SaveTogether

Portfolios of the Poor - Rethinking Microfinance

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:30:00 +0000

Another great chapter of POTP - I'm sad there's only one left. When's the sequel coming out?

In this chapter, the authors use the evolution of the Grameen Bank from "Grameen I" to "Grameen II" as a backdrop for the larger point of their book that financial services for the poor need to evolve to more closely match the complex financial lives of their customers.

The Grameen I model is the model that still captures the imaginations of the world. It is the group lending model. The photo of a group of women repaying their loans continues to be the most dominant image of microfinance. And, when I fellowed at Kiva a couple of years ago, this is how I was introduced to microfinance as well.

In Grameen II, the model has evolved. The model moved towards a broader set of banking services (i.e. savings) that were tailored for individuals and their multiple needs including the recognition that all of the poor are not microentrepreneurs. Specifically, Grameen II introduced flexibility in loan repayments (different terms and the ability to "top-up"). In addition, Grameen II is characterized by two new savings products. First, Grameen members are now able to open passbook savings accounts that remove withdrawal restrictions that were in place in Grameen I. In addition, Grameen II introduced a commitment savings product in the form of the Grameen Pension Savings (GPS) scheme. This scheme allows individuals to open an five- or ten- year, interest-bearing savings account that requires regular monthly deposits.

As the authors note, these two new savings products were blessings not only for the customers but also for Grameen as their customers quickly began to save through these products providing Grameen with a healthy injection of deposits. The strong take-up for these savings products is grounded in the findings of POTP. In the case of the passbook savings product, members were now able to withdraw funds when they need them, thus minimizing their volatile cash flow problems. In the case of the GPS, members finally had a secure savings device that would allow them to begin to accumulate large sums and make significant investments.

From my perspective, the discussion on the GPS is the most exciting part of this chapter. GPS is a commitment-based savings account that requires individuals to commit to monthly savings and in turn they can accumulate large sums in a medium-term horizon and invest their proceeds. This is similar to the matched savings accounts that we are profiling at SaveTogether. Our accountholders are committing to making regular monthly deposits for 18-36 months and in turn they will receive a match from our donors. They can use their savings plus the match to invest in themselves. The GPS scheme and matched savings accounts are the kind of commitment-based, incentivized, secured, and flexible accounts that meet the demands of the customer but also include the necessary nudges. And the best part about this is it works!!!

As the authors point out, once the GPS was offered, it catalyzed savings by members beyond Grameen's greatest imagination (by 2005 Grameen's savings portfolio had overtaken its loan portfolio). This reiterates the point that when the poor are offered the right kind of savings product, they will save and they will save much more than we can expect. As the leader of an organization working with low-income Americans, I am asked this question all of the time - "if the poor are making so little, how can they save?" It gives me great pleasure to be able to point these skeptics to this chapter.

It is now up to us to continue to listen and learn from our customers and design financial products and services that reflect what we have learned. The phenomenal success of Grameen II can be our inspiration.

Portfolios of the Poor - The Price of Money

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Tue, 18 May 2010 16:30:00 +0000

On the heels of the recent NYTimes article about high interest rates in microfinance and with the Microfinance USA a few days away where one of the most anticipated sessions is entitled "What is a Fair Price to Pay for Good Credit," Chapter 5 was another perfectly timed chapter of Portfolios of the Poor.

Consistent with their earlier chapters, the authors introduce us to this thorny issue by allowing us to see the issue from the perspective of the client. When doing so, it turns out that pricing does not dominate the discussion like it does for microfinance practitioners. Instead, price is one factor that households consider when they access a service. Other factors that are equally important are convenience, timing, and repayment flexibility. In addition, the authors suggest that thinking of interest rates as fees also breaks the discussion away from the inevitable comparison with market interest rates.

I also appreciate how the authors introduce other dynamics into the pricing equation. When I spent time in Ghana as a Kiva Fellow, I quickly understood the reality of servicing loans to rural communities. But, this chapter deepens this analysis by also introducing other reasons for higher prices including, the short-term nature of lending, the relatively small size of the principal, the lack of compounding interest, and the flexibility of arrangements.

When I view the U.S. experience through the lens of this chapter, I'm immediately reminded of the intense advocacy for interest-rate caps for payday lenders. Interestingly, the POTP authors suggest that interest-rate caps are not effective and would put many pro-poor MFIs out of business. This would send many a well-intentioned lobbyist into fits here in the U.S. I wonder what their position would be for the U.S?

