SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--EARN, a national nonprofit fintech company that helps working families achieve prosperity through savings, is changing its name to SaverLife effective immediately. Since its founding in 2001, the organization has advanced aspirational savings programs, analytical insights and policy initiatives to better serve people typically left out of the financial services conversation.
Incentives to Save
SaverLife is a consumer-friendly and free online savings program designed to make saving money safe, simple and rewarding. It does this by providing financial resources, incentives and a community to help working people invest in their future and build savings habits that can last a lifetime. In 2017, SaverLife started a national savings movement to improve individual economic mobility and create systemic change, leading to a fairer financial system. The model, which has been proven to increase savings, currently has almost 200,000 members.
“SaverLife’s rapid growth demonstrates the need for a savings solution that focuses on working families,” said SaverLife President & CEO Leigh Phillips. “Chronic financial instability affects millions of working Americans. SaverLife fills a gap by providing a much-needed resource and incentives for families to start saving. And it works. Our participating families earn half of the national average, yet they save twice as much.”
SaverLife is fun, free and easy to get started, taking only a few minutes to sign up online. Customers immediately start receiving incentives to save including prizes and rewards, supportive and informative financial content and a safe and inclusive community forum to engage with other members. Designed for working families struggling to get ahead, SaverLife takes the shame out of finance. As a trusted nonprofit, SaverLife is entirely safe, and user financial information is kept completely confidential.
To date, the results have been staggering. The majority of those using SaverLife—many of whom have never successfully saved before— have set aside over $500 and more than doubled their savings rate in just the first six months of the program (by a factor of 2.3x). Participant savings rates are 1.7x higher than the national average—SaverLife members save on average 11 percent of their income compared to the national average of 6 percent— and they earn half as much.
“SaverLife is a leader in the emerging nonprofit fintech sector, ensuring the needs of underrepresented consumers are represented in the fast-moving financial technology space,” said Ida Rademacher, vice president at the Aspen Institute and executive director of the Aspen Financial Security Program. “They work not only with families but a diverse group of employers, financial institutions, technology companies, and nonprofits to help people save money. The program is clearly working.”
National Savings Crisis
According to a recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank, 40 percent of respondents to a national survey could not cover an unexpected $400 expense without going into debt. Further, a recent report from the Urban Institute concluded that families with a savings cushion of as little as $250 to $749 are less likely to be evicted, miss a housing or utility payment or receive public benefits after a job loss, health issue or large income drop.
SaverLife is telling a different story about the financial lives of low-income, hardworking Americans and bringing people together to share their successes and challenges. SaverLife consists of a united, diverse coalition of partners—employers, financial institutions, funders, nonprofits, local governments and their members—that have assembled to address the savings crisis. While its name is changing, SaverLife’s mission—to create prosperity for working families by helping them save and invest in their futures—will remain the same.
About SaverLife
SaverLife (formerly EARN) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit on a mission—to inspire, inform, and reward the millions of Americans who need help saving money. Through engaging technologies and strategic partnerships, we give working people the methods and motivation to take control of their financial future. SaverLife has a number of esteemed investor partners including Intuit Financial Freedom Foundation, MetLife Foundation, Prudential, JPMorgan Chase & Co., MasterCard and Capital One. For more information or to join the SaverLife Movement, please visit about.saverlife.org.
