Earning Assets Just Got Easier
Bay Area nonprofit gives low-wage earners a running start

Aug 27 | archive | subscribe

San Francisco has been named the city with the highest cost of living in America. We all know how hard it is to save money to go back to school or start a business or even buy a house in the Bay Area. And unfortunately there are hardly any resources specific to San Francisco to help you start you jump start your life.

If you were to run an internet search for money-saving tips, you'd find some generic answers, like recycling and reusing, creating frugal shopping lists, or drinking tap water instead of buying soda. But if you're looking for a more localized answer that understands your environment and community, a websearch will be tricky. Unless you find the Earned Assets Resource Network (EARN).

EARN is a San Francisco based-nonprofit, that offers a fresh approach to saving. It’s called asset-building: a modern approach that mixes financial instruction, matched savings accounts, links to banking, and ongoing, custom-made financial lessons and planning.

Using these tools, EARN supports families and individuals across the Bay Area in their pains to achieve financial security, while helping invest in their futures, and transfer their assets to future generations.

Aniya Green, 20, one of over 1500 clients of EARN, grew up in foster care until she was 18. After an injury kept her from pursuing her dream of becoming a professional dancer, she heard about EARN and enrolled in the Individual Development Account (IDA) program and set her sights on starting a small business. Her own experience in the foster system inspired her to start a different kind of home for foster youth.

With EARN’s help, Green’s dream is a reality. Now, after the birth of her son, she wants to take her non-profit foster home, U-First Community Services, in new directions. Green explains: “We want to provide more services and opportunities for these kids.”

All of EARN’s clients receive 8 hours of general financial management training prior to opening an IDA account, which matches Saver dollars 2:1 up to $2,000, for a total of $6,000. Savers can then use their IDA funds to go back to school, start a small business, or purchase their first home.

“EARN recognizes the inherent potential in everyone - and they give you the support and encouragement to reach your goals. With EARN’s help, I’m not just managing my own business. I’m helping other young people get ready to achieve their dreams too, and that feels really good,” said Green.

Without assets, Bay Area families are unable to weather crises like a divorce, the loss of a job or the illness of an uninsured wage earner. Fortunately, awareness is spreading as organizations like EARN – and its Savers - demonstrate the exponential positive effects of asset building. sfearn.org