I think that would depend on whether price is the only factor at play in the U.S. In addressing the price issue, the POTP authors spend some time explaining why price is central to loans here in the U.S. With our more sophisticated financial markets and reduced transaction costs, price plays a central role and comparing interest-rates between institutions is a fair comparison (The POTP authors emphasize that making interest rate comparisons between developed markets and developing markets is not a fair comparison). If we can assume that all products are equal in terms of other factors like convenience and flexibility than perhaps we should focus efforts on making sure interest-rates are not priced to take advantage of certain customers.

However, I do believe that one of the reasons for the growth of the payday industry is their recognition that in the U.S. many customers, like the POTP households, also consider convenience and repayment schedules when they take a loan. That's why I'm especially heartened to learn more about small-dollar loans that are being introduced in banks across the U.S through the Bank On initiatives and with the help of the FDIC's Small Dollar Loan program. If regulated banks and credit unions can be as convenient, flexible, and consumer friendly as the payday lenders, then we may see competition solely on price and hopefully interest-rates will decline without needing interest-rate caps.

But, until then the debate continues and I'm looking forward to the Thursday session at Microfinance USA!

Portfolios of the Poor - Building Blocks

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Fri, 07 May 2010 15:09:00 +0000

This chapter of Portfolios of the Poor is the reason why I so desperately wanted to read this book and introduce it to our community. Starting with the basic premise that each of us desires to pursue our dreams, the authors look at ways their profiled families are creating usefully large sums to make those dreams a reality. As is true in the developed world and the developing world, richer families are offered a suite of products, services, and tax breaks to help them build these large sums. However, as POTP points out, many of these tools are not available to low-income families (this is true in the U.S. as well, see here).

In the absence of many formal tools, the chapter addresses the way families cobble together useful sums by accessing a diverse set of informal products and services. First, they address the common uses of these sums: life cycle uses (like weddings, funerals), emergencies, and opportunities (i.e. education, business investment). These goals are common human goals - no matter if you live in a developing nation or in the U.S.

The authors categorize the tools the families are using into two groups - accelerators and accumulators. Accelerators are loans that are used to give households access to cash immediately. Interestingly, many households use loans to access lump sums even when they have savings. For these households, the pressure created by loan repayments creates a discipline that forces them to save to repay. They worry that rebuilding a savings balance is too difficult. I'm sure many behavioral economist would have much to say about this!

The accumulator analysis is particularly relevant to us. Accumulators in the case of the POTP households occur in the form of different savings groups. These include Saving-Up Clubs, ROSCAs, and ASCAs. The common trait across each of these groups is the organization of a series of small pay-ins into a single large payout facilitated by an intermediary deposit keeper. Yet, while these mechanisms work many of them can be hard to access, unreliable, too short in time, and mismatched to the cash flow of the household.

Instead, the authors outline a series of key principles that would make for a more effective solution to savings products. These key principles are:

Accessibility - available to urban and rural households, easy to understand
Security - insured, trusted account in a formal institution
Flexibility - pay-ins that match cash flow, flexibility in use of saving
Commitments - scheduled pay-ins

This chapter has re-confirmed my belief in the power of matched savings programs. I believe the matched savings programs we are profiling at SaveTogether meet all of the criteria introduced by the POTP authors. In addition, our community is built on enabling an important fifth principle - incentives. (Innovations for Poverty Action has some great research on the use of incentives for savings in developing countries)

Accessibility - available at over 500 program across the U.S.
Security - accounts are held at FDIC-insured banks or credit unions
Flexibility - saving sums can be used for multiple asset types, emergency withdrawals allowed
Commitments - savers must set a goal, make monthly deposits, and attend financial education classes
Incentives - anywhere from a 1:1 match to a 3:1 match

I'm excited that our savers have access to a program that works and that we can offer you, our community, a way to amplify this program. Of course, as we continue to grow, I think we'll have to consider whether it makes sense to help make this kind of savings program available to communities outside the U.S. The question to our community is: Are you interested? Will you support programs and their savers outside of the U.S?

