The announcement was also covered in IBS Intelligence and PYMNTS.

We are proud to partner with OppFi, a like-minded, mission-driven fintech. To learn more about opportunities for sharing and promoting your organization’s partnership with SpringFour, contact us at impact@springfour.com. 

Morgan Pierce

Impact and Communications Manager

Behind every referral is a consumer experiencing financial hardship. We are committed to changing the way our industry responds to people experiencing financial hardship with the goal of eliminating stigma, providing valuable support, and treating people with empathy, dignity, and respect.

Consumers requested and received access to the following resources in 2022:

Thanks for joining us this year as we work diligently with our partners to connect as many consumers as possible with financial health resources they want, need, and deserve.

“We have seen a tremendous benefit to our customers. Since the beginning of our partnership, SpringFour has provided BMO customers with references to over 200,000 crucial financial health resources. This has been a valuable experience that we are proud to offer our customers, and which has also benefited the bank through improved portfolio performance.” 

 

– Jeoff Begin, Vice President, Head of US Collections & North American Small Business Special Accounts, BMO Harris Bank

Morgan Pierce

Impact and Communications Manager

2022 has been a year of great achievements for SpringFour. From new product developments and enhancements to press, awards, and media features, there’s so much good news to share.

But, as inflation soars and a potential upcoming recession remains ahead, it’s important to stay on mission and remember where our success comes from. Consumers across the country are struggling, and they need support from their banks and financial institutions. 

SpringFour continues to work hard to connect as many consumers as possible to valuable financial health resources that can make a difference. We lead with empathy, keeping consumers’ financial wellness at the forefront of all we do. Our mission remains to eliminate the stigma associated with financial hardship and bring innovative solutions to the industry to help improve payment outcomes and overall financial health. 

With this mindset, we are proud to share our top 12 highlights from 2022 and to celebrate all we’ve accomplished this year with our partners.

1. 4 Million Financial Health Referrals Delivered: Delivering more referrals in a year than ever before, SpringFour was able to connect consumers with more than 4 million referrals to vetted and valuable nonprofit and government resources in 2022. Last year, we delivered just over 3.1 million referrals, and pre-pandemic referral levels were around 1 million per year. Consumers are in need and it’s critical to remember that behind each referral is a household in need.

2. New Deployments:  SpringFour saw many new deployments in 2022 with partners including top ten banks, regional banks and credit unions, consumer finance and auto lenders, employee relief providers, and more. We onboarded new partners and expanded already existing partnerships. A few of our new deployments included Mission Lane, which was featured in IBS Intelligence and Tearsheet, Purchasing Power, which was featured in Benefits Pro, and many more.

3. 5 New Team Members: SpringFour increased its talent and industry expertise by adding five new team members this year: Yasmine Anavi, EVP of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, Vincent Frederico, Director of Client Engagement and Business Analytics, Colleen Maxwell, Director of Business Development and Compliance, Kate McCarthy, Director, Product Development and Client Experience, and Morgan Pierce, Impact and Communications Manager.

4. Honored with 3 Awards: Rochelle Nawrocki-Gorey and the SpringFour team were selected to receive three awards this year. Rochelle was named a 2022 Lendit Fintech Woman of the Year Finalist, having demonstrated outstanding leadership, integrity, performance, and a commitment to fostering gender diversity both within her company and in the industry at large. SpringFour was also named a first-ever Social Impact Award finalist at the 1871 Chicago Momentum Awards because of its commitment to DEI, community contributions, and social impact. Most recently, Rochelle was named a 2022 Inspiring Fintech Female by NYC Fintech Women in the Founders category. Rochelle was honored in a celebration held at the New York Stock Exchange alongside the other winners. As a certified B, social impact fintech, SpringFour is proud to be honored among other industry leaders with these recognitions.

5. Participated in 4 Speaking Engagements: SpringFour is proud to be recognized as a trusted industry thought leader, having participated in multiple events this year to share our expertise. CEO & Co-Founder Rochelle Nawrocki-Gorey participated in a panel at Financial Health Network’s EMERGE Conference titled, “Making ESG Part of Your Financial Health Strategy,” which dove into how companies can successfully incorporate financial health metrics into their ESG strategies. At the Massachusetts Community & Banking Council’s Inaugural Financial Equity Summit, Rochelle spoke about the promises and pitfalls of fintech. Rochelle also shared her experience as a founder on a panel at the 39th Annual Celebration of Achievement for NAWBO Chicago, “The Power of Community: Support, Energy, & Rejuvenation,  discussing best practices and ideas for pitching your company both onstage and beyond. Together with one of our partners, Purchasing Power, Rochelle participated in the webinar, “Creating Financial Wellness Benefits to Support the Immediate Needs of Your Workforce,” diving into the reality of financial stress, the role employers play today with financial wellness, and how access to immediate solutions can make an organization an employer of choice. 

