EARN

The Earned Assets Resource Network (EARN), creates new cycles of prosperity for low wage workers by helping them invest in college education, micro-enterprises, and first homes - assets that will secure their futures and the futures of their children.

EARN was established in 2001 with the intent to fulfill 3 core promises:

1. Use matched savings accounts, and related services, such as financial education and financial planning, to empower local low-wage workers to create prosperity across generations.

2. Deliver our financial literacy and matched accounts in a way that can be replicated at scale in San Francisco, the Bay Area, California, and the US.

3. Drive the local and state policy changes required to bring financial literacy and matched accounts to scale.

Today, EARN operates one of the largest and fastest-growing matched savings account programs in the country. Our 2500+ Savers have saved over $3.5 million of their own money since 2002. We aim to provide a matched savings account for college, and financial education for all of the 14,000 eligible families in San Francisco by 2012. EARN will also make financial coaching available to thousands of low income workers by 2010, directly and through partnerships across the San Francisco Bay Area.

EARN believes we can achieve these bold plans because we have successfully built an asset-building infrastructure in San Francisco with the help of key champions in government and the private sector. Since 2002, we have persuaded the Mayor, Treasurer, Board of Supervisors, and Department Heads to invest in asset building as a strategy to create opportunity. As a result, tens of thousands of underbanked and low-income people are being served every year through unique programs directed and funded by the City.

All of EARN’s work is guided by our core values of prosperity, dignity, innovation, and scale. We aim to model asset building services in a way that can be replicated by organizations across the country, but our success is measured best by the achievements of our Savers: hard-working people who struggle to create a better future for themselves and their families. By helping EARN Savers build assets and achieve their dreams of prosperity, you are investing in their families, their communities, and their future.