SaverLife CEO Leigh Phillips Selected as Social Sector Advisor to the White House’s New Economic Opportunity Coalition
Coalition Will Catalyze and Align Public and Private Investments To Address Economic Disparities and Accelerate Economic Opportunity in Communities of Color and Other Underserved Communities
BROOKLYN, NY – July 28, 2022 – Leigh Phillips, the CEO of SaverLife, a leading nonprofit fintech supporting and advocating for the financial health of Americans making less than $50,000 per year, has been tapped as a social sector advisor to the newly formed Economic Opportunity Coalition (EOC).
The Coalition, announced today by Vice President Kamala Harris in Restoration Plaza in Brooklyn, New York, is a historic effort to catalyze and align public and private investments to address economic disparities and accelerate economic opportunity in communities of color and other underserved communities. Phillips will advise the 24 founding corporations and foundations on social sector initiatives for investment.
SaverLife represents 600,000 members working towards financial stability and economic opportunity. SaverLife members identify insufficient and inconsistent incomes, high costs of living, and lack of access to well-designed financial services as their biggest barriers to building wealth.
“As we emerge from a pandemic that laid bare the deep wealth inequities in our country,” Phillips says, “there is an urgent need for the public, private, and social sectors to lean in and do more to close the racial wealth gap with full force.”
As a thought leader across the public and private sectors, Phillips—supported by SaverLife’s growing member community and proprietary technology—provides a unique perspective on designing and delivering impactful products and policies to underserved populations. In her role as Social Sector Advisor, Phillips will help the founding companies look at their roles in the business ecosystem and provide guidance on how they might offer more holistic support to customers, employees, and the community—from providing safe, affordable, and accessible financial products to investing in community development strategies that build wealth. She will also help the EOC expand inclusive access to financial resources and facilitate long-term wealth building and equitable policy change.
Over the coming months, the EOC will build on investments made by the Biden-Harris Administration to develop new solutions that reimagine how capital, technology, and talent are deployed in underserved communities. The founding members of the Coalition include Ariel Investments, Bank of America, BNY Mellon, Capital One, Citi, Discover, Ford Foundation, Goldman Sachs, Google, Key Bank, Kresge Foundation, Mastercard, McDonald's, McKinsey & Company, Micron, Momentus Capital, Moody’s, Netflix, PayPal, PNC, Rockefeller Foundation, TIAA-CREF, and Upstart.
EOC members have worked with seventeen social sector advisors to inform the development and implementation of its commitments and will continue to engage with additional social sector advisors. Social sector advisors to the Coalition include African American Alliance of CDFIs, Appalachian Community Capital, Enterprise Community Partners, Financial Health Network, Hope Credit Union, Momentus Capital, National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders, National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, National Bankers Association, Next Street, Opportunity Finance Network, PolicyLink, Prosperity Now, SaverLife, The Resurrection Project, TruFund, and Urban Institute.