SaveTogether Presentation at SeaMo's Microfinance and Microbrews

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 14:31:00 +0000

Since I was unable to read the next chapter of Portfolios of the Poor this week, I wanted to post something in the spirit of continuing the conversation. Here's the presentation I gave at last night's SeaMo Microfinance and Microbrews event (and the reason for me having to skip a week of POTP). You'll notice, however, that I touched on many of the programs profiled in POTP.

In the meantime, stay tuned for Chapter 4 - Building Blocks next week.

Dylan

SeaMo Microfinance and Microbrews

View more presentations from dylanhiggins.

Portfolios of the Poor - Dealing with Risk

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:30:00 +0000

In this chapter of POTP, the authors address how the world's poor manage risk through a series of both formal and informal financial instruments. They describe how emergencies can lead families to both devour assets and incur massive debt.

The majority of the chapter is spent on focusing on the high cost of funerals in South Africa. A study shows that South African households with monthly incomes in the range of $155-$300 a month typically spend around $1,500 for a funeral! To pay for these funerals, South African families purchase formal insurance products (funeral insurance) and participate in informal risk-sharing arrangements (burial societies and informal insurance-like products offered by funeral parlors). Despite these arrangements, however, families still resort to a series of informal sharing arrangements to finance their funerals including in-kind contribution and loans from family members.

The South African funeral example is used to show the way families in all of the three countries (South Africa, Bangladesh, and India) actively seek out risk-sharing arrangements and in the gaps filled by a lack of commercial products, find or create informal arrangements.

Despite the high number of informal services, some innovation is occurring. For example, the authors talk about the inventive ways insurance is being introduced into the markets through similar services. A great example is the concept of linking insurance with microcredit. Microcredit institutions are already in the community collecting periodic loan payments and thus pairing this process with a premium collection process makes sense.

In my own experience, I saw this firsthand. While working as a Kiva Fellow , I was lucky enough to pair up with a loan officer with Sinapi Aba Trust who recognized the natural fit between insurance provision and loan provision. He required that all of his clients also buy into the Ghanaian health insurance scheme. I blogged about the positive results here.

When I view this chapter from SaveTogether's perspective, the obvious overlap is between the state of health insurance in our country. A recent Harvard study shows that nearly 62% of bankruptcies are due to medical bills. Many families in the U.S. are one emergency away from devouring their assets, incurring massive debt, and losing income due to the lack of health insurance. With recent changes to our laws, it will be interesting to see how this number changes over time.

Another interesting point the authors make and one which I have had trouble articulating over time is the difference between microsavings/microinsurance and microcredit products. In the much more widely-recognized microcredit markets, it is the consumers who have to earn the trust of the institutions. But, this is reversed for microinsurance and microsavings where the institutions have to earn the trust in the consumers. This is obvious, but something that is often under-appreciated when questions arise about how there are so many unbanked here in the U.S. (recent studies estimate 1 in 13 Americans don't have a bank account). In many cases, there is mistrust in formal financial institutions and that only re-emphasizes the need for financial education to be paired with the matched savings accounts we profile at SaveTogether. With this in mind, we review each of our partner's financial education curriculums as part of our partner selection and due diligence process.

Dylan

Portfolios of the Poor - The Daily Grind

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:30:00 +0000

"Lower incomes require more rather than less active financial management."

Chapter 2 of the Portfolios of the Poor (POTP) begins to dig deeper into a cash flow analysis of low-income families in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa. The authors correctly emphasize that we often find ourselves focusing on the balance sheet of a family or their income statement, but fail to address the cash-flow. Similar to the situation of a startup company (we're familiar with this a bit), low-income families have to deal with the uncertainty of the future and the realities of the present. To do so requires a daily focus on one's cash position. This is especially true given that income is not only small for these families, but perhaps, more tellingly, uncertain and fluctuating. In the face of uncertainty, cash flow management becomes imperative in order to maintain adequate liquidity and flexibility.

To manage cash flows, the authors outline the diverse set of formal and informal financial services that families use from microcredit loans to savings groups to credits from the local shopkeeper to interest-free loans between friends. Interestingly, it is the informal sector that is able to provide the kinds of convenient and flexible arrangement that families need. Yet, this is a double-edged sword as this informal market is most often irreliable, lacks privacy, and lacks transparency.

