Small Towns, Big Impact: SaverLife and Intuit Expand Efforts to Power Prosperity Through Savings
As the SaverLife team can tell you, our partnership with Intuit’s Prosperity Hub initiative is somewhat of an obsession for me.
The goal of Intuit Prosperity Hubs is to invest in communities in economic transition by providing high-quality jobs, vocational training, and resources to help small businesses and communities thrive. A cornerstone of the initiative is locating customer success centers in communities who have suffered job losses as traditional industries disappear, creating technology jobs in parts of the country often left behind in a rapidly changing economy.
Recognizing the importance of saving to change the trajectory of families' financial futures, SaverLife partnered with Intuit to increase savings rates in two pilot communities: Bluefield, West Virginia and Johnstown, Pennsylvania. During the nine-month pilot program, SaverLife engaged local employers and blended our flagship online savings reward program with a robust grassroots outreach campaign to build a culture of savings in Johnstown and Bluefield, helping more than 4,000 households start saving money.
The pilot was a huge success and will now be expanded to additional sites in Hazard (KY), Lawton (OK), Morristown (TN) and Wise (VA). You can read more about what we achieved and how we did it in our recent report “Communities on the Rise: Building Prosperity Together in Bluefield and Johnstown.”
You may be wondering why a British woman who has lived in California for most of her life would care so much about Bluefield, WV and Johnstown, PA. I have two reasons, and both are deeply personal.
First, my husband Doug was born in Bluefield, WV (pop. ~10,000). His father worked 30 years for Appalachian Power, and Doug has spent his career representing working people, including the United Mine Workers.
Learn more about SaverLife's work in Bluefield, West Virginia and Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Second, I can draw a direct line from the investment Intuit is making in these communities and my own life trajectory. When my dad left the military, my parents returned to my mum’s hometown of Greenock, Scotland. After a stint working alongside my grandfather in the shipyards, my dad got a new job - in the customer service department of a recently arrived American technology company. He worked his way up, building a successful career in logistics, and eventually relocating our family from Silicon Glen to Silicon Valley.
My family and I are living proof that these investments matter. They change lives. When it comes to scaling savings success, SaverLife has a great deal to be proud of. But this small scale, high-impact project has a big place in my heart as one of my proudest achievements.
Stay safe -
Leigh