John Hope Bryant

Operation HOPE and the American Red Cross Together -- Helping Others

I was honored to stand with my new friend Ms.Gail McGovern, a seasoned business executive who now runs the American Red Cross as their CEO, Ms. McGovern is both uniquely qualified, and especially appropriate.  

The former is obvious from her bullet proof resume, but the latter you pick up when you meet her.  She is simply, good people.  Or as I said to her when we last were together, "it's abnormal, that you are so very normal, approachable, real."

Operation HOPE's division focused on emergency financial and economic disaster preparedness, response and recovery, HOPE Coalition America (HCA), is often referred to as the "economic Red Cross," given that we assist individuals, families, businesses and communities to repair and put back together their financial lives.  HCA and the American Red Cross (ARC) have a national memorandum of agreement framed around joint disaster preparedness, response and recovery, leveraging our respective strengths.  In this instance, we are actually partnering closely together around Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts, supported financially by the American Red Cross.  A special thank you to ARC for their $500,000 in funded support around our Sandy financial case management, emergency response efforts.  See the joint press statement here.  Additionally, you can find the three month progress report from ARC here.

Operation HOPE from the JP Morgan Chase Housing Summit 2013: HOPE Produces Housing Results for Low-Wealth Americans

I was pleased to join Operation HOPE NYC CEO Mary Hagerty-Ehrsam for the JP Morgan Chase Housing Summit 2013 tonight in Manhattan, New York.  HOPE is a proud partner with JP Morgan Chase, and I am pleased to call Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of the bank, a friend.

Tonight, as Jamie Dimon outlined his vision for the future of housing in America, and the role that JP Morgan Chase and its partners might play, I reflected on Operation HOPE's own contribution to the sustenance and advancement of housing in America.  Mary Hagerty has as a partner in this regard, Lance Triggs, division president for the HOPE Financial Dignity Centers, featuring HOPE 700 Credit Score Communities.  Below is a quick snapshot of the results of our combined efforts in the housing and homeownership space organization-wide.

The Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotlines

·       Received over 166,253 calls for Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline

·       Created over 42,436 profiles for mortgage foreclosure prevention assistance

HOPE Financial Dignity Centers

·       Has served 1,074,697 clients to date.

·       Has educated 80,480 adults in financial literacy*

·       Successfully modified over $560 million in subprime mortgages.

·       Generated $946,086,648 in home modification, home mortgage and local community business loan approvals to 3,439 clients.

·       Graduated 2,789 clients from the Small Business Entrepreneurial Program, all of whom will return to local communities, shoring up critically important neighborhood jobs.

Operation HOPE Receives Red Cross Grant for Sandy Recovery

Los Angeles - Friday March 01, 2013 - Financial dignity nonprofitOperation HOPE announced today it has been awarded a $500,000 American Red Cross grant to support recovery services for people affected by Superstorm Sandy.

Operation HOPE will use the funding to bolster rebuilding and recovery efforts throughout the 14 states that suffered hurricane damage by providing the following assistance:

Deferring payments and renegotiating

loans

Creating a logical financial recovery

budget and EITC refunds

Obtaining copies of documents

Filing and resolving insurance claims

Foreclosure prevention

Completing FEMA and SBA documents

Completing home inspections

Selecting and managing a home repair contractor

“Operation HOPE’s response to Hurricane Sandy began in November and we currently have more than 6,000 disaster clients. We also understand that we have merely tapped the surface. With the support of the American Red Cross, we will be able to reach more residents that are still struggling with their financial recovery issues, as well as provide services more effectively, said Fred Smith president of HOPE Coalition America, Operation HOPE’s disaster financial recovery division. “We are pleased that the American Red Cross recognizes the importance of financial guidance and counseling and supports our work to help individuals recover in storm-torn communities.”

“Sandy is the largest U.S. operation by the Red Cross in more than five years, and thanks to the public’s generous support, the Red Cross has provided millions of meals, snacks and relief supplies, shelter and comfort to Sandy survivors – and we will continue to provide help,” said Gregg O’Ryon, Vice President Readiness & Capacity Development for the Red Cross. “We know that recovery is a marathon, not a sprint, and programs such as this one by Operation HOPE are vital in helping people rebuild their lives.”

 

Bryant Reflects on Alabama Tornadoes: It Killed More Than Lives

I am so very pleased that Operation HOPE will soon be able to move its 'silver rights' empowerment agenda, and specifically our HOPE Office of Small Business & Entrepreneurship work focused on nurturing and bringing up growing small business, minority small business and entrepreneurship in the state.  I am particularly thankful to leaders in and out of the state that encouraged our engagement on the ground there in the weeks and months following these devastating tornadoes.  Finally, I want to thank the U.S. Economic Development Administration and its leadership for the federal support here, which will be amplified by and further supported with private sector support. More on our plans in and for the state and her people to come.