After reading this chapter, I dug around a bit to facilitate my comparison / contrasts with the U.S. market. The first place I needed to go was an analysis of incomes in the U.S. Consistent with POTP, I was interested in not only understanding annual income figures, but more importantly, the fluctuations of this income over a given time period. While we've heard the unfortunate news that we have just experienced the first decade long decline in median annual income, I wanted to know what was being said about income volatility in the U.S. Anecdotally, I feel I could make a case for volatile income - increases in part-time employment and hourly wage work, uncertain unemployment checks - but what would the data say? A quick Google search away and I found an interesting analysis that confirms my hunch that "income volatility" has been on the rise since the 1970's. While the authors do note that this is true across all income groups, the impact of volatile incomes on lower income families without a safety cushion leads to the same daily cash flow imperatives highlighted in POTP.

After learning this, I asked - what does the daily grind look like for low-income U.S. families? And when compared to POTP, I think we see some of the same trends arising albeit in different forms. For example, there is growing evidence that payday lenders and check-cashers are responding to market demands for convenient, easy, quick access to credit. We also know that, at least until very recently, access to credit cards was never easier. Like families in the developing countries, many low-income Americans are actively managing their everyday cashflows by accessing the products available to them - even if this means annual interest rates in excess of 391%.

Yet, in contrast to many of the families in POTP, low-income Americans do enjoy the relative stability of government support - when they qualify. POTP shows that income volatility and consequently total cash flows are relatively smaller in South Africa vs. Bangladesh and India because of the social welfare system. So, while I'm a strong advocate of asset-building as an important tool for prosperity-building, I think we should recognize that stable, government support does provide an income stabilizing effect and may lead to a reduced need for families to rely on unscrupulous financial providers.

Another fascinating finding in PTP and one that hits very close to home here at SaveTogether is the power of family and friends. In many cases, the financial provider in times of crisis is not a stranger, but a family member. This, of course, is true here in the U.S. But, what's interesting for me, is the ramifications for us in the day of digital social networks. I think this bodes very well for players like Kiva, Prosper, Lending Club who are developing ways to build a social community around lending and I hope it bodes well for us as we continue to make SaveTogether a place where strangers become friends by promoting responsible savings.

Finally, I think I would be remiss to not mention that POTP directly addresses the field that SaveTogether is working in - asset-building and matched savings. They correctly point out that for many low-income families financial choices are more fundamental than saving for large lump sums in the future. Yet, as an organization we believe that just as POTP makes the strong case that low-income families live complex financial lives, they should not be limited to one set of financial tools. The challenge for us is to make sure that we work together with our like-minded partners to creatively and effectively bring to bear the full set of portfolio managements options to our target markets. After all, in the end it's not just microcredit. But, it's also not just microsavings too. There's so much more we can do together to help improve the lives of billions. So, let's get started.

See you next week with Chapter 3 - Dealing with Risk.

Dylan

Portfolios of the Poor - From Our Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:17:00 +0000

We are excited to introduce you to a new feature of our blog. For the next two months, I'll be reviewing the much heralded book, Portfolios of the Poor - How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day ("POTP"). Every Monday night, I'll read a new chapter and post my commentary here. Why are we doing this?

First, since we launched in October of last year in the U.S, we have kept our eyes on the international market and continue to explore what SaveTogether would look like if we expanded overseas. Secondly, as I dig deeper and deeper into the asset-building community that has been maturing in the United States over the last twenty years and gave birth to the matched savings concept, I have always found myself drawn to the contrasts and comparisons with the international microfinance movement. This is especially so with the relatively recent shift towards microsavings. Finally, I just really wanted an excuse to read this book. And since we recently reached our six month mark as a public platform, I figured it would be time to take a step back and think big picture for a bit. I love all of the day-to-day operations of SaveTogether, but I do miss looking towards a longer horizon.

So, here we go...

By the time, I finished the first chapter of POTP. I realized I wouldn't be able to take this task lightly. There was already a gold mine of fantastic material. I journeyed to the basement, navigated through the cobwebs, and pulled out a legal pad, a pen, and prepared to resharpen my note-taking skills.

In Chapter One, the authors take little time in dispelling the most common misperception about those living on $2/day - namely that they have a fixed income of $2/day. Instead, like many low-income families here in the United States, their income is marked by irregularity and unpredictability. Over time, they may earn $2/day but like a money manager each day is spent re-prioritizing against short-term and long-term horizons. And, in order to effectively manage their portfolios, these families are involved in a high degree of financial intermediation. They actively employ a wide set of tools before them to smooth consumption over time recognizing that they can't survive on current income alone. The authors note that in the 250+ families whose portfolios they analyzed, none of them used fewer than four financial instruments and all of them used savings and debt products of some sort (total cash turnover through these instruments relative to total net income ranged from 75 percent to 500 percent).

