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ADP is the lead agency on a pilot project looking at three models of financial service programs that build the financial strength of low-wage workers: 1) a prepaid debit card with onsite low-cost loading, online bill payment with credit reporting, and card-to-cash money transfers; 2) a credit union account with flexible identification requirements and low-cost money transfers; and 3) a low-cost SMS-enabled money transfer system focused on the Pilipino community. The collaborative includes national partners (Center for Community Change and Enlace) and four other worker centers (New Labor, The Workplace Project, Pilipino Worker Center, and El Centro Humanitario Para Los Trabajadores) that provide a wide range of support services, advocacy, and organizing. Leveraging the trust and relationships worker centers have in their communities, along with their expertise in outreach and education, the project has the potential to reach more than 3 million low-income consumers and provide industry with a new and powerful distribution channel. The project design is focused on self-sustainability and scalability, with more non-profits already interested in joining the collaborative after the pilot.

ADP, based in Springfield, MA, is a membership-based community organization that works on such issues as worker and immigrant rights, health care, and affordable housing. ADP is nationally known for its model of cooperative economic development, having transformed 1,450 units of deteriorated housing to tenant owned permanently affordable co-ops, created worker-controlled businesses, and developed food cooperatives which distribute 180,000 pounds of food annually. Immigrant and low wage members of the ADP Worker Center / Casa Obrera have secured over $300,000 in restitution from employers. ADP has developed hundreds of area leaders and created business and capital holdings collectively worth $45 million. These community-owned assets contribute $20 million a year in cash flow to the local economy.

Appleseed, a non-partisan and non-profit organization, is a network of independent public interest law Centers established across North America working to identify and address social injustices. Appleseed works to build a just society through education, legal advocacy, community activism and policy expertise by addressing root causes and producing practical, systemic solutions with broad national and international implications. For more information, please visit: www.appleseeds.net. Appleseed Fair Exchange Rate Project Appleseed will conduct research into exchange rates and develop a "fair exchange" brand to increase transparency and ultimately reduce the rates charged to remittance customers. Exchange rate mark-ups can constitute as much as 90% of the total fees on remittances and are often not clearly disclosed or difficult to understand. In an effort to provide more equitable and transparent financial services to low income and especially immigrant consumers, this project will identify trends in exchange rate fees and establish a brand for a Fair Exchange Rate.
http://www.appleseeds.net

The Center for Community Change is a non profit, nonpartisan advocacy group helping low-income people, especially people of color, build powerful effective organizations through which they can change their communities and public policies for the better. The Center has an active history in community organizing in low-income communities, encompassing urban and rural areas, and African American, Latino, Native American, Asian American, and immigrant communities. Over the years, the Center has nurtured thousands of local groups and leaders. In addition, the Center has catalyzed grassroots coalitions that were instrumental in the creation of the federal Food Stamps Program, the enactment of the Community Reinvestment Act, the growth of Community Development Corporations, and the large-scale preservation of affordable housing. National organizations incubated by the Center include The Coalition on Human Needs, The Workforce Alliance, The Environmental Support Center, The Rural Coalition, The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy and The National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support. Throughout its history, the Center has provided policy and organizing expertise on a range of issue areas, including: community reinvestment, affordable and public housing, transportation, income support and job creation, economic development and housing production, hunger and malnutrition, immigrant rights and legislation, and community monitoring efforts to hold government agencies accountable to residents. For more information, please visit www.communitychange.org.

Center for Community Self-Help, founded in 1980, works to create and protect ownership and economic opportunity for people of color, women, rural residents, and low-wealth families. Self-Help provides a broad spectrum of services including home and small business lending, investing in affordable housing and downtown redevelopment projects, managing several retail credit unions, and developing a national secondary market home mortgage program that has made $4.5 billion of mortgage financing available to low- and moderate-income families. Its non-partisan research and policy affiliate, Center for Responsible Lending, works to eliminate abusive financial practices at the state and federal levels. More information is available at www.self-help.org and www.responsiblelending.org.

