Operation HOPE Continues Streak of Impressive Growth With Release of 2022 Impacts

Nearly $1 billion in mortgages provided to low- and- moderate income homebuyers through partnership with Fulton Bank

Over 169,000 Black businesses supported through partnership with Shopify

Milestone 200^th HOPE Inside location opened with Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Operation HOPE, a national nonprofit dedicating to helping low-and moderate-income Americans thrive in an ever-changing economy, announced its top-line results for 2022. Celebrating its 30^th year, Operation HOPE continued its impressive streak of growth by expanding its national footprint of HOPE Inside locations, growing its portfolio of top-tier partner organizations, and serving a record number of clients.

Recognized as American Banker’s “Innovation of the Year” in 2016, Operation HOPE uses its HOPE Inside locations to deliver no-charge financial coaching to individuals in the community or at work. Key results from 2022 include:

• HOPE Inside locations increased by 33%, finishing at a total of 217 offices, up from 147 at the end of 2021. As a result, Operation HOPE:
  • Delivered 182,779 financial coaching services to more than 40,600 individual clients.
  • Raised client credit scores by an average of 42 points, with 20% of clients seeing an increase between 51-99 points.
  • Reduced median client debt by $1,944.
  • Increased median client savings by $1,100.
• Announced that nearly $1 billion in mortgages had been secured for low- and moderate-income homebuyers through its partnership with Fulton Bank.
• Supported 169,087 unique Black-owned businesses through its HOPE Inside network and 1 Million Black Businesses (1MBB) initiative partners. This accounts for approximately 5% of all Black-owned businesses in the U.S. New 2022 1MBB partners committed to the creation of an additional 200,000 Black-owned businesses.
• Wells Fargo announced plans to introduce HOPE Inside centers in 20 markets that will serve as many as 150 Wells Fargo branches and their surrounding communities across the U.S. by the end of 2023.
• Operation HOPE opened its milestone 200^th HOPE Inside location in Stone Mountain, GA as part of this partnership, which was attended by Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf and Operation HOPE Chairman and CEO John Hope Bryant.
• Building on the success of its first-of-its-kind Financial Wellness Index with Experian, Operation HOPE utilized this data to build a Community Credit Score Index. The Index highlights high- and low-credit score zip codes in the same city by showcasing discrepancies in earnings, social mobility, housing, education and longevity.
• The HOPE Global Forums conducted a “special edition” Crypto Summit with U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu in May as well as its flagship Annual Meeting in December, which featured record in-person attendance. Combined, the meetings were watched by more than 6.2 million viewers in over 40 countries around the world.
• Bank of America and Operation HOPE announced at the HOPE Global Forums Annual Meeting that they will offer free financial counseling in 180 financial centers in 17 U.S. markets starting in 2023.
• Also at the HOPE Global Forums Annual Meeting, Vinebrook Homes announced it was expanding its partnership with Operation HOPE to include a five-year, $1 million commitment to provide its residents across the U.S. with resources and programs to help achieve financial freedom.
• Under the leadership of Co-Chair’s Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, and Mr. Bryant, the 10-year Financial Literacy for All Initiative (FL4A) continued to gain momentum, with top-tier organizations such as General Motors, Hershey, Dow Jones, Tyson Foods and Synchrony joining the movement to embed financial literacy into American culture.
• In April, Financial Literacy for All was invited to ring the Nasdaq Opening Bell as part of Financial Literacy Month. Mr. Bryant did the honors in his role as Co-Chair.
• At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour co-hosted a breakfast at the Wall Street Journal house with Mr. McMillon and Mr. Bryant as part of their Financial Literacy for All commitment.

A full Annual Report highlighting Operation HOPE’s impacts will be available at the end of February.

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.