Nonprofit among 9 orgs. that received a portion of $325K from M&T Bank

Easterseals NH has a 15-acre campus in Franklin that will be developed into a center to support military community members and their families. Construction began in September 2023. (Courtesy photo)

M&T Bank’s decision to finance an affordable housing complex for veterans in Franklin overseen by Easterseals NH was a natural progression for Tim Wade, the bank’s regional president in New Hampshire.

Shortly after Wade moved from upstate New York to Manchester two years ago, he joined the board of Easterseals NH and is currently the chair of the development committee.

“If somebody gets an email from Easterseals asking for money, I probably was involved in it,” Wade said in a recent interview.

New Hampshire Housing and M&T Bank are working with Easterseals to finance the construction of 29 one- and two-bedroom rental units for tenants whose income is between 30% and 80% of area median income. M&T also is providing a $3 million revolving line of credit that Easterseals will use to bridge an American Rescue Plan grant it secured from the state for housing construction.

New Hampshire Housing allocated the project about $7 million in federal low-income housing tax credits that M&T is purchasing to facilitate the redevelopment of the 15-acre Daniel Webster Farm Campus and transform it into a residential and program center for veterans and their families, according to a press release.

“The Franklin project is one-of-a-kind nationally, and I think that’s what really draws people’s attention to it,” Wade said. “It’s going to be a campus that does more than what anybody else is doing for the vets in the nation.”

Services will include equine therapy and a VA clinic.

“So you get to the campus and you get all the care that you need, rather than just bits and pieces and having to go find it,” Wade said. “I think that’s what’s remarkable about what Easterseals is doing in Franklin and why we supported it.”

Wade learned firsthand about the scope of service Easterseals provides through a family connection.

“Easterseals supported my family when I had a young grandson that needed early intervention, and they got him on the right track and graduated, and he’s done and he’s out,” he said.

Easterseals NH provides services to children who have development, behavioral and intellectual disabilities; programs to help youth transition adulthood, a camp for youth with disabilities and a variety of programs for seniors. Its Farnum program provides recovery services for adults battling drug and alcohol addiction.

“What people don’t realize about Easterseals is the breadth of the services provided from the youngest of youths to the oldest of elderly,” Wade said. “And it’s one of the reasons why I got on (the board). I was involved in long-term care. I ran some nursing homes for a while. It’s a need that the community has and that we need to provide.”

Easterseals NH was among the nine organizations that received a portion of the $325,000 M&T Bank provided to New Hampshire nonprofits last year.

“The idea was we’re trying to give it to those organizations that collaborate with other organizations in the community to amplify the gift that we’re giving,” Wade said. “We gave anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000 to those groups, and Easterseals was one of them.”

So it was a natural fit for Maureen Beauregard, CEO of Easterseals NH, to be Wade’s first guest on “CEO’s You Should Know,” his new interview series on the Pulse NH.

Local roots

Wade was raised in Illinois and attended Union College, a liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York, where he met his wife, who is a native of Laconia. Wade and his family first settled in the Albany, New York. He was based in Boston, serving as regional president for M&T Bank in New England, when the company acquired People’s United Bank.

“I was asked, can I go and repeat what I did in Boston up in New Hampshire? It just so happened my wife’s a New Hampshire girl. She was born in Laconia and raised in Manchester,” says Wade, who lives in Manchester now. “It’s a great place to live and work.”