John Hope Bryant

Operation HOPE, Atlanta Stands with Atlanta Prosperity Campaign for EITC in 2012

Operation HOPE, Atlanta was honored to stand with the Atlanta Prosperity Campaign, the IRS, the Atlanta Food Bank and others at a press conference last week to launch a focus on the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for working individuals and families.  Icons Ambassador Andrew Young, the HOPE Global Spokesman, and Congressman John Lewis both joined the press conference.

The EITC is a powerful vehicle for individuals and families to change their lives, providing up to $5,700 to qualified individuals.  Best of all, EITC a tax credit and not just a benefit, meaning you can receive a cash refund or reduce your tax burden.  Furthermore, it is retroactive for up to three years, meaning that if you qualify in 2011 for say a $4,000 cash refund, you may also qualify for as much as $12,000, receiving the total sum within 30 days directly from the IRS.

John Hope Bryant 'Financial Literacy and Shame' Quote of the Day

"The biggest thing to overcome in helping to get people out of poverty, and to give them some measure of financial dignity, is the shame. People feel shame, in not understanding money and how it works. They feel shame in having these problems."


John Hope Bryant is an entrepreneur, thought leader, founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Companies, Inc. Magazine/CEO READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass), the sole African-American bestselling business author in America, and a Member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for President Barack Obama.

From the CNN Archives: People You Should Know

 

The Work of Operation HOPE for 2011

 

A special thank you to my best friend and Operation HOPE strategic advisor, Rod McGrew, for lending his voiceover skills (pro-bono of course) for this inspiring video, which was shown at the 2011 Operation HOPE Board Retreat.

Okay, let's go...

 

John Hope Bryant is a thought leader, founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Companies, Inc. Magazine/CEO READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass) the only African-American bestselling business author in America, and a Member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for President Barack Obama.  Mr. Bryant is the co-founder of the Gallup-HOPE Index, the only national research poll on youth financial dignity and youth economic energy in the U.S. He is also a co-founder of Global Dignity with HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Professor Pekka Himanen of Finland. Global Dignity is affiliated with the Forum of Young Global Leaders and the World Economic Forum. 

 

SPECIAL FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST: On Leadership: Why Financial Dignity is the New Movement for Financial Literacy

 

 

John HopeBryant

Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur

I am a supporter of financial literacy. I am a constructive critic of financial literacy. Both are legitimate and essential in an honestdialogue. As HOPE Global Spokesman Ambassador Andrew Young said, "John, be skeptical, but don't be cynical. To be cynical is to be without hope."

Operation HOPE pioneered financial literacy as policy within the U.S. federal government in 2008, when we inspired then President George W. Bush to sign an Executive Order establishing financial literacy as new federal government policy, and with it the creation of the first ever U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. I was honored to serve as vice chairman for this first council, with Charles Schwab as chairman, and to serve as chairman of the Council Committee on the Under Served.

President Barack Obama took this vision to another level; bringing to life his own Executive Order during his Presidency, and thereafter establishing the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability (on which I am proud to serve), and then the Federal Consumer Protection Bureau.

President Obama named smart people to head both, with Ariel Capital Management's extremely smart founder John Rogers chairing the Council, and my friend Professor Elizabeth Warren spearheading the foundation of and for the Bureau. I recall one conversation in particular with Professor Warren, where I asked her what she would think if I said, "financial literacy was the new civil rights issue?" Not only did she agree with me, but she went on to say that she thought that "done right," while regulatory review and policy making might consume the formative years of the Bureau, its legacy should be a new foundation of financial literacy in America. Professor Warren and I agree 100%.

Read the complete article here on the Huffington Post.

 

 

 

Newark Mayor Cory Booker Shows Leadership On Financial Literacy Agenda

Financial literacy is the founding first tool on the road to financial dignity for all. 

I was honored to join Newark Mayor Cory Booker earlier this year for the first ever White House Urban Entrepreneurship Summit where I and others spoke, and Operation HOPE was a partner in the effort with the mayor and the Obama Administration.  One of the ideas advanced during the summit, by Michael Blake from the Obama Administration and others including Reshma Saujani (pictured above), was the creation of a Mayor's Financial Literacy Council in Newark, New Jersey, fashioned after the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability (on which I serve for the President).

While many public officials these days are rightly so accused of talking and seldom if ever delivering, I am pleased to say today that Mayor Cory Booker did precisely the opposite here.  He said very little about the initiartive in the weeks following the summit, but then after a subsequent meeting between another member of the President's Council, my friend Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz (also Council Partnership Committee Chair), and later myself and my right arm for policy Jena Roscoe, I was informed that the mayor intended to act. And act he did.

Financial Literacy Factoid

78% of NFL players are in financial stress or bankrupt.

Source: Gooding financial literacy tour

 

Bryant and Operation HOPE to Co-Lead a White House Q&A Today at 1pm EST

Today at 1pm EST, I am pleased to join Jon Carson, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, for a special White House Twitter Q & A Session from the White House, and immediately following my U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability public meeting at the U.S. Treasury Department.

Please join the discussion today at 1pm EST, and send your questions to me for Operation HOPE, and Jon Carson for the President, to @WhiteHouse, @OperationHOPEWH, @OperationHOPE, @JohnCarson44 or to me @johnhopebryant, and we will try to answer as many as we can.

Questions should include items such as the pending American Jobs Act, financial literacy, financial dignity, entrepreneurship, urban entrepreneurship, the economic empowerment of the under-served, and SOLUTIONS for and in black and brown communities.

Okay, let's go.


John Hope Bryant is a thought leader, founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Companies, Inc. Magazine/CEO READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass), and a Member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for President Barack Obama. Mr. Bryant is a co-founder of Global Dignity with HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Professor Pekka Himanen of Finland. Global Dignity is affiliated with the Forum of Young Global Leaders and the World Economic Forum.

- Posted using BlogPress from John Hope Bryant's iPad2

Reflections on the Gallup-HOPE Index from the Director of the HOPE Office of Innovation, Research & Assessment

The main messages from the The Gallup-HOPE Index data today reveal that while youth are hopeful and optimistic about their future and their ability to "be their own boss", the data reveals there is a large gap in exposure at school and home regarding financial literacy and entrepreneurship.

The opportunity areas will be in providing youth with opportunities to develop financial practices and to insert education opportunities both at school and at home that teach how to start and run a business along with financial dignity.

The main point is that for the first time we've asked youth - our customers what they think, need, and experience. That's what makes the Index data at this stage so special. We've begun to develop the conversations with youth about their future and we're including their input in the solutions.

Today, youth are telling us their expecations are high for the future and their opportunities to grow and learn how to get there are low. We can meet high optimism with super interventions once we know where youth are headed...and the Gallup-HOPE Index gives us that direction.

Jennifer Thibeaux is the director of the Operation HOPE Office of Innovation, Research & Assessment.

SPECIAL FROM GALLUP: U.S. Students' Entrepreneurial Energy Waiting to Be Tapped

October 13, 2011

Aspirations are high, but experience and education are lacking

by Valerie J. Calderon

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Many students in the U.S. have entrepreneurial aspirations and energy that could help drive future job creation in the country. Nearly 8 in 10 students (77%) in grades 5 through 12 say they want to be their own boss, 45% say they plan to start their own business, and 42% say they will invent something that changes the world.

The findings are from a nationally representative Gallup Student Poll conducted May 17-June 4, 2011, with 1,721 students in grades 5 through 12, and are released in partnership with Operation HOPE. The entrepreneurship and financial literacy items discussed in this article make up the Gallup-HOPE Index.

Read the complete Index results here at Gallup.com.