John Hope Bryant

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.

A New Introduction Video Featuring HOPE Business In A Box, Powered by the Gallup-HOPE Index

Check it out and be inspired to change the lives of a generation.  Go to Operation HOPE for more details on the HOPE Business In A Box innovation, and the Gallup-HOPE Index that powers it.

An Example of a Love Leader Amongst Us

I was deeply honored to travel to the Bay Area this week to acknowledge and thank an Operation HOPE Northwest Board Member by the name of Brian Tippens, an executive with Hewlett Packard (HP). Brian, who happens to be African-American and from the under-served community served today by the HOPE Financial Dignity Center, Oakland, cares deeply about community, and regularly gives back. But one of these acts involves his leadership around securing more than a dozen new HP first class computer systems to outfit the HOPE Inner-City Cyber Cafe at the HOPE Center, Oakland.

Brian claims that he was motivated by years ago when I gave a speech at a business conference in the Bay Area, but now it is he, and other caring executives like him, who go out of their way to stay connected to the under-served communities they grew up in and to give back, that inspire and motivate me.

Thank you Brian Tippens, for all that you do my friend. Your legacy is a living one.


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 is chairman of the Subcommittee for the Under-Served and Community Empowerment for 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.   Mr. Bryant serves on the board of directors of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation, an NYSE Euronext publicly traded company, and a division of $54 billion Ares Capital.

Operation HOPE Cyber Cafe -- Where You Go To Get A JOB

Every now and then I have one of those 'moments,' where I clearly see, feel and understand the power and impact of our work in the lives of real people. Real people in the communities we serve. Such was the case this week when I traveled to the Bay Area for a round of meetings, and then wrapped it up with remarks and thanks given to a HOPE Board Member (Brian Tippens) and partner (Hewlett Packard) that donated new computers for our HOPE Inner-City Cyber Cafe. While at the HOPE Financial Dignity Center, Oakland, a partnership with Bank of the West, a gentleman named Karl Seabrook. And that is where I my 'moment.'

John Hope Bryant Open Letter to Leaders, August, 2012

 

                                                                                                                            August 16, 2012

 

An Open Letter to Leaders

For 20 years Operation HOPE has been about progress for the underserved here in America and around the world.  Now, on our 20th anniversary in 2012, we have hit the internal and external 'reset' button with respect to our strategic focus, our approach, operations, and even the results we seek for those we serve.  What comes next sets us up for the next 20 years. 

For 20 years HOPE was structured around a triangle approach to leadership, where my senior leadership team and I issued directives and the rest of the organization responded, or worse, simply waited for direction.  This approach was actually appropriate for a start-up trying to forge and frame its culture and way of operating.  In June, 2012, we completed an internal restructure around a diamond approach to leadership, where my senior team and I are at the bottom of the triangle, supporting our newly minted group of top-line division presidents, portfolio leaders, local CEOs, market presidents and others who now take 'ownership' of the HOPE brand wherever they live, work and operate.  Accordingly, it is with great pleasure that I announce the following promotions and key appointments:

They Give Me HOPE

I just had the distinct pleasure of speaking on silver rights and financial and human dignity to an incredible group of 6-14 years olds, of all races, places and faces, at Northern Lights School. Amazing...

This gives all good reason to be optimistic about their and our futures. A special thank you to Michael Shepherd, CEO, Rebeca Rangel and the entire team at Bank of the West, for making this happen. Thanks as well to our new market president, Tyrone Cosey, and the team from Operation HOPE, Oakland.

Onward and with HOPE

John Hope Bryant is a thought leader, founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE, and author of business bestseller LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass).

Operation HOPE at 20: A Look at Who We IMPACT

 

A special thank you to Rod McGrew, global chief of brand for Operation HOPE, for producing this summary of Operation HOPE's impact in the lives of people.  Real people. Our clients. The more than 1.5M we have served over the last 20 years.

Oakland HOPE Center Celebrates Financial Literacy Month by Conducting over 16 Workshops!

The Oakland HOPE Center celebrated Financial Literacy Month by conducting 16 workshops and educated 234 clients.

We held our first quarter 2012 Customer Recognition Night and had three guests share amazing testimonials, (one a new homeowner with the help of Operation HOPE) and a special guest Ms. Chaznee Brown, from The American Red Cross to discuss the Sickle Cell Donor Program. 

Read the complete story here.

A special thank you to our HOPE Financial Dignity Center, Oakland partner, Bank of the West.

 

From the 20th anniversary archives: John Hope Bryant talking to inner-city youth in Oakland Public Schools

 

This video is the single best "answer" to anyone genuinely interested in the power and impact of our work here at Operation HOPE.  This is a Global Dignity sponsored Dignity Day session from 2010 at Edna Brewer Middle School students in Oakland, California.  Operation HOPE now has a districtwide partnership with Oakland Public Schools to provide each and every child with both financial dignity education through Banking on Our Future, as well as (upcoming) HOPE Business In A Box!

This is how you change the world. One child, and one school house at a time.

Onward and with HOPE,

 

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 is chairman of the Subcommittee for the Under-Served and Community Empowerment for 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. 

Operation HOPE Announces 20 Year Service Report Card

 

The Operation HOPE family is proud to present our 20th anniversary "Report Card" on financial dignity, service leadership and the financial and economic empowermwent of our people, to our people.  The below is our report to the world.  Let me know what you think of our global results to date, and the results we have achieved to date on behalf of others. 

Operation HOPE Announces 20 Year Service Report Card.