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A Financial Empowerment Project
As nonprofit and social service organizations seek to address the effects of racial economic inequality on their clients, many practitioners wonder whether their programs can adapt to close the divide. Recognizing there is no silver bullet when it comes to addressing the racial wealth divide, Prosperity Now set out to determine how a focus on asset building and racial economic equity programming could be an integral piece of a much-needed, multi-pronged approach to the challenge.
During the fall of 2018, Prosperity Now supported leaders from five participating organizations within the Building High Impact Non-Profits of Color project, through a long-term technical assistance (TA) engagement creating the Financial Empowerment cohort. The goal was to use capacity building, for these leaders and their organizations, as power building that could translate to impact at the community level. Capacity building efforts in this project focused on change management, leadership development, racial economic inequality analysis and programmatic design. Prosperity Now supported leaders from the five participating organizations in increasing their understanding of racial economic inequality, assessing their internal operations and local environment, connecting them to external resources and leveraging their assets.
This report details five key lessons of the 18-month project that can help other organizations enhance their financial empowerment programs. Download the full report to learn how Prosperity Now settled on the financial empowerment definition and how it structured the technical assistance approach. You also can read direct quotes from the project participants about their experience, along with advice to their peers who may want to embark on similar work.
