Consolidated Credit Recognizes Community Partners at 12th Annual National Financial Literacy Month Breakfast

Community isn’t just where we live.

It’s where we build, where we grow businesses, where we create opportunity,

At Consolidated Credit, financial literacy isn’t a program, it’s our purpose.

Because when individuals thrive financially, communities prosper economically.

For more than we’ve worked alongside banks, municipalities, educators, and local leaders to turn financial stress into financial strength.

From celebrating Hispanic entrepreneurs with official proclamations to guiding small business owners as they transition from personal credit to business credit, the business of community means supporting the dreamers, the entrepreneurs who power our local economy.

You cannot really thrive on your own by yourself in an island.

So community what is that? That is the city.

Those are your you know your your neighbors. Those are your other businesses in the corridor where your business is.

So the community is is one and all. You have two entities, two important entities that cannot thrive, cannot grow, cannot be without each other.

Community needs businesses and business definitely needs community.

From partnering with foundations to working alongside universities and SCORE to equip entrepreneurs, our mentors tend to be folks that have had 30, 40, 50 years of experience.

So, they’ve been through all kinds of ups and downs. have walked in the shoes that that people are walking in.

We’re not just teaching financial literacy, we’re building economic infrastructure, gaining financial education, financial knowledge to share within their circles of influence.

So we need people from all those different sectors from the community um programs to colleges, universities to work places so that the word can be spread each one reach one but the business of community requires more than events.

It requires access.

It is not one sizefits all. Right?

So you can have somebody who is right out of high school who’s learning life and you can have somebody who’s retiring or in a life-changing stage right in the middle that needs help through coffee the knowledge of financial education platform.

We provide employers, credit unions and municipalities with scalable ondemand financial education from live coaching and interactive webinars to financial assessments and personalized guidance.

It allows institutions to demonstrate measurable community reinvestment, workforce stability, and financial inclusion.

I think one of the one of the great strengths of the coffee platform is trackability.

We really count in clicks, right? Who’s clicking through?

Who’s getting into the webinar? How many people did we view? Now, we can give you some concrete examples.

So, those little things where we can measure how many people are on direct deposit before we started, how many were on direct deposit after.

The other thing is, you know, 401k loans.

Sometimes, you know, HR HR really keeps an eye on those. And if we can reduce the amount of 401k loans because we’re helping people save money or maybe get a loan through more traditional like a mortgage or a home equity line of credit, something that’s you know, that’s it’s a little bit better for them where they’re not coming and try to take from their retirement.

I think those are some really good measurables that we can bring to the HR team that shows the value and then they can take that to their leadership team and say, “Look, this is working.”

In 2026, we’re deepening our commitment with the money confidence roadmap, a practical guide designed to help individuals and families reset, rebuild, and rise.

Because confidence isn’t accidental. It’s built through education, through access, through partnership.

And when people feel confident with money, they invest.

They grow businesses. They hire. They give back.

Healthier my financial relationship, the healthier my relationship is going to be with myself, with my own health, with my family, with my friends, with my career, with my calling, with society, right?

That the financial relationship is going to affect all of those things.

The business of community is not built alone. It’s built with banks who believe in access.

We’re big on education whether financial education primarily because we are a financial institution, but they’re they also are able to reach a market and an audience that we typically are not able to reach.

With municipalities who invest in education.

We want to expand their world so when the time comes for them to make financial decisions, they make the best decision possible with elected leaders who champion economic equity.

If we have financial literacy and understanding of how money works, how finances work, it helps us to make better choices and better decisions as we live from day to day – read about the program, saw the program, I immediately fell in love with it.

And as a result, we’ve been able to impact many lives with nonprofits who collaborate instead of compete.

Today, we celebrate you because when we work together, financial literacy becomes economic mobility.