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Dear John,
On this Giving Tuesday, I want to take a moment to share what we have accomplished together this year and why your support matters. Across the country, families and small businesses are working hard to stay on stable footing. Practical solutions and steady partners help keep people moving forward.
Your generosity helps us meet this moment with focus and a forward-looking strategy.
Strengthening tools that work for real people
Prosperity Now develops digital resources and training that community organizations can rely on every day. These are designed with frontline practitioners so guidance stays personal even as reach grows. Our acquisition of Change Machine will deepen this work by bringing stronger technology and a wider practitioner network into one coordinated effort.
Prosperity Next is also building the shared infrastructure that helps community lenders support more families and entrepreneurs. With support from the JPMorganChase Foundation and the U.S. Bank Foundation, we are developing a system that strengthens lending operations and expands access to capital. We recognize the rapid rise of AI and other financial technologies, and instead of stepping back, we are leaning in responsibly, finding ways to help lenders use these tools to reach more households, cross the digital divide, and improve the support people receive. Through the Rise Challenge, supported by Accenture and Avanade, we invited emerging innovators from the field to submit proposals, elevate one standout solution each year, and move it from idea to real deployment. This ensures that community-driven innovation can scale and reach the people who benefit from it most.
Helping small businesses prepare for what’s next
This year, we continued building the kind of support structures that help business owners navigate change with confidence. Through our Growth Business Accelerator (GBA), supported by Truist and The Allstate Foundation, 120 ESOs and CDFIs strengthened their capacity to help entrepreneurs hire, grow, and pursue new opportunities. We graduated 75 practitioners and reached 148 small businesses in the process.
Through our 17-month Good Jobs Learning Collaborative, supported by the Gates Foundation, we worked with 60 ESOs, trained 74 practitioners, and referred 24 small businesses to the Good Jobs Community of Practice. We also convened anchor partners and ESOs at our Prosperity Summit to highlight real experiences and solutions through our Advancing Job Quality initiative.
Keeping families financially grounded
Through our VITA partners, with support from Wells Fargo Foundation, 25,177 households accessed $5 million in Child Tax Credits, $15 million in Earned Income Tax Credits, and more than $43 million in federal refunds. For many families, this is the support that helps them manage rising costs, cover essentials, and plan for the weeks and months ahead.
Supporting early financial stability for children and families
We also continue to strengthen early savings efforts that help families build long-term stability. With support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, we help partners grow Children’s Savings Account (CSA) programs nationwide. Our most recent field report, drawing on 2024 data from nearly 40 organizations, found that more than 7.3 million children are now connected to CSAs, including nearly one million new accounts. These programs help families develop habits that set children on a clearer path to financial security over time.
Studying what is emerging so we can prepare wisely
In collaboration with Blockchain Foundation, and with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, we led a national research effort examining how CDFIs and Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs) are evaluating decentralized finance tools. The findings, to be released later this month, offer clear insight into how institutions are approaching new technologies and what it may mean for future financial products and services.
Supporting communities in recovery and rebuilding
We are also working alongside communities rebuilding after major shocks. Through the Recovery Through Resilience Fund, we are helping homeowners and community institutions rebuild in stronger, more durable ways. This year, we also produced Altadena Rising, a short documentary that elevates the real stories of families navigating loss, displacement, and an uncertain path forward. Their experiences remind us why advancing narrative change matters. Data tells us what is happening, but stories help us understand the human toll and the resilience behind the numbers. The short documentary is scheduled for release next year.
Bringing people together to strengthen the field
At the 2025 Prosperity Summit: Together We Thrive, hundreds of leaders joined us for three days of learning, connection, and storytelling. Our main-stage conversations highlighted how early savings initiatives, technology-driven solutions, community recovery efforts, and long-term planning tools can strengthen families and small businesses nationwide.
Our "Share Your Story" campaign, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, continued to center lived experiences across the country and was elevated at the Summit through storytelling circles and conversations that brought forward the voices of families and small business owners navigating today’s financial realities.
This is only part of what we achieved together. As economic and community needs continue to evolve, progress is possible when we stay grounded in what works and focused on the road ahead.
This Giving Tuesday, I invite you to continue standing with us. Your generosity strengthens the work ahead and helps create clearer financial pathways for families, small businesses, and communities across the country.
Please make your tax-deductible donation today.
Gratefully,
Marisa Calderon
President and CEO
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