Self-Help's Micro-Branch Credit Union Initiative is a new project designed to bring full-service responsible financial services to low-income communities in California. An estimated 36% of the US adult population relies on check cashing operations and other alternative financial service providers for some or all of their financial services needs. Self-Help aims to serve this market responsibly and sustainably by designing and launching a credit union branch model built on three key foundations:

* Meeting customers where they are -- by providing familiar and necessary transaction services and building welcoming and comfortable neighborhood branches;

* Transitioning customers to credit union membership and the financial mainstream -- by building trust and designing deposit, transaction and debt products specifically to meet the needs of low-income people; and

* Lowering the cost of operations to create sustainability -- by building small, low-cost branches, using process automation technology, centralizing certain management functions with a hub and spoke structure, and using a simplified product line designed specifically for our market.

Self-Help’s work will demonstrate how transactional services can be used as customer acquisition tools and how transactional consumers can transition to more traditional accounts and lending products.

The Community Development Technologies Center (CDTech) is a nonprofit training, applied research and technical assistance organization specializing in community economic development. Its programs help strengthen the social, economic and built environments of low-income neighborhoods by focusing on community strengths and strategic partnerships. CDTech's collaborative relationship with Los Angeles Trade Technical College (LATTC), results in a full-service community economic development resource center.

Community Empower works to assist consumers who cannot yet qualify for a mortgage. The organization has a grass-roots network of over 175 trained counselors who can personally guide the consumer to loan preparedness using Community Empower's proprietary web-based system. After a brief interview, the system gives the counselor the information to provide specific strategies to the consumer that will most positively affect their ability to close on a home. Then Community Empower’s lending and home-building partners work with the consumer to match them to a loan and a home they can afford.

Community Development Technologies Center and Community Empower - Employee Financial Services Assistance Program

The Community Development Technologies Center (CDTech) is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit training, applied research and technical assistance organization with ten years of experience and an annual budget of $1.5 million specializing in community economic development.

Launched less than two years ago, Community Empower is a Dallas-based umbrella organization of three national for-profit companies supporting first-time home buyers with a web-based credit assessment tool, referrals for mortgage products and links to home builders.

Project Description: Through this CFSI-funded project, CDTech, in conjunction with Community Empower, will introduce Community Empower’s innovative stored-value card and web-based financial evaluation services services to low-wage workers in Los Angeles. The combined proposal expands CDTech’s employer-based IDA program to an employee financial services assistance program. CDTech will work with its financial services partners to include additional mortgage offerings in the database, and will work with its current IDA participants to provide them with the stored-value cards. It will also recruit new employers to sign up employees for IDAs that use the stored-value card and credit platform.

Furthering Innovation: Community Empower is launching a new stored-value card, which allows customers to establish multiple “wallets” to help facilitate saving, including payroll direct deposit, down payment savings, and remittances. The processing platform combines a highly efficient credit assessment tool with mortgage information and referral services. Likewise, CDTech will expand the range of products and services it distributes to meet the short-term financial needs of IDA participants on the road to homeownership.

http://www.cdtech.org
https://www.communityempower.com

Credit Builders Alliance was incorporated in 2006 as a non-profit organization to help community lenders – including CDFIs, microenterprise and housing development organizations, asset building organizations and community credit unions - report loan repayment data to the major credit bureaus. CBA was created through an allied partnership of industry leaders - Central Vermont Community Action, RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, and Association for Enterprise Opportunity.

CBA has a mission to create huge impacts in the credit and asset building field. It also has a goal of ultimately affecting the way policies and regulations are developed in regard to credit scoring. CBA was born out of the tightening credit industry and the community-based financial services fields’ response to help their customers build assets and move into the financial mainstream. Over the past year, CBA has developed an innovative business model in coordination with community lenders and the major credit bureaus – and a package of products and services that bridges the needs and demands of the two industries for reliable, high quality data on unbanked and underbanked families. CBA is now a one-stop shop to aggregate data from hundreds of small lenders to furnish it to the major credit bureaus. For more information, please visit http://www.creditbuildersalliance.org/.

