MAF in the News
Family Finances: Smart Saving and Spending [Radio]
Host Nurse Rona | January 29, 2012
Many families are facing tough choices during the continuing economic recession. From foreclosures to job losses, more than ever it’s necessary to spend wisely and save for that rainy day.
Mission Group Helps Immigrants Become Citizens
By Rigoberto Hernandez | January 17, 2012
"Pablo Velez, 34, a Colombian immigrant, has been waiting for this moment for five years: In November he will be eligible to apply for citizenship."
Lending circles offer chance to boost credit scores
By Seth Hemmelgarn | August 18, 2011
"We plan on utilizing lending circles for different segments of people that we service," including entrepreneurs, people who are looking to repair their credit, and potential job seekers, he said. He said they are going to try to have each group represent a different segment, "but we expect them to be intertwined as well."
Survey on the Financial Health of San Francisco
By Sylvia | June 20, 2011
"The Mission Asset Fund is looking for individuals to participate in a community-based study about the financial wellness of low-income communities in the San Francisco Bay Area."
San Francisco Wants To Expand Peer Lending Program
By Chris Filippi | July 19, 2011
“Their on-time payments get recorded just like any of the rest of our’s, and that helps them build a positive credit history and a positive and hopefully good credit score,” San Francisco Treasurer Jose Cisneros said."
Microfinance: Bringing the unbanked into the financial mainstream
By Jose Quinonez | May 23, 2011
"These "unbanked" individuals and families have limited savings and investment opportunities and often have difficulty finding the capital and support needed to start and grow businesses."
A loan option for those with bad or not credit
By Jennifer Collins | March 11, 2011
"For Progreso Financiero, when they're overly targeting the immigrant community with these loan products, it's going to increase our indebtedness so that it's even more impossible to get out of poverty."
A bridge between informal and formal banking
By Jen Haley | February 17, 2011
"Jessica Ortega is a 34-year-old Peruvian who immigrated to California with no money, no credit history and no way to establish her financial life—that is until she joined a group organized by the Mission Asset Fund. That’s how Ortega went from having no credit score at all, to a credit score of 620."
My lender, my friend: Lending circles with a Latino twist
By Paul van Slambrouck | January 13, 2010
"So here, over pupusas and sodas, they are meeting to take part in a pioneering program – apparently the first of its kind in the United States – that lets them pool their modest resources, disburse them among themselves at agreed intervals, and build individual credit in the process."
Nonprofit Becomes Online Matchmaker
By Nancy Lopez | January 18, 2010
“We’re taking the Huckleberry Finn approach and inviting our friends to help us build the fence,” said Quiñonez. “We’ll bring all the materials, the wood, the paint, the paintbrushes, but they have to come help us build it.”
U.S. migrant money pools thrive in the recession
By Tim Gaynor | July 02, 2009
"Since these clubs help people spend money, they can act like mini, private stimulus packages for local economies. They also encourage financial discipline and credit-worthiness --two attributes that come in handy in real loan applications."
