Prosperity Banks: An Offbeat Way to Teach Principle

Cardboard Banks Spark Unprecedented Growth

Twenty-eight-year-old Lowell Fillmore had something on his mind. His parents, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, had built a new spiritual movement called Unity by sharing their message through a magazine. But now people were telling Lowell they couldn’t turn loose of a whole dollar at one time to pay for a subscription. How to help them?

One day in 1910, Lowell took this question into meditation and emerged with a divine idea: prosperity banks. The little cardboard banks fueled exponential growth for Unity over the next 60 years and helped elevate the abundance consciousness of thousands of people. 

It worked like this: Prosperity banks would be given away free to anyone who asked. They could be mailed flat then unfolded into an A-frame container with a slot for coins. The idea was to save one dime a week for 10 weeks, accumulating a full dollar for a magazine subscription. 

The subscription began as soon as someone ordered a bank—they could pay the $1 later—and their names were immediately sent to the Silent Unity^® prayer ministry for 30 days of continuous prayer.

Expanding Prosperity Consciousness

That wasn’t all. The little banks were a mechanism to share the prosperity principles taught by Unity. Unity suggested a “drill” whereby someone dropping a dime into the bank would repeat the prosperity affirmation printed on the back of the bank and hold it in silent meditation, repeating the same affirmation later whenever a thought of lack crept into mind.

This was a time when the average American laborer made $200 to $400 a year—about 18 cents an hour. A loaf of bread cost five cents, a box of cornflakes nine cents, and a pound of coffee was a whopping 15 cents. Scraping together $1 for a magazine subscription would be the equivalent of $33.44 today (considerably more than current Unity subscription prices). 

“The bank plan is designed to enrich the consciousness of the one who uses it, to help him overcome all thoughts of lack and failure and cultivate instead a sense of well-being and plenty. The bank drill furnishes a working method by which to make practical application of the law of prosperity, and bring one’s good into manifestation,” a Unity school catalog later explained.  

It wasn’t long before people using the prosperity banks began to report evidence of abundance in all areas of their lives, increased financial well-being, and a deeper connection spiritually.

“I am well-pleased with the investment,” wrote one. “Harmony has been established out of financial chaos. I realize as never before that God is the source of all good. The Bank certainly brings rich returns.”  

In 1920, Unity Magazine^® addressed prosperity bank skeptics. “Well, just give the bank a chance! In using it with the accompanying drill, you break up old thought conditions of lack, thus allowing the spirit of plenty to express through you. Opulent abundance obtains in the universal mind, and ever seeks to flow out through multitudinous channels.… Rich and poor alike find the plan effective.”  

Unity even discouraged subscribers from sending $1 up front, if they had it, so they could practice the drill for 10 weeks to build up their prosperity consciousness. 

A Driver of Magazine Subscriptions

Unity initially promoted the banks for two magazines:

• Weekly Unity started as a four-page newsletter for about 100 local followers of Unity in Kansas City, Missouri, but was soon offered to the public. It included Charles Fillmore’s talk from the previous Sunday, gave the Bible reading that was used in the service, and featured Lowell Fillmore’s column “Things to be Remembered”—$1 for 50 issues a year. Weekly Unity was best suited to beginners on this spiritual path. 
• Unity Magazine, considered more advanced, was the original monthly publication the Fillmores had started in 1889 to share what they were learning about spiritual principles. It, too, was $1 a year. 

Thousands of people sent away for prosperity banks. Subscriptions to Unity Magazine grew from 13,000 to 30,000 within a year and to 50,000 by 1916. The magazine said, “Prosperity is the manifestation of the fullness of good. It is a universal force, and its source of supply is inexhaustible.” By 1922, Unity Magazine had more than 100,000 subscribers, and Unity was sending out tens of thousands of banks every year.  

Weekly Unity performed even better. Subscriptions grew from 8,500 in 1912 to 185,000 in 1928, the first time Weekly Unity surpassed Unity Magazine. “The secret of success with the bank plan lies in putting to flight all thoughts of fear, sickness, and lack, and substituting thoughts of joy, health, and plenty …”  

For Unity, the greatest financial success came from promotions to buy two subscriptions and get one free, which multiplied circulation as subscribers added their relatives and friends. Unity reminded them that prosperity banks could also be used to save for other Unity periodicals and books or to make a donation. 

Perpetual Promotion

Unity was criticized for materialistic motives, being all about the money. This idea was countered in Weekly Unity in 1927. “There is nothing sinful or mercenary about the accumulation of goods. We are told that plenty is our birthright. If we are thinking right, we cannot escape prosperity and all its phases.” 

By 1932, Unity was mailing an average of 620 banks a day, nearly 200,000 for the year, and magazine circulation continued to grow even during the Great Depression. Unity promoted the banks relentlessly and sometimes overhyped them as a guarantee of personal transformation. 

“Because its use makes you strictly honest, just, free, generous, and forgiving in all monetary dealings.” 

“Because it helps to take your attention from petty, sordid considerations of making ends meet, of rainy days, of hoarding and scrimping.” 

Banks Ran Their Course

The popularity of prosperity banks began to dwindle in the 1960s when a dime seemed like a lot less money and magazine subscription prices had doubled. Between 1911 and 1972, Unity distributed a total of 9.5 million prosperity banks. Versions of them remained available into the 1990s. 

The banks were also used to drive subscriptions to Daily Word^®, which began in 1924 and is now the flagship of Unity publications, along with Wee Wisdom^®, the children’s magazine begun by Myrtle Fillmore and published for 98 years.

The little banks’ reach exceeded anything else Unity did, adding well over 1 million new people to the Unity customer base. The banks introduced more people to Unity than the Silent Unity prayer ministry, the Unity churches around the country, or the many books published by Unity. And for thousands and maybe millions of people, the promise of the prosperity banks came true. 

 “Make your mind prosperous through cultivating large ideas of God’s abundance, and learn to bless and praise everything you possess, even though it be small in appearance. You will then be on the royal road to prosperity,” Unity Magazine said.  

Weekly Unity, where Lowell Fillmore served as editor for 60 years, ceased publication in 1972 because weekly printing and postage costs were mounting and the monthly Unity Magazine contained much of the same material.  

Unity Magazine, the original publication through which Charles and Myrtle Fillmore founded the Unity movement, is now called Spirituality & Health^®: A Unity Publication. It continues to share spiritual principles and practices with a broad audience beyond Unity