Financial Injustice And Racism

Photo Credit: Franco Folini

Sometimes I feel like people hear that we do consumer financial services for the poor and start to lose interest. And I get it: unlike a food pantry, homeless shelter or community health clinic, it's hard to see the direct link between loans, Financial Coaching and free tax preparation and the needs of the poor.  As I often point out when I give talks, the founders of social change organizations tend to have a bit of a martyr complex.  That is, they want to feel that what they are doing is a matter of life and death for those they serve.  When I was starting CGF, for instance, I initially questioned whether poverty in America was severe enough to warrant dedicating my life to eradicating it; after all, unlike some countries in Africa or Latin America, we don't have people dying of malnutrition and water born diseases.

American Poverty
Sadly, the more I've learned about American poverty and inequality, the more I've learned that, yes, in absolute terms it's not the same as in "developing" countries, but in relative terms, it's an endemic crisis of injustice.  One out of three Americans live at 150% of the poverty line or below; ~50 million don't get three square meals a day; we have the highest rate of incarceration in the world (25% of all prisoners in the world are in the US); the average black household has one-tenth the wealth of a white household; and on and on and on.

An Empty Inbox And Calendar - What To Do?

Photo Credit: John-Morgan

On most days I barely have time to think.  The hours pass by in a procession of emails and phone calls to respond to, checks to sign, reports to file, proposals to write, meetings to attend; and by the end of the day I am both exhausted and have the unshakable feeling that I "never got to work on the important stuff."  So I was pleasantly surprised to arrive in the office this morning and see virtually nothing on my Google calendar and very little in my inbox.  "Finally," I thought, "I can get caught up on bigger projects."

Well it's now 5 PM and my pleasant surprise has turned into surprising displeasure.  It appears that I've become so accustomed to always having an immediate task in front of me that I become lost when a window of time opens up.  I think we forget how hard it is to log out of your email, close your office door, turn off your phone and work on a longer-term initiative. In my case, for instance, I'm working on writing a prospectus for a Direct Public Offering (DPO), the goal of which is for us to raise funds by borrowing money from individuals, religious endowments, foundations and financial institutions.

What The Young Bucks Have To Say About Social Change

I started Capital Good Fund (CGF) when I was 24.  At 29, I am proud to say that I run a tremendously successful, innovative and rapidly growing social change organization, one that has garnered local, state and national attention.  After five years in this role, I’ve seen a lot about what is right and wrong with the social sector: old ways of thinking about philanthropy and inchoate changes to that thinking. 

This clash, this tension in philosophy and practice, had informed much of what I do.  For instance, consider the way we price our products and services.  In the past, the prevailing belief was that nonprofits should stamp everything they do “free of charge” or, at best, charge a nominal fee.  I’ve encountered this attitude in many meetings with other nonprofit and philanthropic leaders, an attitude which seems to say “we are here to protect these poor people; they cannot, and should not, have to pay for what you offer.”

A Tip For Starting Your Nonprofit - Don't Look Like A Putz

Here's a tip: when starting a nonprofit, do enough research to know what you're talking about.  I
learned this the hard way.  Way back in the summer of 2008, when I was doing some of the legwork for Capital Good Fund (speaking to community partners and potential funders, writing a business plan, etc.), I set up a presentation a group of bankers and financial experts.  The idea was to present to them my vision for a nonprofit financial service provider and to then get their feedback.

Great idea, right?  Well, everything was going swimmingly--people were getting so excited!--until the Q & A began.  The first question I got was, and I'll never forget this, "Tell us about your underwriting criteria."  Nothing wrong with the question save for the fact that I had no idea what on earth underwriting was!  What I don't recall is what I said in response, but I got feedback afterward to the effect that I looked like a bit of a putz.

The Challenge of Dressing For Success

Photo Credit: Averain

In the "adult world"--you know, that place where real business is transacted, big decisions are made,
important meetings held--your attire is essential.  Blazers, ties, slacks, wingtips, pantsuits, heels: these are the not-so-secret handshakes to enter that banal society whose only mission is to allow you to be taken seriously.  And don't get me wrong: I want to be taken seriously. After all, I run a nonprofit whose mission is to tackle poverty.  The problem is that I also want to be comfortable, both physically and, more deeply, with who I am.

So what does that problem have to do with clothing? You see, many years ago I decided to eschew driving in favor of making the bicycle my primary means of transportation; and although in the intervening years I eventually succumbed to pragmatism and purchased a car, I do my best to avoid using it.  The challenge is that it's hard to square bicycling to the office and to meetings--in the rain, the snow, the cold, the wind, the searing heat--with the world's demand for sartorial splendor.  Nice clothes get sweaty, get wet, get wrinkled and generally don't stand up well to anything beyond the carefully climate-controlled environment of the cubicle.

Introducing The Nonprofit Life

I've been writing this blog for quite a while, and I am proud of both the content and the readership I've cultivated over the years.  But, let's face it, to date my writings have tended toward the academic ..nothing wrong with that, it's just that they aren't the kind of thing one looks forward to reading on a daily basis.

Now it's time to make a shift, one that I'm making for several reasons.  First, we have a new Marketing Officer, Ashley Lynch, who is a bit of a social media guru; she is going to help us grow our audience and our reach.  Second, so much of what goes on at Capital Good Fund on a daily basis is funny, sad, joyous, confusing, agonizing...sharing these stories is bound to draw people in and capture their attention.  And finally, the more I can tell the story of what we do through the eyes of myself and my staff, our clients and our funders, the more I can inspire people to laugh and cry and learn and take action, the easier it will be to further our mission of tackling poverty in America.

Great Programs Fail Without Marketing

When you hear the debate about large scale federal programs such as the Affordable Care Act, the focus tends to be on issues related to taxes, states rights, the role of government, etc.  Yet what is becoming increasingly clear to me is that once a piece of legislation is passed and a program funded; once the lawsuits have run their course; and in short once the dust has settled, the most critical question is how people will actually take advantage of the initiative.

The Obamacare rollout is the exception that proves the rule.  Going into it, policymakers knew that unless a large percentage of uninsured young people signed up for the exchanges, the whole program wouldn't work.  To address this, the federal government spent nearly $700 million on "publicity, marketing and advertising..."  And it appears to have worked: as of April 19, 2014 over 8 million Americans had selected a plan on the insurance marketplaces (source: CNN)