That said, I was so distressed that in the period immediately following the worst tornadoes recorded in the southern states, and Alabama in particular, Operation HOPE and I were not in a position to help. Ultimately, I was actually a little disappointed in myself.  We followed all the rules.  I and we waited to make sure we had covered all the appropriate bases, paid respect to all leaders at the state, county, city and local level, and we covered all the appropriate protocols as a national partner for FEMA around emergency financial disaster preparedness, response and recovery. We even opened up our national call center for HOPE Coalition America based in Poway, California, a donation made available through our partner CoreLogic.  And yes, of course we helped each and everyone of those that called us.  But what we should have done is different.  

We should have -- no I should have -- simply placed HOPE staff on the ground, immediately and at our own expense if need be. But we did as we were counseled, and on that point I am glad we paid our proper respect to leadership.

What breaks my heart are the countless thousands of poor and struggling low-wealth individuals and families, be they white, black or brown, who never had an opportunity to access the immense federal resources that were available to those impacted by the disaster; from enhanced FEMA support, to low-interest SBA loans for rebuilding, to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).  Furthermore, there was the that work I believe we could have done between survivors of disaster, along with the banks, credit unions, insurance companies and other private companies with which we have strong working relationships, and that had substantial investment in the state.  Work such as that we completed successfully for more than 200,000 survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Operation HOPE, Alabama Planned to Help Those Impacted by 2011 Tornadoes

$400,000 in federal funds to help businesses hurt in April 2011 tornadoes

Concord was one of the hardest-hit communities in the Birmingham area during the April 27, 2011, tornado outbreak. (Joe Songer/jsonger@al.com) (Birmingham News file)

The U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration today announced a $400,000 grant to help Birmingham area businesses hurt in the April 2011 tornadoes.

The grant will go to Operation Hope to establish the Alabama Small Business Disaster Recovery Program. 

The storms reduced Alabama's GDP by as much as $1.3 billion and resulted in the loss of between 5,600 and 13,200 jobs statewide, according to estimates from the University of Alabama.

Read the complete story from Dawn Kent and Alabama.com here.

 

 

 

 

A Personal Letter from Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman, and CEO John Hope Bryant and Ambassador Andrew Young

Operation HOPE is "the private banker to the working poor, the underclass, and the struggling middle-class," and the impact of our work can be felt on-the-ground, everywhere we operate.  Our mission is 'silver rights,' or making free enterprise and capitalism work for all.  Financial literacy is the tool, financial dignity is the goal and financial inclusion is the way. 

2012 marked new heights for HOPE's silver rights movement as it continued to reach out and empower underserved populations in new and innovative ways. HOPE divisions currently serving the community include:

 

• Banking on Our Future, focused on keeping the most at-risk youth from repeating the cycles of poverty and despair that has trapped so many in their families and communities by teaching them basic financial literacy, or what we call "the global language of money." 

 

• HOPE Business-In-A-Box/Gallup-HOPE Index, focused on inspiring a generation of young people to become future American assets of economic energy, small business and entrepreneurship.

 

• HOPE Financial Dignity Centers, including our newest HOPE Financial Dignity Center at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr''s Ebenezer Church in Atlanta, Georgia, are where we approve clients day one, subject to the resolution of their primary denial factors, and raise credit scores on average 120 points over 18 months of active counseling. We call it the 700 Credit Scores Communities Initiative.  The HOPE Center at Ebenezer marks our 11th HOPE Center across the nation, and is the proud anchor for the new Martin Luther King. Sr. Community Resource Complex next to Ebenezer Church.  Most people know that Daddy King, as he was lovingly called, co-pastored Ebenezer Church with his son, Dr. King, but what they don't know is that Daddy King served on the board of a bank for 40 years.  Even more than 50 years ago, the King legacy was alive with civil rights, and silver rights empowerment, too. A special thank you to our HOPE Center signature partners, including Bank of the West and Union Bank on the west coast, E*TRADE FINANCIAL in New York City and Washington, DC, and at Ebenezer in Atlanta, FINANCIAL SERVICES ROUNDTABLE members SunTrust Bank, State Farm Insurance, LPL Financial/NestWise, Wells Fargo Bank,MasterCard, and BMO Harris Bank, along with supporting partners including the Coca-Cola Company,Kaplan University, Equifax, the United Way of Greater Atlanta, amongst others.

 

• HOPE Coalition America, which is the national partner with FEMA around emergency financial disaster preparedness, response and recovery, or the "economic Red Cross" for the nation.  HCA responded to, and served, more than 200,000 survivors following Hurricane Katrina, and we are responding to Hurricane Sandy now. 

 

• HOPE Government Relations & Public Policy, and HOPE Forums, which both advance responsible public policy and help to shape, engaged public opinion.  The recent HOPE Global Financial Dignity Summitfeaturing U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, with more than 1,500 delegates from 30 countries, covered by 50 major media outlets, is but one example of our focus here.

Read the complete personal letter on the HOPE Blog here.

