The Power of a Unique Partnership: Fifth Third brings SpringFour to underserved communities

Jun 25, 2024

Witnessing the magic of Fifth Third Bank’s Fifth Third Day, 5/3/2024, was special for so many reasons.

I’ve spent the past few years honing my craft in Client Onboarding, preparing me to work with SpringFour’s clients today and lead many organizations through successful deployments of our products as Operations & Accounts Specialist. It can be stressful for teams to put their trust in someone else’s hands to execute their meaningful projects. I’ve carefully guided those I’ve been fortunate enough to work with to the finish line and cheered them on from afar once successfully deployed. It’s a bittersweet moment when they fly the nest after we’ve worked so hard together.

Seeing Fifth Third’s Financial Empowerment Mobile, commonly known as the eBus, in action near Fifth Third’s headquarters in Cincinnati was such a treat, and a moment in my career I’ll remember forever. It was amazing to see SpringFour’s resources being delivered to community members experiencing the tool in person and to know how many more people it will impact in their own communities as it embarks on a journey around the Midwest.

As we sat to dinner the night before the big day, we all began sharing stories about our lives with one another. A table full of women trailblazing through the world of finance, fighting tooth and nail to make a difference in the world, is a really humbling and honorable place to be. I couldn’t help but take note of a theme amongst many, if not all, of us sitting at that table: we’ve all experienced financial hardship in one way or another at some point in our lives.

While we all come from different backgrounds, we share similar experiences that ultimately lead us to where we are today. I think it’s beautiful that fate or happenstance brought us together to work towards providing SpringFour’s crucial financial health resources to communities that need it, some of the same communities we grew up in. I hope the communities the eBus serves know just how hard we are rooting for them!

rochelle showing phone to 53 staff member

Perhaps one of my favorite parts of the experience was meeting all of the incredible women at Fifth Third, including Aleta Young, Donna McCray, and Sandra DiPentima, who are responsible for the re-imagination of the eBus that will now deliver SpringFour’s financial health resources. Their mission never wavered. They poured their hearts and souls into this project. Seeing their vision come to fruition was incredible.

SpringFour playing a role in the eBus’ upcoming journey across the country just made sense. Our Founder and CEO Rochelle Nawrocki Gorey has meticulously built a company rooted in serving others and operating with integrity. It shows in her actions, in the way she speaks about SpringFour, and in the partnerships SpringFour has formed.

I consider myself lucky to have played a part in this one.