BNY Mellon, Ashoka Name Finalists of the Unlocking ₵hange Challenge

As part of the nationwide Unlocking ₵hange Challenge, Ashoka and BNY Mellon have been searching the United States for innovations that actively increase financial wellbeing for the communities and individuals who need it most. The goal of the Challenge is to uncover and identify ideas, programs and organizations founded by visionary entrepreneurs based on the needs of communities across the country.  

Ashoka and BNY Mellon are pleased to announce the 10 Pioneers (finalists) of the Unlocking ₵hange Challenge whose bold ideas are creating a strong financial future for individuals and families. These game-changing innovations are working both locally in specific states and across the United States; they were selected from the top 37 submissions to the Challenge for their high-quality, community roots, impact potential, sustainability and innovation.

Meet the Pioneers of financial wellbeing and learn more about their unique innovations:

• Catapult Design: The Tuba City Project. The first co-working and business incubation space to provide rural Native American entrepreneurs with financial stability.
• ENVision Mobile: Financial Inclusion for Microentrepreneurs. Building business management tools for low-income microentrepreneurs who primarily sell consumer goods in cash.
• Fig Tech Inc.: Fig Loans, Building a Bridge From Bad to Good Credit. Partnering with nonprofits to provide credit building products that bridge families from income volatility to financial stability.
• FreeFrom: Healing, Rebuilding, and Thriving: Financial Capacity building for Survivors of Gender Based Violence. Teaching domestic abuse survivors how to start their own businesses and sell their products.
• Hot Bread Kitchen: Baking Breadwinners. Providing innovative culinary training that offers economic security to low-income women and their families.
• Mission Asset Fund (MAF): Financial Well-Being from the Ground Up. Using technology and finance to leverage the power of community, social trust, and cultural assets to build financial power.
• Opportunity Fund: The Power of Yes – Investing in Underserved Small Businesses at Scale. Supporting the dreams of enterprising entrepreneurs by providing access to responsible capital at scale.
• Prison Entrepreneurship Program: Breaking the Cycles of Generational Poverty and Incarceration through Workforce Development and Entrepreneurship Training. Uniting business executives and returning citizens through entrepreneurial passion and servant leadership to transform lives, families and communities.
• ROC USA: Cooperative “Mobile Home” Communities: Empowered Homeowners Gain Economic Security and Economic and Social Benefits. Making resident ownership of Manufactured ("Mobile") Home Communities viable and successful.
• Schroeder School of Business: Access to Capital and Expertise for Emerging Entrepreneurs. Supporting women and minority owned business enterprises while providing business students invaluable experience.

This collaboration of Ashoka and BNY Mellon will support the 10 Pioneers of financial wellbeing with a collaborative digital platform to connect with peers, mentorship from a team of thought leaders from Ashoka and BNY Mellon, and admission to the exclusive Social Capital Markets Conference. Learn more about the full suite of awards here.

These Pioneers of financial wellbeing were selected through a robust Review process, benefiting from feedback, ideas, and edits to strengthen their submissions.

Ashoka and BNY Mellon are partnering to shape the future of financial wellbeing through social innovation and entrepreneurship. With a responsibility to its clients, its people, and the world, BNY Mellon contributes to the resiliency of global markets and solutions for some of the world’s most pressing issues, building healthy economies and sustainable communities over time. Ashoka is the largest global network of leading social entrepreneurs—individuals with new ideas to systematically address the world’s biggest challenges and the entrepreneurial skill to transform those ideas into national, regional and global social impact. Together, with social entrepreneurs, Ashoka and BNY Mellon are well positioned to lay a foundation of financial wellbeing for every person in the United States—and around the world.

Congratulations to everyone who has shared their ideas and are collaborating as a part of the Unlocking ₵hange Challenge.