The Top 3 Things We Accomplished in Q4 of 2010
Donald Trump aside, we can all agree that $4.4 million is a ton of moolah. You may be surprised to learn that $4.4 million represents the total personal savings of EARN’s 3,162 matched savings account holders since 2002. Already knew that? Well, then you must have read our Quarterly Impact Report. (Now the photo makes sense, right? Quarterly Impact Report?) For the few of you that haven’t (tsk, tsk), feel free to take a gander.
Don’t have the time? I got your back. EARN’s Q4 2010 highlights include the following:
1) $6.2 million ($6.2 million!) in personal savings and EARN match funds invested by low-wage families in 1,349 small businesses, educations, homes, and other assets;
2) Launching the EARN Research Institute to investigate what factors are critical for low-wage workers and their families to achieve financial success; and
3) Releasing two research briefs that outline our applied research methodology and its statistical application in evaluating the efficacy of EARN's matched savings programs.
Have I piqued your curiosity? I’ll give you another chance to read our report in full.
All kidding aside, since EARN’s founding, we have tirelessly studied the outcomes of our work, documented success and failure, and adjusted accordingly. We take pride in being a data-driven organization, and we deliberately frame our core offerings as experiments in attaining the levels of efficiency and effectiveness that are required in order to offer our products and services at scale to low-wage workers and their families.
Fundamentally, we operate on the premise that we shouldn’t measure outcomes simply to prove that programs work but also to improve the way they work. That’s how we’ve established the fastest-growing and most innovative asset-building program in the nation. EARN Savers have purchased 126 homes. They have launched 453 microenterprises. They have invested in 668 educations. That’s nothing to scoff at, especially when you consider that our Savers earn an average household income of $19,420 per year at enrollment and are concentrated in low-income, predominantly minority communities in the Bay Area.
If your eyes glaze over at the sight of numbers, we hear you. While statistics are impressive, we believe that the most profound testament to the power of asset building comes from our Savers themselves: hard-working people whose expectations about their own abilities to achieve prosperity and about their families’ futures are transformed through this process. In our report, we share the story of EARN Saver Helena Edwards, who grew up in a group home for foster kids, became a foster mother herself, and faced eviction before finding EARN and opening a matched savings account. With EARN’s help, she was able to purchase the real home she always dreamed of for herself and her family. Somewhere, The Donald is nodding in approval. In fact, he’s probably whipping his hair back-and-forth, Willow Smith-style.
There are a few outcomes in our Quarterly Report that I neglected to touch on in this post, like the expansion of our financial coaching program to Marin County and Silicon Valley, or the fact that we were featured in TIME Magazine. No time or space to delve into those achievements here, so please, if you haven’t already, I encourage you to read our Quarterly Impact Report. Even you, Mr. Trump.
Until next week,
Ben Nishimoto
Grants Coordinator
Photo credit: matthiasxc
