We are humbled to announce that Sunny Day Fund has joined the Financial Solutions Lab’s 2022 Accelerator Program. The Financial Solutions Lab, an initiative by the Financial Health Network in partnership with JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Prudential Financial, is on a mission to “cultivate, support, and scale innovative ideas that help improve financial health” particularly in low- and moderate-income individuals.
We are excited to work alongside the five other – as I like to say – “mission-delusional” organizations in our cohort to empower individuals with workplace benefits, wealth and credit building, and public systems navigation. With mentorship from Adam Hartmann, AJ Jean, Marissa Lowman and countless other experts in financial health; and building on our momentum from Techstars, Global Good Fund, MassMutual FinTech, and Lighthouse Labs, we’re confident that we can achieve our mission to enable financial well-being for all hardworking Americans.
Financial Health Network’s Invaluable Research on Emergency Savings
As you may have read in some of our earlier blogs, our journey to understand and impact workplace financial health started early in 2014 – and our own personal financial experiences with shocks and vulnerability were even earlier. While there were many entities that discussed the importance of having an emergency fund, only a few, including the Financial Health Network (formerly known as Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI), Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program, and Commonwealth advocated for systemic changes - like employer-sponsored emergency savings.
So all of Financial Health Network’s early research around emergency savings, their yearly work with Financial Health Pulse, and their private and public policy advocacy were required reading for our team.
While we began diving in deeper with our own ethnographic and survey research over the last few years, our findings would not have seen the light of day if it were not for the Financial Health Network (and Aspen FSP, Commonwealth, AARP Research and others). That’s why it feels even more personally meaningful for us to announce this next step in our journey as a partner of the Financial Solutions Lab.
People-first Partners, Let’s Make Financial Well-Being a Reality for All Workers!
This brings me to our ask and challenge to you all.
It’s time for us to execute on our “people-first” strategy. And that means all of our people, not just those able to work remotely or are in leadership – it must include our frontline team members, seasonal employees, and even contractors. It’s time for us to double down on our realization that people are the engine to any organization’s success, and that we must be intentionally inclusive and equitable especially with regards to financial well-being.
And we at Sunny Day Fund are ready, including at the enterprise level after our recent SOC 2 Type 2 Certification.
So if you're ...
- HR and Business Leaders – partner with us to enable and reward your employees to save for emergencies and more. It’s not just good for your people, it’s great for your organization as you strive to be more efficient amid inflation. Drop a note on our form here or via email to contact@sunnydayfund.com.
- Future Team Members – join our “mission-delusional” team to integrate with more and more payrolls, to evangelize our mission across more and more organizations, and to bring on more and more employees onto our platform. YOU are our engine. Check out our careers page or angel.co page for more.
- Benefit Brokers and Consultants – we know from working with your colleagues that you’re looking for innovative and impactful financial benefits to recommend to your clients. Here we are. And don’t forget our amazing colleagues and fellow cohort member at Canary too!
- Investors and Policy Makers – there are not many times in our country’s “young” life that one can truly and positively impact 100M+ hardworking Americans while making an entire market. We believe we can make that our legacy – won’t you join us too? You can reach me or Ben over LinkedIn or drop an email directly.
Here’s to sunnier, financially healthier days ahead for all workers!
Link to the Press Release from Financial Solutions Lab: https://finlab.finhealthnetwork.org/financial-solutions-lab-announces-2022-accelerator-cohort-focused-on-access-and-removing-systemic-barriers-to-financial-benefits-tools-for-underserved-consumers/