March 2025

As we confront the systematic dismantling of the many government and private sector institutions whose services are core to the equitable economy we’ve been fighting for, we at Neighborhood Trust are committed to our mission: financial empowerment for all, achieved via trusted human financial coaching as a feature of an inclusive economy.

We now call on our fellow nonprofits—from the grassroots to the national; cooperatives to intermediaries; service providers to advocates—to resist silencing or inaction. Instead, we must lean into our shared responsibility to serve vulnerable individuals and communities affected by the Trump Administration’s actions. And we must remind ourselves of our collective strength as the rare set of institutions that are trusted by the individuals we serve, that have our feet on the ground in local communities, and that are able to motivate people to reach out and speak up.

We are a team of Financial Coaches who are embedded in every corner where working Americans are accessing essential services and tools: their workplaces, their financial institutions, their residences, and their community centers. The families we serve experience our broken economy in the basic math of making ends meet—lining up their paycheck against essential bills, always confronting a shortfall, and then plugging the gap with expensive, predatory debt.

We will be vocal, visible, and persuasive about the harm of dismantling the institutions that play a role in supporting these hardworking families—especially communities of color—across the country. To date these include:

  • The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which gives individual consumers a platform to stand up to predatory financial services, and helps them reclaim money they may have otherwise lost to fines, fees, or other forms of financial exploitation
  • The CDFI Fund, which supports Community Development Financial Institutions around the country, ensuring that the communities often excluded from the financial mainstream have access to the financial services they need
  • The Department of Education, which manages critical aspects of loan repayment and forgiveness programs that provide a lifeline to borrowers, such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
  • The Internal Revenue Service, essential to timely processing of tax returns for the millions of Americans for whom tax refunds are essential to savings, reducing debt, and making ends meet

As we advocate for these and other organizations, Neighborhood Trust also will focus on doing what we do best: providing the trusted financial coaching that matches people with the array of helpful products, tools, and strategies needed to overcome debt and exploitative financial services.

While we measure impact in financial terms, we know that a core piece of the value we bring is a restoration of trust: trust in the expert in their corner; trust in an inclusive financial system that will help them hold onto and make the most of their hard-earned wages; and trust that their individual hopes, challenges, and experiences will be reflected in how the system can and should work for them. For Neighborhood Trust, this is what we know best, what we see each day among the individuals we serve: the power of trust to help people resist being silenced, marginalized, or hopeless.

We are working hard to expand our reach to as many people as possible, and to adapt our services to meet this moment. And we lead with our offer of a trusted Financial Coach, and the encouragement for people to connect with their community, fighting the malignant spread of mistrust and confusion.

As we continue our daily work, we hope to be part of a broader nonprofit coalition that fits together the puzzle pieces of a more strategic resistance, issue by issue, community by community.

We are here to help, and here to partner.

In solidarity,
Justine