When I reflect on the author's findings for our work at SaveTogether, I'm reminded of one of the most common questions we get when we explain that our profiled savers are low-income - How can someone making so little income save anything?* The first chapter of POTP provides the first glimpse at an answer. When we think of low-income families, we commonly view them through a balance sheet perspective. We look at their incomes as snapshots in time and assume that someone making so little now, couldn't save now. But, we fail to recognize a cash flow perspective and the trade-offs that families are already making to put aside consumption now to save. We fail to see the reality that some families are embracing their future and will sacrifice now to enable it. This is a rational response to future expectations.

POTP's authors close their chapter by challenging their readers to recognize these ebbs and flows and the need for the market to develop carefully crafted tools to help families manage this ebb and flow. That is the excitement of this new perspective on our work and the excitement of moving to Chapter 2. See you next week....

Dylan

* Each of our partner programs has different income eligibility but most of the savers are below 200% Federal Poverty or $22,000 / year for a family of four.

A Look Back at 2009

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:22:00 +0000

I admit I'm a new year's resolution guy. It usually takes me a few weeks to put them together, but I enjoy the process. My favorite part is reviewing last year's resolutions and seeing how well I did or how well I didn't. It was with great pride that I reviewed my 2009 resolutions recently and was happy to check one off - "Launch SaveTogether."

In January 2009, SaveTogether was a twinkle in our collective eyes. We knew there was demand for this model, but we were still finalizing a business model, forming the partnerships and raising the funds we needed to build SaveTogether 1.0. By the spring, funding was in hand. By early summer, partnerships were finalized and web development was underway. In October 2009, we launched the platform and have been building momentum ever since. It has been quite a ride.

To help measure our work, we've been working on an Impact Dashboard. The dashboard represents a way to depict our theory of change in action. We've set out on this journey to provide opportunities for all Americans to save and invest in their future (and others too but for now one step at a time). To do so, we've built this platform to introduce the general public to the power of matched savings. We hope the platform inspires a broad community of supporters to take action to participate in the field. In so doing, we can expand the opportunity to more low-income savers and magnify their success. Ultimately, our aim is to catalyze our community to drive change at a policy level and demand that these opportunities are available to all.

The dashboard below is an overview of our progress in 2009. We'll be continuing to work on this in the months ahead (Special thanks to Troy Ruemping for his help). After you've had a chance to review, we are looking forward to your feedback. Please feel free to email me at dylan@savetogether.org

Our Challenge in 2010 - Converting a Country into Good Savers

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:13:00 +0000

I'm preparing to publish a set of metrics soon after the new year. These metrics will give you, our community, a sense of how far we've come since launching our beta this summer and our public site this October. I'm overwhelmed by our early success. Stay tuned.

One metric that you'll be hearing a lot about starting in 2010 will be our conversion rate. Roughly speaking in the internet context, conversion measures the number of casual visitors who take an intended action. In our case the most obvious action would be an online donation. We are working on a process where we can quantify this real-time and will be trying to publish this number to our community as we set this up.

But, I wanted to write a bit about conversion from a more strategic perspective. The underlying premise of SaveTogether is a strong belief in the power of saving and investing or, perhaps better termed, the importance of setting responsible savings goals and making responsible investments. Over the past several decades, Americans have been drifting away from a focus on this underlying frugal ethos. Recently, of course, in the face of the worst economic climate in the past 80 years, we have seen our savings rate creep back up. But, it remains to be seen rather our new found belief in savings will stick.

That's where SaveTogether comes in. We believe that the dedication, sacrifice, and hard-work profiled in the stories of our savers can be an inspiration for us all. We hope that each donation made on our site is a recognition of the responsibility represented through our saver's story, but also a reminder to our donors of the need to be responsible financial citizens themselves.

And that's where I loop back around to conversion. As an organization, we can only be successful if we inspire thousands of Americans to participate in this experiment. We have to find a way to make savings fun. And, as a corollary, we have to inspire people with their limited time and resources to take specific action to encourage savings in low-wage workers. It's a uphill battle. We don't have a strong history of savings in this country. But, things are changing. And, we are going to do our best to make it stick.

