From The Founder

Linda's Story: Why one of The Financial Clinic's first customers inspires us to serve millions.  

By Mae Watson Grote, Founder and Executive Director of The Financial Clinic

Published October 12, 2011

We’ve come a long way since the meetings at our board chair’s dining-room table.

The Financial Clinic has served nearly 10,000 people, earns revenues of $2 million a year, and employs close to two dozen people.

In reflecting on five years of tremendous growth, I attribute The Financial Clinic’s success to three primary components: Our partners,our team, and our customers.

The Financial Clinic team is made up of a witty, engaging, and dedicated people who are, simply put, agents of change. Our team is committed to building financial security and facilitating financial mobility for the working poor.

It is because of their ownership and command of its mission that the Clinic accomplishes what it does, and is poised to achieve so much more.

And, in turn, our customers have designed better lives for themselves.

Anniversaries are an opportunity for reflection, and as I look back on five years of savings started, credit score increases, debt alleviated, and financial goals realized, I’ve been thinking a lot about our customers and their life-changing stories.

So many people, their families and circumstances, resonate with me, but one person in particular really strikes a chord, because we’ve learned so much from her.

Her name is Linda.

I met Linda four years ago, during the Clinic’s first tax season, before we were incorporated—before we had financial security.

Ralph Glover, the Clinic’s first Financial Coach, and I did Linda’s taxes in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, during MoneyUP’s inaugural year—the United Way of New York City’s program that combines free tax preparation and year-round financial coaching.

Linda had endured a challenging life path. Suffice to say, at one time or another during her life, she experienced every challenge people in poverty face: the loss of one’s home, employment, health, and family.

When Ralph and I got to know her, Linda had recently created a new path for herself, working two jobs—part time cleaning test tubes and another part-time job at an animal shelter. Thankfully, she was debt-free, but she had no savings, no bank account—and income that did not meet her basic living expenses.

But she did know that that she was in charge of improving her life, and she wanted to do more for herself. Linda went from being too scared to download her credit report to setting up direct deposit, opening her first bank account, and saving for the first time in her life.

Sure, The Financial Clinic helped her with these tasks. But the main thing we accomplished, together, was helping her realize her financial goal and how to take the steps to accomplish it.

All too familiar with the struggle of stark poverty, Linda wanted a different kind of retirement for herself—a financially secure retirement. And her instincts were right on.

Working closely with Linda, we helped crystallize her financial goal and identify her current financial situation. Then her trajectory became clear to all of us.

For example, a few months after working with Linda, she acquired a full-time job with benefits at a social-service organization, helping women from similar backgrounds as her own. When we pointed out to her that she was leaving money on the table because she wasn’t maximizing her employers’ retirement savings match, she was distraught. At that point, she felt like she was really doing all that she could do.

She had created a budget, obtained her first credit card, and was becoming financially secure—but she was still strapped, and falling short of her goal.

Soon thereafter Linda picked up an additional weekend job so that she could cover living expenses, allowing her to maximize her full-time employers’ retirement contribution.

What we’ve learned from Linda’s story, and other people we’ve served:

• When people have an asset-oriented financial goal, they don’t mismanage their money.
• When people have a forward-thinking goal, they make tough decisions.
• When people are passionate about their goals, they move mountains.

Fast-forward a couple of years, and Linda is thriving. She’s reunited with her family and taken her first-ever vacation. She’s been promoted in her career, and for her exemplary work serving her own customers, she’s won the Empowering Women and Changing Our World Award from the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund.

We’ve learned so much from Linda, and thousands like her.

Since The Financial Clinic started in 2006, we’ve laid out a mission, learned a lot from doing the work, and with our three key components—our partners, team, and customers—our model works.

We’ve created effective programs and achieved substantial results.

The Financial Clinic’s BHAG

Now we’re ready to apply the same passion to our vision for the next five years of growth. The vision is Big, pretty Hairy, and certainly Audacious.

If the last five years have focused on the capacity of our customers to move mountains, now it’s our turn to do the same.

We want to change The System. 

The agenda for The Financial Clinic’s vision includes three items:

• The Fellowship Program: The Financial Clinic is helping to prepare future business leaders and economic change makers who will create financial security at scale—helping Lindas across the country.
• Our Policy and Research Agenda: We are translating our on-the-ground successes into policies that change systems. For example, we are working to unlock $40 million in state tax audits for tens of thousands of New Yorkers every year. 
• Achieving Scale and Impact Through Integration: With our capacity-building work, we’re making organizations run “faster, cheaper, and better.” Where job seekers opened up bank accounts, established direct deposit and auto savings, they earned 27 percent greater income because of The Financial Clinic’s interventions and training.

Through partnerships and financial support, the Clinic will create systemic change.

We have serve thousands in the last five years, and with the support of agencies and organizations, we will meet our goal to serve millions more.