Operation HOPE and Private Sector Join to Provide Disaster Financial Recovery to Individuals Affected by Hurricane Sandy

Ares Capital, Allstate, Aon, HSBC, and Transunion among corporate partners joining commitment

NEW YORK, Jan. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Operation HOPE, Inc. (HOPE) is pleased to announce it is joining forces with private and public sector organizations to provide long-term financial recovery information, guidance and empowerment services to small businesses, families and individuals devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Ares Capital, Allstate, Aon, HSBC, and Transunion are among the initial group of companies making a commitment to help the HOPE recovery initiative - Project Restore HOPE: Hurricane Sandy.

Project Restore HOPE is a collaboration of Operation HOPE's disaster preparedness and recovery division, HOPE Coalition America (HCA), private sector financial institutions and government agencies. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has also been an avid supporter and team member of Project Restore HOPE. The goal of the team project is to provide long-term economic revitalization and empowerment services and programs to survivors of Hurricane Sandy in New York and New Jersey on-the-ground, and via a toll-free hotline in the District of Columbia and the other 11 recovering states. The effort will provide financial guidance to the survivors of the hurricane, including:

• Recovery budget preparation and emergency credit management 
• Working with individuals to help them understand and complete the insurance claim process
• Referrals to government and private agencies providing assistance 
• Assistance with obtaining copies of lost or destroyed documents 
• Assistance completing applications for grants and loans 
• Assistance with modifying and restructuring credit and loan obligations

The announcement comes following a meeting hosted by Michael Arougheti , president of Ares Capital, in New York City on December 11. Executives from the country's top financial services firms, accounting firms, law firms, as well as public sector leaders from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) attended to discuss Hurricane Sandy recovery and their commitments. The meeting included a presentation by FEMA Deputy Administrator Tim Manning , who briefed corporate partners on the status of recovery efforts in the areas most impacted by the hurricane and on the need for more private sector support for individuals and small businesses.  

"The destruction that was experienced by hundreds of thousands of residents in the tri-state area due to Hurricane Sandy was felt deeply within the business community," said Michael Arougheti , president of Ares Capital. "This meeting was a first step in our effort to demonstrate the business community's commitment to help impacted families and individuals get back on their feet. I am pleased with the working partnership that has been formed with Operation HOPE, FEMA, Ares Capital and other partners, as we are deeply invested in this recovery effort."

Fred D. Smith Appointed President of Operation HOPE Division, HOPE Coalition America

Here, Fred D. Smith joins former President Bill Clinton in Gulfport, Mississippi and La. in response to Hurricane Katrina.  Fred Smith was instrumental in standing up our impressive HOPE Coalition America (HCA) response to Hurricane Katrina.  Mr. Smith was also instrumental in the founding of HCA from the start, following the horrors of 9/11 in New York City.

As a direct result of Mr. Smith's leadership in this new space of emergency financial disaster preparedness, response and recovery, HCA has now been a national partner with FEMA for almost a decade, and has responded to more than 25 Presidentially declared national disasters since inception, having served more than 250,000. Mr. Smith also helped lead the formulation of our important national agreement with the American Red Cross, where we assist them with financial case management for survivors of disasters.

Today, Mr. Smith co-leads our HCA response to Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast, and is already assisting countless individuals.

HOPE Corps Directors Calls for Volunteers in Response to Hurricane Sandy

Greetings,

As you may know, Operation HOPE is dedicated to the financial preparedness, dignity and inclusion of all Americans. *Right now millions of our families, friends and neighbors’ lives are being devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Therefore, we are mobilizing to offer help to individuals and small businesses whose lives are being turned upside-down, and WE NEED YOUR HELP.


We need to mobilize over *1,000 volunteers* to meet the needs of this disaster. Find addition information on HOPE Coalition America (HCA) here. Your employees/volunteers can be located anywhere in the country. Please share this document within your organization and encourage your employees to become involved providing this national community service by calling *866-270-2583* to get signed up. They will become heroes to the individuals whose lives have been destroyed by this natural disaster.

Our disaster recovery division, HCA, is the only national financial emergency preparedness and recovery service in the country. Through partnerships with industry leaders such as yourself, spanning banking,
financial services, insurance, social and community services, we provide financial and economic information and guidance to those affected by disasters.

U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability Unanimously Passes Recommendation to Bring FEMA into Financial Capability Efforts of Federal Government

With the support of FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate and FEMA Deputy Administrator Tim Manning, approximately 45 days ago the Subcommittee on the Underserved and Community Empowerment for the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability, which I chair serving President Barack Obama and the Obama Administration, considered and subsequently passed a key recommendation to the full Council that would incorporate the new field of emergency financial and economic disaster preparedness, response and recovery into the federal government policy framework around financial capability.  

I am pleased to report that this past week, at the Council meeting held at the U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday, November 27th, 2012, the full Council unanimously approved this same recommendation to the President and Secretary of the Treasury.  Chris Logan, chief of staff and counselor to the deputy administrator at FEMA, pictured above, was on hand when the vote was considered and carried at the meeting.