But, I need to ask each of you - what can we do to making savings fun?

The New Internet Browser for Good!

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:07:00 +0000

We have some exciting news for our supporters. Global Mojo, a new browser, is now available for download. This innovative new browser is based on Mozilla Firefox open-source technology. You can either download the standalone Global Mojo browser or you can download a Firefox Add-on.

The great news - whenever you use the browser to search or purchase items online, SaveTogether will receive 50% of the referral fees that are disbursed to Global Mojo. And, in the month of December, 100% of the referral fees will be passed to SaveTogether.

So, follow this link, download the FREE browser and make sure SaveTogether is your selected cause. Check your account every few days and watch the contributions grow day by day!

You keep doing the things you love to do on the internet, but now you are giving back to an organization like SaveTogether while you browse. As Global Mojo likes to say, that's changing the rules of the internet, for good.

Interview Request from AARP

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:38:00 +0000

Friends of SaveTogether,

We have an exciting opportunity to be profiled in the AARP Bulletin. This monthly publication is circulated to over 20 million readers. The reporter is interested in doing a quick interview with one of our donors to find out why they support our mission and our savers.

If you are interested in helping us, please email me: dylan@savetogether.org.

Thanks,
Dylan

What's the word? Reflections on a month of word-of-mouth marketing from BzzAgent

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:21:00 +0000

One of the challenges of a young organization like ours is finding the right way to spread the word about our work. And, as an organization whose success is dependent on spreading the word effectively and efficiently, this is especially true. That's why when we were given the opportunity to be a profiled non-profit with BzzAgent, a successful word-of-mouth marketing firm, we jumped on it.

After a month with BzzAgent, we received over 1900 unique visitors who completed surveys about their experience, provided specific comments, and spread the word about SaveTogether by referring us to others.

As we begin to parse through the feedback, some obvious trends are appearing that are not only relevant for us an organization, but I hope are relevant for others in the industry.

Lesson #1 - Welcome to the Save and Invest World

We've decided to use the quote from President Obama on our website because no matter where you are on the political spectrum, this moment in our history requires us all to consider how to move from a borrow and spend culture to a save and invest one. Many of the BzzAgents embraced our message of responsible saving and investing and remarked that they themselves are also reconsidering the importance of savings in their own lives. Going forward, we will be looking for new ways to create a dialogue with all of our community - savers, donors, organizations - around financial responsibility.

Lesson #2 - I'm Trying to Save Too

When you are lucky enough to have a focus group of 1900+ people, you can get a fairly strong pulse of the economy. And, while this is not news to any of you, the economy stinks. Many of the BzzAgents reported that while they typically are in a position to give, this year they are holding back and watching their budgets. We, of course, welcome the budgeting process, but we also want to find ways to encourage those who are fiscally responsible to spread the word. We've responded by dropping the minimum donation to $5 and are looking into dropping it to $1 going forward. In addition, we want to find ways that people can give beyond a donation - including adding their names to petitions and volunteering at one of our partner organizations.

Lesson #3 - Location, Location, Location

Currently, we are only working with partner organizations and their savers in California, Washington and Massachusetts. While many users wanted to give, they wanted to give to someone in their local community. To meet this demand, we are actively identifying new organizations throughout the U.S. who can post savers onto our site, but will do so judiciously in order to avoid flooding the site with too many savers.

Lesson #4 - Who Can you Trust These Days

While BzzAgents embraced the SaveTogether concept, they also want to verify the savers are real people. We address this credibility issue in our "How it Works" page and our FAQ page, but we need to improve our messaging here. We are working on informing users about our growing list of supporters and partners and also providing better content on our partner and saver selection process.

Perhaps, the biggest lesson from all of this feedback, however, is the power of user-generated suggestions. I'm very interested in creating a forum on our platform where we can continue to harness the power of feedback from our users on an ongoing basis. We believe that the best ideas will come from those of you who are engaging with this field for the first time and we're looking forward to hearing from you, wherever you are.

SaveTogether Has Gone Public

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:25:00 +0000

The beta stamp has been peeled off, the press release is ready, the bubbly is flowing...well, the first two are accurate.

After releasing our Beta platform in mid-July, we collected some incredible feedback from our donors and our founding partners. In early August, we formed a Product Development Committee with members of our working group and prioritized a series of updates to the site. We deployed the latest code last night and now it's available for you to enjoy.

