Goodwill® and HelloWallet to Provide Financial Assistance to Enhance People’s Lives

ROCKVILLE, MD — Goodwill Industries International has announced a partnership with HelloWallet, an innovative web and mobile based software company leveraging the latest research in behavioral science to provide employees with personalized financial guidance. Through a 30-month program, 17 Goodwill agencies across the country will provide the HelloWallet subscription to employees as well as community members with disabilities and disadvantages who are unemployed and underemployed. It will provide these individuals with budgeting tools and personalized financial guidance and will track all of their income and expenses in one place.
HelloWallet is committed to dramatically expanding access to financial guidance in America, where only 20 percent of people have access to this type of critical support. The software leverages behavioral science to help participants save money and improve their financial wellness for long-term goals. Its average members have increased their monthly savings creating about $300 in extra contributions every month. HelloWallet’s mission ties into Goodwill’s family strengthening initiatives, which are focused on economic self-sufficiency and helping people with family health, child care, housing and transportation so that they can overcome challenges and become successful in their careers and support their families.
“At Goodwill, we know that problems at work often stem from problems at home as people struggle to balance their professional and family obligations,” said Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International. “Our goal is to ensure that families have what they need so that our participants can be successful at work. HelloWallet provides users with alerts regarding financial health threats, reminders, savings opportunities, and other information and education about their personal finances so that they can take steps to improve their financial situation.”
HelloWallet will enable Goodwill employees and the people it serves to empower themselves to manage money, create budgets, understand basic financial language and terms, and develop smart budgeting and savings skills to achieve their financial goals. For millions of families, this type of software provides the needed guidance for financial independence.
“Recent research by the Brookings Institution, Harvard University and others has found that there are hundreds of billions of dollars unnecessarily lost by employees with middle and low incomes because of avoidable financial missteps,” said Matt Fellowes, founder and chief executive officer of HelloWallet. “Employees have significant difficulty connecting with the products that can help them convert earning into prosperity. Our goal in partnering with Goodwill is to teach their employee base how to develop money management skills so that they can spend less, save more and achieve financial stability.”
To learn more about HelloWallet, please visit www.hellowallet.com