$1 Million Commitment Accelerates Financial Wellness for Underserved Communities

June 10, 2024 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

ATLANTA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Operation HOPE, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping low- and moderate-income Americans thrive in an ever-changing economy, is pleased to announce that The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (PNC) has joined as an elite Founder’s Circle Member. Its $1 million commitment supports the growth and scale of Operation HOPE’s mission to drive financial inclusion and economic equity across America.

“They’ve helped us transform renters into homeowners, check-cashing customers into banking consumers, and small business dreamers into small business owners. PNC’s funding has supported significant growth for Operation HOPE and allowed us to scale our impact, and we thank them for championing empowered communities filled with economic opportunity for all.”

PNC and Operation HOPE have been working together for two decades to level the opportunity playing field, connecting underserved communities to the private sector and using the power of inclusive capitalism to do it at scale. PNC has demonstrated extraordinary long-term commitment, generosity and leadership in driving social and economic equity, and the company’s commitment as a Founder’s Circle Member will change lives today and create long-term solutions that will benefit entire communities for years to come.

PNC has supported past work through Operation HOPE such as the Community Uplift Grant, which empowered youth, young adults and adults to take tangible steps toward increasing their financial wellbeing through financial inclusion coaching and education offered by Operation HOPE, and has helped to transform the lives of over 139,000 Americans in the last three years:

• 139,152 clients received financial education and coaching
• 687,800 financial empowerment services were delivered through one-on-one and group sessions
• 106 new HOPE Inside locations opened, making a total of 256 locations now providing financial literacy education and services across the nation

The Community Uplift Grant has also helped to advance HOPE’s commitment to building and supporting small businesses and empowering entrepreneurs. It facilitated the launch of HOPE’s One Million Black Businesses Initiative in 2020, which is working to create 1 million Black-owned businesses by 2030 by offering the tools these businesses need to build, scale and sustain. So far, the initiative has accomplished the following:

• 334,000+ Black-owned businesses were started, supported and engaged
• 167,884 small business development services were delivered by HOPE
• 75 small business coaches have been deployed in over 53 cities
• $26 million in business loans were funded to small business and entrepreneurs

PNC has also supported other Operation HOPE initiatives such as homeownership programs to help Americans build generational wealth, disaster response and recovery services, and a Child Savings Account Program for Atlanta Public Schools students.

“PNC’s financial support has uplifted thousands of families and individuals with the opportunity to build generational wealth and participate in free enterprise,” said John Hope Bryant, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Operation HOPE. “They’ve helped us transform renters into homeowners, check-cashing customers into banking consumers, and small business dreamers into small business owners. PNC’s funding has supported significant growth for Operation HOPE and allowed us to scale our impact, and we thank them for championing empowered communities filled with economic opportunity for all.”

About PNC

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC) is one of the largest diversified financial services institutions in the United States, organized around its customers and communities for strong relationships and local delivery of retail and business banking including a full range of lending products; specialized services for corporations and government entities, including corporate banking, real estate finance and asset-based lending; wealth management and asset management. For information about PNC, visit www.pnc.com.

About Operation HOPE, Inc.

Since 1992, Operation HOPE has been moving America from civil rights to “silver rights” with the mission of making free enterprise and capitalism work for the underserved—disrupting poverty for millions of low and moderate-income youth and adults across the nation. Through its community uplift model, HOPE Inside, which received the 2016 Innovator of the Year recognition by American Banker magazine, Operation HOPE has served more than 4 million individuals and directed more than $3.2 billion in economic activity into disenfranchised communities—turning check-cashing customers into banking customers, renters into homeowners, small business dreamers into small business owners, minimum wage workers into living wage consumers, and uncertain disaster victims into financially empowered disaster survivors. For more information: OperationHOPE.org. Follow the HOPE conversation on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Contacts

Operation HOPE:
Sarah Troutt, Mendel Communications
sarah@mendelcommunications.com