Working with the Filene Institute, D2D is testing the viability of large scale offering of what they call “prize linked savings,” a savings account that, in addition to paying a small rate of interest, rewards savings with entries into sweepstakes drawings for prizes. This product innovation combines the utility of saving with the thrill of possibly winning ‘big’, and is modeled on similar products in over 20 countries around the world including the U.K. and Sweden. A key objective of the project is to determine the potential of this product to spur savings by current non-savers and to explore the feasibility of offering this product at scale. D2D has already conducted a small beta test with a few credit unions in Indiana. Filene and D2D will work with a group of Michigan credit unions to further develop and test the concept.

D2D Fund seeks to expand access to financial services, especially asset building opportunities, for lower income families by creating, testing and deploying innovative financial products and services. D2D works with the financial services industry, national non-profit groups, grassroots community agencies, and public policy organizations to incubate and promote practical applications through pilot projects which have social impact. D2D Fund has helped to elevate the idea of split refunds at tax time to a national audience and also promoted Series I US Savings Bonds as a valuable and unique asset-building product that is well-suited for low-income and/or first-time savers. D2D’s Fund is based in Roxbury, MA.

The Filene Research Institute is dedicated to scientific and thoughtful analysis about issues affecting the future of consumer finance and credit unions. Its mission is to support research efforts that will ultimately enhance the well-being of consumers and assist credit unions in adapting to rapidly changing economic, legal and social environments. The Institute's founders and today's Institute leaders believe that research and new ideas are critical tools for understanding: How people can cooperate more effectively to achieve goals; how more people can gain economic independence; how the spirit of mutual self-help can build better communities; and how volunteerism can shape financial institutions that better respond to the needs of households. The Filene Research Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose research and innovation programs are made possible by more than 1,500 members.

MACED works to improve the quality of life in Kentucky and Central Appalachia by creating economic opportunity, strengthening democracy and supporting the sustainable use of natural resources. MACED is a multi-strategy community economic development organization committed to equipping entrepreneurs, communities and change agents with the tools they need to build stronger economies that work for low-income people and natural places in need.

MACED developed the Common Cents Financial Initiative (CCFI) to address the need for affordable emergency credit, provide an alternative to high-cost payday loans and link underbanked people to other financial services. The CCFI partners with rural businesses to help low- to moderate-income workers break out of the cycle of debt by offering a reasonably-priced emergency loan product, the Save It! Loan. The Save It! Loan is offered through employers with a ten month payback period, eighteen percent interest and a funded savings account which is repaid along with the loan amount. The program and loan application are web-based and provide employees with funds within two business days of applying.

MACED began piloting the Save It! Loan in 2006 and they are now developing the infrastructure and the expertise to take the model to scale. MACED’s goal is to engage 30 or more employers representing 10,000 employees and to make 1,000 loans. MACED’s program is an innovative and scalable approach to connecting lower income consumers to financial services in rural America. MACED won the University of Kentucky’s Nonprofit Leadership Initiative’s 2008 Innovative Nonprofit Award for their Common Cents Financial Initiative (CCFI). You can view the award video online.

To learn more about MACED’s Common Cents Financial Initiative, read the learning brief that accompanies the article, "MACED Receives Innovation Award."

Community Action Project of Tulsa County LogoThe Community Action Project of Tulsa County (CAP) is the Tulsa area's designated community action agency. CAPTC’s mission is to help individuals and families in economic need achieve self-sufficiency through emergency aid, medical care, housing community development, education and advocacy delivered in an atmosphere of respect. The organization provides an array of federal, state and privately funded programs in support of this mission.

Community Action Project of Tulsa County - Benefits Eligibility System for Oklahomans Project
Community Action Project of Tulsa County (CAPTC) is one of the largest social service agencies in Tulsa, offering a myriad of services. The agency has a $19 million annual operating budget and is renowned for its Individual Development Account program and free tax preparation services, totaling $18 million in refunds on more than 14,000 tax returns completed in 2004.

