On 12/27/2012 1:46 PM, James Salsman wrote: None of those rates are current, from quick investigation they appear to be anywhere from two weeks to two months old. As any published rate sheet will tell you, rates are subject to change without notice. Where the actual websites, as opposed to this aggregator, are more up-to-date, it looks like the rates are often significantly lower. Furthermore, even the outdated published rates have significant limitations that may render them unworkable. For example, while deposits may be guaranteed up to $250,000, the institution may not actually offer certificates up to that amount. In at least one of the examples I found with that link, the credit union is publishing rates for CDs that are not actually available, and it appears the only products actually available are for 17- and 23-month terms. Credit unions also have membership requirements, and while the limitations around those have loosened significantly in recent years, it's not as simple as finding the highest rate and opening an account. Even a consumer would need to figure out which ones they can join first before shopping based on rates. The membership question alone would probably rule out any of the examples found, and for an organization like Wikimedia you'd have the additional issues of whether they support business accounts and what services they offer in that capacity. As Garfield also mentioned in the IRC office hours, part of his mandate is low risk. In finance, that tends to be reflected in wariness of institutions as small as these. They're less accessible, less equipped to provide the level of services needed, and more vulnerable to change (which can mean either failure or acquisition). While consolidation is a bigger factor in the volatile small banking industry, small credit unions are hardly immune themselves. And while it's easy to talk about federal insurance as a backstop in case of outright failure, as a practical matter there may be a lot of time and hoops involved to recover your deposits in such situations, which runs counter to the focus on liquidity for cash reserves. Donor funds need to be managed wisely, but simply performing a Google search for the best interest rates is not all that useful a tool here. If somebody wants to come to Garfield and tell him, "I've had some of my own money in a CD with Bank or Credit Union X for the last 6 months, I've been getting X% and I'm about to renew at a similar rate, and I know they can handle business accounts like yours", I think information like that might have more practical value. In the meantime, I won't try to micromanage the work of our financial professionals without having clear options for improvement ready to suggest. --Michael Snow