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Grant fuels nonprofit’s ability to prevent foreclosures, reduce credit card debt and
provide financial literacy services in Michigan, Mississippi and New Mexico

(LOS ANGELES) March 18, 2010 – Financial literacy and social empowerment nonprofit Operation HOPE (HOPE) announced today a $400,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Kellogg) to expand the nonprofit’s “silver rights” mission to eradicate poverty. The funding will be used to provide financial literacy education and promote economic education and financial security to underserved communities where brick and mortar services are not located.

“Our mortgage HOPE Mortgage Crisis Hotline, HOPE Consumer Credit Crisis Hotline and our BankingonOurFuture.org programs are available to all communities across the nation,” said John Hope Bryant, Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman and CEO, and author of business bestseller, Love Leadership, in response to receiving the grant. “By allowing us to support efforts in Michigan, Mississippi and New Mexico, HOPE will be able to better service underserved Americans in these areas."

HOPE’s toll-free and online services will offer the following services: Foreclosure Prevention, Personal Mortgage and Financial Counseling Assistance, Debt Negotiation, Credit Card Debt Reduction, and online youth financial literacy, through BankingonOurFuture.org.

“With these targeted strategies for financial education and coaching, more low-income families can begin to improve their economic security,” said Anne Mosle, vice president for programs with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. “We believe it’s also critical to reach young people to start early with financial literacy education and improve their futures.”

The hotlines, staffed by certified foreclosure prevention and credit counselors, are HUD-approved and offer services at no-cost to consumers through the toll-free number at 888-388-HOPE (4673). To date, the Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline and the HOPE Consumer Credit Crisis Hotline have received more than 122,000 calls for assistance from every state in the Union and have delayed or prevented foreclosure on more than $300 million in mortgage loans.

In addition, HOPE’s award-winning youth financial literacy program, Banking on Our Future, will help empower students to take control of their financial futures on-the-ground and through the web-based program Bankingonourfuture.org. Utilizing HOPE Corps volunteers or the web-based curriculum, the program has educated and inspired nearly 450,000 students to date. Collectively HOPE has provided financial literacy assistance to more than 1.2 million individuals since its inception.

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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 69 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, 888-388-HOPE (4673), 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 re levant to all underserved communities. To learn more about HOPE, visit www.operationhope.org. or read our blog at www.operationhope.org/blog

About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Established in 1930, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation supports children, families, and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and southern Africa. For further information, visit the foundation’s website at www.wkkf.org.

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