HOPE Named Winner of Inaugural Beacon Award

Lipman Family, Wharton School Recognize HOPE’s Innovative Social Impact

JACKSON, MS – The Lipman Family Prize has announced Hope Enterprise Corporation (HOPE) as one of two winners of the Beacon Award. Managed by The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the Lipman Family Prize recognizes change-makers who “bring innovative ideas to new places and problems around the world” and “celebrates leadership and innovation in the social sector with an emphasis on impact and [the] transferability of practices.”

Previous Lipman Prize honorees were eligible for the Beacon Award. HOPE and fellow awardee CareMessage will receive $250,000 in unrestricted funds. A 2016 Lipman honoree, key factors in HOPE’s selection were its effectiveness in delivering financial services to disenfranchised communities, and influencing policies and practices that increase economic mobility in one of the most impoverished regions in the United States.

“Our past honorees have already proven to be game-changing leaders in innovation and impact so who better for the Prize to support to maximize expansion both within the organization and throughout the social sector?” says Barry Lipman, founder of the Barry & Marie Lipman Family Prize. Wharton Dean Dr. Erika James noted, “We are excited to see the growth that Hope Enterprise and CareMessage can achieve with this additional funding.”

“For centuries, Black, rural, poor people across the Deep South have lacked equitable access to the resources needed to support their families and their communities” said Bill Bynum, CEO of Hope Enterprise / Hope Credit Union (HOPE). “Not only will the Beacon Award enable us to help more people climb the economic ladder, but it will shine a bright light on what is possible when opportunity is made available to people regardless of their race, place or gender.”

About HOPE
HOPE (Hope Enterprise Corporation, Hope Credit Union and Hope Policy Institute) provides financial services; aggregates resources; and engages in advocacy to mitigate the extent to which factors such as race, gender, birthplace and wealth limit one’s ability to prosper. Since 1994, HOPE has generated more than $2.5 billion in financing that has benefitted more than 1.5 million people in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.

About the Beacon Awards
The Lipman Family Prize launched the Beacon Awards this year to reward and support previous Lipman Prize honorees who have demonstrated success in scaling up their social impact efforts. The Beacon Awards was established to continue investing in the promising practices and leaders that join the Lipman Family Prize community each year. The Beacon Awards provides a follow-up opportunity to encourage, highlight, and reward honorees that are collaborating with others to advance collective knowledge and improve the quality of social impact work.

About the Lipman Family Prize
The Lipman Family Prize is an annual global prize that advances creative solutions by inspiring people to think together in new ways. First awarded in 2012, the $250,000 grand prize is awarded each year to a nonprofit organization on the cusp of great change.

About the Wharton School
Founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is recognized globally for intellectual leadership and ongoing innovation across every major discipline of business education. With a broad global community and one of the most published business school faculties, Wharton creates economic and social value around the world. The School has 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students; more than 9,000 participants in executive education programs annually; and a powerful alumni network of 98,000 graduates.