Project Description: Through this CFSI-funded project, CAPTC CAPTC will add functionality to its web-based benefits eligibility screening tool and will sell product licenses to employers and other social services agencies. Over the last year, CAPTC has developed the Benefits Eligibility System for Oklahomans (BESO), an Internet-based eligibility screening tool, benefit calculator, and electronic application generator. By introducing BESO to various employers and community-based agencies throughout Oklahoma, CAPTC will assist low-income households to build wealth by reducing their monthly out-of-pocket expenses. With these savings, BESO will directly connect low-income residents to financial products offered by area banks and credit unions such as free checking/savings accounts, affordable housing mortgages, credit counseling, and financial literacy programs.

Furthering Innovation: In addition to increasing BESO’s functionality by loading additional benefits programs, CAPTC will develop a case management component that connects the screening tool to opportunities for asset-building and saving. Ultimately, a link between financial services and the benefits screening software will transform BESO into an asset-building system designed to translate savings on paper into savings in the bank. Although benefits enrollment and eligibility criteria are state-specific, there are a large number of potential distribution channels for the software solution, and umbrella organizations may facilitate its spread in a more efficient manner.

U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that has served refugees and immigrants since 1911. USCRI supports a network of 37 social service Partner Agencies across the United States with programs to help newcomers achieve self sufficiency and full membership in our communities. The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants provides research and policy analysis to defend the rights of refugees worldwide.

U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants - Connecting Refugees and Immigrants with the United States Banking Sector U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) is a non-governmental refugee resettlement agency with a cooperative agreement with the U.S. State Department. USCRI resettles refugees through a network of 37 immigrant and refugee social service agencies, which offer a variety of programs that help newcomers adjust to life in America.

Project Description: Through this CFSI-funded project, USCRI will adopt an electronic deposit system for matching grant payments; establish an electronic travel loan repayment system; create a refugee-specific financial literacy curriculum; and open bank accounts for refugees while providing training on how to use electronic payments. Working with 18 partner agencies around the country, USCRI will develop electronic deposit systems for refugee cash assistance and employment incentive payments. Automating the currently manual process of receiving loan payments reduces transaction costs and links refugees to the U.S. financial services system upon entry. Additionally, USCRI will create refugee-specific financial literacy materials for use in classes and case management. Partner agencies will help link refugees with banking services.

Furthering Innovation: Despite recent attention paid to immigrant populations, we still know far less about the refugee segment. This project will provide tremendous quantitative data on attitudes, behavior, and usage of financial services, and has large potential for replication at the national level. Having a connection to a bank will allow refugees that have obtained jobs to receive their paychecks electronically, introducing them to the U.S. financial system and exposing them to a new layer of electronic products and services. Ultimately, refugees will be able to pay their loans on time using an electronic bill payment service and to automatically deduct a portion of their income towards savings. Thus, the project will not only provide the opportunity to save, but also the “digital discipline” to do it. With replication, the hope is that all of the roughly 50,000 refugees arriving in the U.S. each year can participate in the program.

The Urban Insurance Partners Institute’s mission is to help insurers have a rewarding presence in urban areas. Programs are designed to benefit both insurers and urban residents. A diverse group of insurers, reinsurers and insurance industry trade associations provide financial and technical support to these efforts. As an educational organization, the institute focuses on two main areas. These emphases are 1) educating insurance companies about urban markets, and 2) teaching urban residents about insurance. The institute has demonstrated success in creating alliances among insurance companies and local urban community organizations. UIPI strives to provide insurers with the resources, contacts and data needed to write business effectively in urban areas. Several initiatives help accomplish these goals. Ongoing programs include a national workshop, Web site, informative newsletter, media outreach, consumer insurance education classes and community partnerships. For more information, please visit www.uipi.org.