You'll notice:

1) A revamped home page aimed at improving the message of SaveTogether. We heard from you that we need to emphasize why SaveTogether exists and why it's important to give here.

2) An updated How It Works page that more accurately describes our model

3) A "Take-Action" page that allows you to learn about matched savings legislation and become even more involved in making opportunities like this available to millions.

4) An updated set of success stories

5) And, most importantly, a new group of savers whose stories we hope inspire you to take part in our journey.

We couldn't have traveled so far without the help of our founding partners CFED, EARN, Juma Ventures, and Opportunity Fund and the incredible dedication of a group of volunteers who are always making themselves available just when we need them the most.

Thank you to each of them and thank you to all of our supporters who have already agreed to join us on this journey.

Please spread the word by inviting more of your friends...

Mixing Politics with Business?

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:47:00 +0000

Several months ago, President Obama made a speech where he used the following line:

"We cannot rebuild the economy on the same pile of sand. We must build our house upon a rock. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity - a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest."

This quote does an incredible job at setting the context for our larger mission at SaveTogether and we've decided to add it to our re-designed home page that will be released next week (stay tuned!).

But, there is some debate on whether the quote will scare some of our users off. While the sentiment in this quote is widely held by both Republicans and Democrats, there is undoubtedly a percentage of the population (and our user base) who are not particularly fond of our president.

We want to know from you, our supporters, will the message-bearer dilute from the message?

Balancing Tactics vs Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:00:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I had the good fortune of getting a sponsorship to attend SOCAP09 (Thanks you Jones Day!). The conference was held down in San Francisco and not unexpectedly was packed with social enterprise gurus, venture capitalists, and technology executives. Each day was full of informative panels and discussions and my morning commute to the conference was spent flipping through the guide trying to find the best panel. In between sessions, I ducked out and competed with the sound of seagulls to catch up with our development team on the progress of our re-designed website.

After three days of jostling back and forth between what SaveTogether could be and what SaveTogether is today, I was exhausted.

One of the constant struggles for me as we continue to bring SaveTogether up to full speed is finding the balance between tactical and strategic pursuits. While we are still young as an organization, it is imperative that we continue to execute every step of the way. But, I find that sometimes we are so focused on our steps, that we don't look up to see where we could be going.

While many of the participants at SOCAP were at a more mature stage than SaveTogether, this conference was a good reminder of the world of possibilities still out there for us. Exciting, yes. Exhausting, yes. But, wow, does is feel good to do good.

Week 5 - A short vacation, but the good work continues

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:28:00 +0000

Since I first started putting the team together in June 2008, I have only stepped away from SaveTogether, in a virtual sense, for three days. And since we launched in July, I have been virtually connected it seems like 24 hours a day. Last week, I stepped aside for a couple of days for a sea kayaking trip and I realized how far we have progressed as an organization.

While I checked out for a bit of R&R the machine kept humming. Our development team finalized another release (1.0.6) that includes improved search functionality, improved email invitations and some Paypal administrative enhancements. Meanwhile, Blair has been finalizing a Partner strategy document that will allow us to continue to expand our partner portfolio and reach more areas of the country. On the marketing front, Kate stepped up to offer help across the board from marketing assistance, to social media strategy, to event planning and, in a testament to the power of a strong, collaborative model, Shaolee Sen, a SaveTogether board member and Director of Marketing at our partner organization, Opportunity Fund, developed a marketing plan to support our full market launch in late September/October. She is also working with a creative agency, BigThink Studios, to improve the messaging on the website.

Now, that I'm back online, I'm not only well-rested and ready to make the next big push to our full market launch, but also happy to be charging ahead with the support of an incredible team.

Week 4 - U Talking to Me?

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 04:55:00 +0000

Does our home page talk to you? That's what we are struggling to find out. While our conversion rate of unique visitors to donors would be one key metric to answer this question, most of our donors to-date are close friends and family who either already buy into the matched savings concept or buy into us to avoid the uncomfortable holiday dinner conversation about whether they've donated to SaveTogether yet. If you're wondering, our conversion rate is about %20 today. So, yes, maybe I still need to track down those relatives.

Or, perhaps, they have something they need to tell me. We are receiving feedback that our home page lacks a value proposition, fails to offer a value pitch, doesn't explain the "what." And, while it hurts to admit, I hear their point. I think we've done a good job explaining the how it works with our existing graphic and I think we allow our donors to get started quickly with our featured saver functionality.

