Phylicia Clifton joined our team in November 2023 to help ensure our clients get the most out of their SpringFour partnership as our Senior Manager, Client Success & Impact. She works closely with our clients to build and develop their campaigns, materials, and strategies to promote and market their SpringFour deployments to their customers and employees. Additionally, she works with clients to understand their usage metrics and how SpringFour is impacting their customers’ financial lives and their own bottom line. Phylicia brings with her four years of experience in financial technology and over 13 years in marketing. Previously, she studied to become a certified financial counselor to better understand the financial struggles many people face and the solutions available to them.

What excites you about being part of SpringFour?

The ability to impact change in our industry and help people find the answers and resources they need to make better financial decisions and ultimately improve their lives. Traditionally, so many people have been left out or left behind when it comes to financial health, often due to a lack of tools, resources, and knowledge that help them take control of their finances and build wealth. In recent years, the financial services industry has recognized this more than ever before and is primed to make a real change in people’s lives by providing services that bridge the gaps, educate consumers, and make help available when and where people need it. 

At SpringFour, we’re working with game changers in the industry who believe financial health should and can be accessible to everyone. We’re poised to help the industry shift to strategies that emphasize empathy, understanding, and support. Every resource accessed has the ability to change someone’s life for the better. What’s more exciting than that?

What does financial health mean to you?

To me, financial health is a reflection of your financial journey. We all start our financial journey at different places, with our own advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes, things go well and we feel financially stable and secure, while at other times our finances may be more strained and uncertain. Almost everyone goes through these financial ebbs and flows, and your financial health reflects that. We aren’t always “financially healthy,” but with the right help and support, we can make our way back to a more comfortable position.

What financial health trends do you expect to see in the near future?

I think we’ll see a rise in artificial intelligence leading to emotional intelligence. As more and more strategies become automated through AI, the most successful strategies will be the ones that use that information to gain the emotional intelligence needed to not only meet people where they are, but also to truly understand their individual situations and provide personalized help and recommendations when and where people need it. AI won’t solely be used to drive business results, but empathy as well.

What gets you up in the morning?

In a literal sense, usually a hungry cat or a dog that wants to go outside. In a mental and emotional sense, the potential in every day – to be better, to do better, to go further, to laugh more, to love harder, to leave the world a little brighter. I’m a glass-half-full, find-the-silver-linings kind of person and have a tendency to believe every day has the potential to be greater than the day before and that I have the ability within myself to make it so. Holding on to that belief makes getting up in the morning to feed the meowing cats or take those antsy dogs outside the first step in a new adventure.

What is your financial health rule to live by?

I’m a big fan of the 50-30-20 rule, which recommends putting 50% of your money toward needs, 30% toward wants, and 20% toward savings. Before learning about this budget rule, I struggled to understand how to build my budget and what to work toward. Since implementing this rule in my own finances, not only have I been able to better balance my budget, but I’ve also been able to better understand my own financial needs, set personal and professional goals, and gauge my own financial well-being. I may not always perfectly achieve the 50-30-20 balance, but I know where to focus my attention to get back on track.

Senior Manager, Client Success and Impact, SpringFour

We are proud to share our Q1 2024 Impact Report exploring SpringFour’s accomplishments during Q1. We kicked off this year with major recognition — being named a Real Leaders’ Top Impact Company and a big feature in Inc. Magazine, which wrote this:

As we continue to see, Americans need help making ends meet: 80% of Americans are struggling four years after Covid and nearly 40% are behind on monthly payments. We have proven that when companies prioritize their customers’ financial health with SpringFour, they deliver impact for their customers and business alike, from higher repayment rates to increased customer and employee satisfaction. That is why demand for our vetted resources continues to rise quarter over quarter and year over year.

Please read on to explore growing trends in customer needs, our newest product which is gaining widespread adoption, media spotlights, and more.

Thank you, as always, for your partnership,

Rochelle Nawrocki Gorey

CEO and Founder, SpringFour

Last week, SpringFour was invited by the Consumer Bankers’ Association to moderate a panel at its CBA Live 2024 event with three of our incredible partners: BMO, Capital One, and KeyBank. SpringFour’s EVP of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships, Yasmine Anavi, moderated the panel with Jeoffrey Begin from BMO, Ray Tervol from Capital One, and David DeSantis from KeyBank.

The topic? “The Data Doesn’t Lie: Leveraging innovation and financial health for long term recovery strategies.”

With a focus on SpringFour’s impact on customers’ financial health, each panelist shared how SpringFour has enabled them to further support customers in their respective default management and account management strategies, nurture better customer engagement, and prioritize consumer financial health.