6. Featured in 4 Partners’ ESG Reports and Published ESG Thought Leadership: With ESG a core priority across industries, SpringFour is proud to be at the forefront of this work. Our customers recognize that a partnership with SpringFour is crucial to achieving their ESG metrics and goals. This year, four of our partners highlighted their partnerships with SpringFour as key to their companies’ ESG initiatives: M&T Bank, OppFi, BMO Financial Group, and Oportun. SpringFour was highlighted at BMO Financial Group’s Annual Shareholder meeting, with this notable remark from the CEO, Darryl White: “Our ability to leverage partnerships, whether from the very largest firms or very newest fintechs, has helped enhance our competitive position, drive growth, disrupt competitors, and make progress against our efficiency commitments.” In May 2022, SpringFour released a case study titled, “SpringFour is Integral to ESG: Financial Health is Social Impact.” This report shares the incredible ESG work that our partners, including BMO Financial Group, Mariner Finance, M&T Bank, OppFi, and Oportun, are turning to SpringFour to achieve. SpringFour shared its thought leadership in BAI in an article, “How Banks can Prioritize the “S” in ESG.”

7. Highlights of SpringFour’s Impact with Leading Organizations: SpringFour was featured in the press with articles highlighting SpringFour, published thought leadership articles, books, and podcasts. SpringFour was featured in Innovations of the World’s book featuring new innovations in diverse industries. See an online version of the book: “SpringFour: How a Social Impact Fintech is Improving the Financial Health of Millions”. Rochelle Nawrocki-Gorey also spoke on a podcast that features women entrepreneurs called Invisible Ink in the episode, “Bootstrapping a Social Venture in Fintech.” Badcredit.org published the feature,  “SpringFour Connects Bank Customers With Financial Wellness Resources,”. These are just a few of the many press features we received this year.

8. Published Financial Health Thought Leadership: SpringFour published thought leadership about an array of critical topics this year, from fintech banking partnerships to preparing for a possible recession. Rochelle Gorey’s thought leadership was featured in Global Banking & Finance, “A recession may be coming. Are banks ready to help their customers?” Rochelle was also featured twice in BAI, on the podcast titled “Customer financial health should be a top priority,” and an article titled, “How fintechs can push banking innovation.” In BankingExchange, Rochelle partnered with Dr. Jay Michael Collins, SpringFour Co-Founder, on the article, “Banks helped us avoid a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.”

9. 16 New Financial Health Resource Guides: Every year, SpringFour authors Financial Health Resource Guides that provide expertise on a variety of financial health topics. SpringFour has been creating these guides since 2020 and has already accumulated 16 expert guides. New additions this year include Finding Affordable Child Care, Paying for Home Repair, and an updated guide on Paying for Student Loan Debt. 

10. Creating Meaningful Impact with Our Partners: We work hard to build trust and engagement with our clients. This focus on top-notch engagement has resulted in these powerful testimonials from our clients that celebrate the work we’ve accomplished together.  

1. • “Our partnership with SpringFour has been extremely helpful to our customers and our business. Thanks to SpringFour, we are able to provide important resources to our customers based on their individual needs, which strongly aligns with our company’s mission of improving the financial health of everyday Americans. The team at SpringFour is passionate and is constantly working hard to enhance our usage of their products.” – Deepti Gupta, Director of Corporate Strategy, OppFi
   • “We are driven to support every facet of need in the markets we serve, delivering the capabilities of a larger bank with the care and empathy of a local institution. SpringFour is a like-minded partner. Their platform allows us to offer customers an easy way to locate local resources to address financial challenges and help them achieve financial wellness, so we can make a difference in their lives.” –Richard Gold, CEO, M&T Bank
   • “With resources updated regularly and a team that has extensive experience in social services. community development, and nonprofit work, SpringFour delivers resources from the most trusted organizations.” – Freedom Mortgage
   • “Since 2016, we have partnered with SpringFour to bring more than 20,000 resources from local nonprofits and government financial agencies to our members nationwide. These services provide support for more than 30 unique economic situations our members and communities may face, such as childcare, disaster relief, legal assistance, healthcare, and employment.” – Oportun, Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Report 2021
   • “We have seen a tremendous benefit to our customers. Since the beginning of our partnership, SpringFour has provided BMO customers with references to over 200,000 crucial financial health resources. This has been a valuable experience that we are proud to offer our customers, and which has also benefited the bank through improved portfolio performance.” – Jeoff Begin, Vice President, Head of US Collections & North American Small Business Special Accounts, BMO Harris Bank

11. Newly-Redesigned S4pro Tool Is Easier to Use Than Ever: Each day, agents use our S4pro tool to deliver thousands of financial health referrals to those in need. This year, our clients saw the benefit of a newly redesigned product that made it easier than ever for agents to share customized financial health resources with their customers, providing them with the support they needed when they needed it. We heard feedback from agents such as, “It’s easier and quicker to send resources.” Read more about the redesign here.

12. 40 New Cities and Over 1,800 New Resources Added: SpringFour’s Resource Integrity Team is constantly hard at work to vet, update, and maintain our database of over 21,000 financial health resources in more than 665 cities across the country. This year, our offerings expanded to provide full coverage in 40 more cities than last year. More than 1,800 new resources were added to the database this year. 