But, if I land on the home page out of the blue, I need to be inspired to want to know how it works. We don't have that now.

Over the next couple of weeks, we're going to continue to roll out new features on the home page and beyond that we hope inspires our visitors to be converted into donors. Until then, we continue to be open to your ideas.

Thanks

Week 3 - SEO 101 and Social Media 101

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:37:00 +0000

After two weeks of encouraging our closest supporters to visit the site and provide feedback, this week we took the first steps to start rolling out SaveTogether to the general public. First, we had to deal with our search engine results. Our pre-launch site was built in Drupal and the site had some built in optimization features. Since we've been building SaveTogether using Ruby-on-Rails and creating our own custom code, we lost these features when we rolled out the new site a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to the hard work of Doug Scott and Dan Pirone on our development team, we identified several quickwins that we have rolled out throughout the week. Some of them are as simple as submitting a sitemap to Google while other involved creating a series of redirects from old URLs to new URLs. It will be fun to watch as our PageRank moves up. Of course, you can help us by clicking on the link back to SaveTogether after you read this post.

In addition to search engine optimization, we have also started putting together a strategy for unleashing SaveTogether into the biggest social media channels - Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. By next week, we'll have "launched" in these channels and we'll be looking forward to the results.

Apart from the continued focus on rolling out features, we are also starting a small project to focus on honing our branding / messaging on the website. We want the site to scream out to our users to take action. We'd love to hear your input on this.

Finally, Blair is continuing to identify best-of-breed partners throughout the U.S. who would be good programs to add to the site. If you run a matched savings program and are interested in joining, please email us at info@savetogether.org

Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:32:00 +0000

With the initial release out the door, we quickly fixed some low-hanging fruit and add the "must-have" features this week in mini-release 1.0.1. It's exciting to have a hosting infrastructure in place where we can deploy so easily to our production environment. We are currently hosting the site at the leading Ruby-on-Rails host, EngineYard. EngineYard hosts several transaction-heavy Rails sites and as we continue to scale up it will be nice to have a robust solution.

Speaking of transactions, we are getting some great feedback from our visitors at this point and continue to consolidate, organize, and prioritize the comments into our project management tool (Redmine if you want to know). Our goal is to have another mini-release 1.0.2 ready and deployed again this weekend. We are tackling the number one request in this release - identifying the saver's goal more conspicously on the saver profile. Several of our users have commented that they would like to see the goal up front (education, business, home) before they consider giving. Well you asked, and you shall receive.

It also been a pleasure to see two of our matched savings programs receive accolades this week. EARN, one of our biggest supporters out of the Bay Area, received a grant from the Marin Community Foundation to expand its footprint in the Marin County area. Likewise, Neighborhood Assets, our Spokane partner, was highlighted as a Featured Grantee by the Assets for Independence program of the Federal government.

It's great to have these successful partners on board. Hats off!

Beta Launch - Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:51:00 +0000

After a year of planning and hard work, we are one week into our beta launch. We've come a long way from a seven page powerpoint deck to a multi-page website profiling working people who are saving to achieve their dreams.

We couldn't have made it here without a passionate group of supporters from around the country. We were especially lucky to have a working group out of the San Francisco Bay Area that includes the leading organizations in this field CFED, EARN, Opportunity Fund, and Juma Ventures.

This support network, including our new matched savings partners, the Midas Collaborative and Neighborhood Assets, have provided us a mechanism to elicit further feedback for our beta platform.

We have asked each of them to reach out to their closest supporters who have responded by visiting our site and providing insightful feedback on what works and what doesn't work. We are now actively prioritizing that feedback and planning to make bi-weekly releases that incorporate these features (and bug fixes).

In addition, we are marshalling resources to rollout a formal marketing plan to support our market launch.

Please visit the site, find a saver to match and follow, or just sign up and learn more about our organization as we continue to grow.

Welcome to the SaveTogether Blog!

noreply@blogger.com (SaveTogether) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:09:00 +0000

Thank you for visiting the SaveTogether Blog and thank you for helping transform lives by helping working families save to invest in their own future. We'll be using this blog as a place for our community to learn more about our work and how to get involved in making this opportunity available to others. Feel free to send an email to info@savetogether.org if you have any suggestions or just have a question.