The consensus? Supporting customers’ financial health as a part of ongoing customer management is here to stay.

Consumers are facing a very challenging environment, with consumer debt rising to record highs, delinquency rates rising, student loan repayments restarting, and 78% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, according to Payroll.org. Consumers are facing hardships and most do not know where to turn for financial health support. 

That’s why our clients look to SpringFour as the trusted source for connecting consumers with vetted, local nonprofit and government resources that address their customers’ specific financial health needs.

Supporting customers with the help they need before they fall behind on payments is a real opportunity to build customer trust and loyalty and ensure that people stay current on their payments.  Ultimately, customers appreciate knowing their bank is in their corner and willing to help them, and employees feel empowered and proud to deliver actionable resources to customers in need. 

To learn more about partnership with SpringFour, visit the Contact Us page of our website or reach out to us at impact@springfour.com.

Morgan Pierce

Impact and Communications Manager, SpringFour

This just in: SpringFour Founder and CEO Rochelle Nawrocki Gorey has made Inc.’s Female Founders 250 — a list of the most creative and impactful female leaders in America!

Rochelle Nawrocki Gorey was chosen in both the financial services and changemaker categories, according to Inc., “for demonstrating the importance of marrying social impact with fintech and completing more than 5 million financial health referrals in 2023.”

Read more here.

Each year, Inc. editors review thousands of applications highlighting female founders who are challenging the status quo and tackling some of the world’s biggest problems. The list features women who have overcome challenges and lifted those around them, while leading impactful organizations across the country. This year, SpringFour’s Rochelle Nawrocki Gorey is featured alongside founders Christina Aguilera, Selena Gomez, Scarlett Johannson, Katy Perry, Shay Mitchell, and Natalie Portman, as well as Financial Industry leaders Billie Jean King of Billie Jean King Enterprises and Wendy Cai-Lee at Piermont Bank.

To learn more about partnership with SpringFour, visit the Contact Us tab on our website. 

Impact and Communications Manager, SpringFour

As social impact becomes a core measurement of success to more companies at SpringFour, we’ve seen an increasing need for social impact reporting from our clients. For many of our clients, Q1 is a time to look back at all the work done in the previous year to prepare ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance), CRA (Community Reinvestment Act), CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), and other reports that show how their companies are making a difference for their customers, employees, and beyond. 

With social impact at the center of our business, we’ve spent the last few weeks preparing customized, annual Social Impact Reports. These reports showcase the impact we made with each client to support their customers in 2023 through the use of SpringFour financial health referrals. 

We know that behind every SpringFour referral is a real person accessing financial assistance resources that can make a tangible difference in their lives. In fact, 91% of S4pro users agree that providing access to these resources helps people reduce their monthly expenses. And it’s not just our clients’ customers who benefit from these referrals, but also their employees and their bottom line.

Because of the impact these referrals have, our clients often use these reports to:

• Highlight the important work they’re doing to help their customers improve their financial health
• Bolster annual ESG, CRA, CSR, or social impact reporting
• Share with stakeholders and regulators how they’re helping to strengthen the communities they serve
• Better understand the ever-changing needs of their consumers

We’re incredibly proud to work in partnership with our clients to make financial health possible for more of their customers than ever before. As these reports make their way to our clients’ inboxes, we’re excited for them to see the impact they had in 2023 so that, together, we can create strategies to reach even more people in 2024.

For more information about our annual Social Impact Reports, please reach out to impact@springfour.com. 

Phylicia Clifton

Senior Client Success and Impact Manager, SpringFour

Wow…what a year! In 2023, SpringFour received more recognition and validation than ever before — with awards, press, and, most importantly, new and expanded partnerships with far-reaching impact. Financial health became a mainstay and a must-have during 2023. 

It is clear that, through empathy-driven financial health solutions, institutions can achieve win-wins — financially healthier customers who increase their repayments, leading to better business outcomes.

Please explore our report to see some top achievements in 2023, including:

• 5.5 million financial health referrals delivered

• Brand new all-in-one financial health solution that is in demand 

• Partnership media features with BMO, Self, Fay Servicing, and more

• Awards from Fast Company, Finovate, and Banking Tech

Since our launch more than 15 years ago, our mission-driven mindset has been this: By empowering people with resources that make a difference in a customer’s life, we all win.

We’re thrilled to activate our mission in impactful ways and to do our part in making the world a better, kinder, and more financially sound place. 

Thank you, as always, for your partnership,

Rochelle Nawrocki-Gorey

CEO & Founder, SpringFour