SpringFour’s mission always has been and will be to change the way consumers experience financial hardship. Consumers need and deserve direction to assistance when faced with financial challenges. When innovative financial health strategies are adopted, the financial services industry benefits, too. SpringFour’s solutions create a win-win: positively impacting businesses’ bottom lines while improving the financial health of consumers across the country. 

Thank you for joining us in celebration of what, together, we’ve accomplished in 2022. We look forward to the major strides we’ll make together in 2023. 

Morgan Pierce

Client Success and Impact Associate

From evolving collections strategies to the consumer impact of Buy Now Pay Later, see what the SpringFour team anticipates for fintech and the financial services industry in 2023.

Inflation is high, and the threat of a potential recession ahead remains. Consumers are struggling. Now is the time for banks, fintechs, and other financial institutions to work together to create impactful solutions for consumers in need. Empathy, innovation, and collaboration are key to creating meaningful, long-term impacts on people across the country.

Morgan Pierce

Client Success and Impact Associate, SpringFour

Living close to the Texas Gulf Coast, I have experienced multiple hurricanes and tropical storms, and each incident has been challenging in its own way, both before and after. Natural disasters can be shocking and life-altering, especially for those who aren’t adequately prepared. 

Recovering from a disaster has several phases, depending on multiple factors, including the severity of the disaster incident and the preparations taken before the disaster. At SpringFour, we offer multiple types of resources for consumers throughout the phases of preparation, response, and recovery. 

Because disaster resiliency starts with preparation, make sure that your customers are ready to address their needs. SpringFour provides contact information for Emergency Management offices in more than 300 cities and counties across the country, so that consumers can access the resources they will need before disaster strikes. How your customers prepare will influence how they navigate the phases of response and recovery. 

The first phase of disaster response is always an assessment of damages and an inventory of resources needed for general survival: food, shelter, water. Once the initial assessment is complete and survivors are confident that they have the resources they need to survive, the recovery phase begins.

Preparing a plan for managing income, expenses, and debt is key to recovery. 

SpringFour’s Financial Health Resource Guides provide information and resources for recovery for different types of disasters such as fire, floods, and tornados. The Guides also offer tips for navigating the application for federal assistance from FEMA, as well as other disaster benefits that survivors are eligible for. 

If a disaster declaration for a county includes Individual Assistance from FEMA, we add the declaration as a resource so that the application for assistance from FEMA is easy to find. 

Immediately following a disaster, resources generally come from national organizations and the federal government to address immediate needs. In the weeks and months after the disaster, as damage and resource needs have been assessed, local nonprofits and foundations get more involved and provide additional resources. 

We continually monitor for these additional local resources and add them as they come online. SpringFour understands that different types of resources are needed through the phases of disaster response and recovery, and works to ensure those valuable resources are available for your customers.

Contact resources@springfour.com to learn more about our disaster recovery category and how SpringFour can assist your customers. 

 Kate McCarthy

Director of Product Development, SpringFour

With a potential recession ahead, customers at varying points of their financial journeys are all feeling the impact of inflation and higher prices. Consumer debt is also rising. According to a recent article in The Financial Brand, credit card debt was up 13% in the second quarter of 2022 compared to the same period last year — the largest year-over-year increase seen in two decades. For the first time in the history of the Financial Health Network’s Pulse research, financial health has decreased over the last year. In fact, the report states, “Greater financial health declines appear to be on the horizon as inflation shows no signs of letting up, debt levels rise, and loan delinquencies grow.” 

As consumers face greater financial challenges than ever before, they need support from their employers and financial institutions to improve their financial health. Fortunately, SpringFour partners with financial institutions, lenders, fintechs, and employers to help people get back on track and improve their financial health. 

SpringFour’s contact center and direct-to-consumer cloud-based solutions give customers access to thousands of vetted and local financial health resources that meet their specific needs — from food savings to employment resources. 

SpringFour solutions create win-wins for businesses, customers, employees, and more. SpringFour has delivered proven results of increasing payment rates, improving customer and employee retention, and positively impacting businesses’ bottom lines. 

Together with SpringFour, one major bank delivered over 160,000 financial health referrals to customers in 17 months. The bank realized an estimated credit loss benefit of $1,000 per customer who received referrals over a 6-month period. 

This client example demonstrates the impact SpringFour can make on business bottom lines, employees, and consumers. SpringFour tools connect people with much-needed financial health resources while enabling financial institutions and fintechs to meet their ESG goals and empowering their customers to get back on financial track.

According to SpringFour’s user survey, 90% of agents report that SpringFour helps them provide better customer experiences and increase customer retention and/or collaboration. 86% of agents report that using SpringFour makes them feel better about the work they are doing.

As daily expenses are on the rise and people face financial challenges, it’s vital to prioritize financial health and join the mission of increasing people’s financial health everywhere. We should all get behind financial health strategies and play an integral part in helping customers thrive despite financial circumstances.

Morgan Pierce

Client Success and Impact Associate, SpringFour