Operation_HOPE_Logo_(New) More Than One Million Individuals Served to Date

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Operation HOPE (HOPE) chose financial literacy month to highlight program results, announcing today that its “silver rights” campaign to empower the underserved has helped more than one million individuals move up the economic ladder and has raised over a half billion dollars in historic grant funding and community investment.

“Operation HOPE continues to bridge the economic gap, focusing our efforts on educating the underserved consumer and empowering them with the language of money. Seventeen years since inception, following the worst urban riot in U.S. history, HOPE continues to stay focused on its original vision, mission, mandate and on-the-ground work for people,” said John Hope Bryant, HOPE founder, chairman and CEO, who also has a role as vice chair on the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. “Our achievements demonstrate our ability to provide aspirationally relevant empowerment-based programs and services to individuals, particularly in these challenging economic times.”

For the past 17 years the organization has been putting financial literacy at the forefront of the nation’s agenda, empowering both adult and youth in financial literacy, through its core programs: HOPE Coalition America – the financial emergency preparedness and recovery division, currently featuring the Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline (888-388-HOPE); Banking on Our Future – the youth financial literacy training portfolio; the HOPE Banking Center Network – brick and mortar centers featuring internet access, credit management, home and small business loans, and with strong support from our growing family of more than 8,000 HOPE Corps volunteers.

HOPE Results Report Card:

HOPE Coalition America (HCA)

  • 2008 to date some 220 individuals and families claimed $662,760 in tax refunds and Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC). Since program inception, HCA has assisted over 4,500 people for total tax refunds claimed in excess of $12,600,000;
  • Modified or restructured home loans for 775 homeowners for a total of $226,476,780 through the Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline.

HOPE Banking Center Network (HBCN)

  • Reached $415,284,363 in mortgage and small business purchase and refinance loan approvals.
  • Funded loans totaling $203,417,653 for home and small business.
  • Provided financial literacy to 46,147 adults and counseled 19,891 through HOPE Center financial education and credit counseling services.

Combined these programs have generated more than $641,000,000 in total loan commitments for HOPE clients.

Banking on Our Future (BOOF)

  • Educated 81,125 students in 2008, bringing the program to more than 372,000 since 1996.
  • Provided financial literacy training to over 6000 youth and women in South Africa since June, 2007.
  • Launched Banking on Our Future College Edition with Spelman College in partnership with the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), ultimately bringing financial literacy empowerment to 10 more HBCU’s in 2009, and all 105 campuses over the next five years.

As a social investment banking and public benefit organization, HOPE makes access to dignity-centered financial services in inner-city and underserved communities a top priority. It was HOPE's advocacy that inspired our nation to make financial literacy U.S. federal policy, which subsequently led to the creation of the non-partisan President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy.

Operation HOPE provides its economic empowerment programs through a series of collaborations with private sector, community and government partners, without which the success of these initiatives would not be possible. For a complete list of HOPE Partners log onto www.operationhope.org.

About Operation HOPE, Inc.

Operation HOPE is America's leading nonprofit social investment banking and financial literacy empowerment organization. With more than 400 private sector partners, 1500 nonprofit organizations and schools, and 100 government partners in 68 major U.S. cities as well as South Africa, HOPE has raised more than $500 million in its pursuit of educating, assisting and inspiring the next generation of global stakeholders. Through international initiatives and its three principal programs, Banking on Our Future (teaching school children about money), HOPE Coalition America (Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline, 1-888-388-HOPE, financial emergency preparedness and disaster relief), and Walk-In HOPE Centers (loans, bill pay, computer literacy, understanding banking principles), Operation HOPE has delivered services to more than one million low-wealth individuals and assumed the responsibility of piloting the Silver Rights Movement towards making free enterprise and capitalism relevant to all underserved communities. To learn more about HOPE, visit www.operationhope.org or read our blog at www.operationhope.org/blog.

Pin It on Pinterest