm really struck that they empowered the employees to make a contribution and that they gave them a significant amount of money."

Segal recommended that employees research whatever organization they want to contribute to and, above all else, to "listen to their hearts and do what is important to them."

Several employees said they're getting suggestions from all corners of their lives.

"I don't think we can make an incorrect decision because it's going to help someone," said Tracy Peterson, president of the Detroit Lakes branch. "We're going to make someone very happy, and that's our goal."

Chao Xiong • 612-673-4391