Featured
March 3rd, 2016
Hope Enterprise Corporation, Namati, Soccer Without Borders Selected as Finalists for the 2016 Barry & Marie Lipman Family Prize Philadelphia, Pa. – Hope Enterprise Corporation, Namati, and Soccer Without Borders have been named as the three finalists for the 2016 Lipman Family Prize. The winning organization will receive $250,000 in unrestricted funds, as well as executive training and support from the Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania. The remaining two finalists will each receive $25,000. The grand prize winner will be announced at the official awards ceremony on April 28, 2016, in Philadelphia.
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February 11th, 2016
Joins 24 leading experts nationwide Jackson, MS – HOPE CEO, Bill Bynum, was recently invited to join the US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty, a new collaborative aimed at discovering permanent ladders of mobility for the poor. Bynum is one of 24 experts, advocates and academics from across the country selected for this initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and staffed by the Urban Institute. An independent effort, the Partnership will seek out diverse expertise to examine the causes of persistent poverty and stagnant mobility, and identify breakthrough solutions that can be put into action by philanthropy, practitioners, and the private sector. Bynum brings to the Partnership over 30 years of experience working in communities that are home to some of the nation’s most entrenched poverty.
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December 1st, 2015
New locations opening soon in Drew and Shaw Jackson, MS – Hope Credit Union (HOPE) announced plans to open two full-service branches in Drew and Shaw, Mississippi. The new locations round out a five-site cluster of HOPE branches in the heart of the Mississippi Delta – one of the nation’s most unbanked regions. Regions Bank supported the conversion of the banks to community development financial institutions by donating the facilities to HOPE. The announcement was made during the Financial Inclusion Forum hosted by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington, DC. “Delta communities need strong development finance tools to thrive,” said Bill Bynum, CEO of HOPE. “We are excited to work with our long-time partner Regions Bank to create new opportunities for Drew and Shaw.” The new branches will increase HOPE’s network to 26 locations in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. Services offered by HOPE includes checking and savings accounts, and consumer, mortgage and business loans. For more information about HOPE visit www.hopecu.org.
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November 20th, 2015
Wells Fargo Invests $2 million in Hope Enterprise Corporation JACKSON, MISS., November 2, 2015 – Hope Enterprise Corporation (HOPE) was one of three Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) nationwide selected to launch the Wells Fargo Works for Small Businesses: Diverse Community Capital Program. Through the Program, HOPE will receive a $2 million grant to support the organization’s commercial lending, outreach and technical assistance programs for minority- and women-owned and led small businesses. Wells Fargo chose HOPE for the organization’s long track record of successful lending to minority- and women-owned and led small businesses. Over the next three years, Wells Fargo will invest $75 million directly into CDFIs that serve businesses led by diverse leaders. “Unfortunately, access to capital to support underserved people and places has historically been limited in the Mid South,” said Bill Bynum, CEO of HOPE. “The support from Wells fills an important void and positions HOPE to create even more opportunities for promising entrepreneurs who may otherwise be overlooked.” HOPE provides financing to small businesses, nonprofits, affordable housing providers, healthcare providers, charter schools and healthy food retailers, often when no one else is willing to provide capital. Since 1994, HOPE has provided $356 million in financing to more than 900 businesses. These businesses have supported more than 17,000 jobs.
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October 22nd, 2015
Madison, Wis. – In recognition of his efforts to provide vital financial services to underprivileged and underserved populations, his advocacy for the credit union movement and his unwavering commitment to the credit union principle of people helping people, the National Credit Union Foundation (the Foundation) is pleased to announce William J. Bynum, Chief Executive Officer of Hope Credit Union, as the recipient of a 2016 Herb Wegner Memorial Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement. Bynum’s award will be one of four Herb Wegner Memorial Awards presented at a special dinner hosted by the Foundation at the Marriott Marquis Washington on February 22, 2016, in conjunction with the Credit Union National Association’s 2016 Governmental Affairs Conference (GAC). Registration for dinner tickets and sponsorships will be available within the next month on the Foundation website (ncuf.coop).
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September 22nd, 2015
Jackson, Mississippi (September 22) – Hope Enterprise Corporation (HOPE) will celebrate the grand opening of Field Health System in Centreville, Mississippi on Tuesday, September 22 with a ribbon cutting and open house from 1- 6 p.m. HOPE provided $6 million in New Markets Tax Credit investment and $2.5 million in conventional financing to the $21 million, new state-of-the-art facility. Field Health System is a critical access hospital serving a medically underserved, rural community in Southwest Mississippi. In a community where four out of ten people live in poverty, Field Health Systems provides vital preventive, emergency, surgical, rehab, and clinical health services to over 13,000 patients each year. It is the only hospital for 35 to 50 miles in any direction.
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August 27th, 2015
Jackson, MS (Thursday, August 27) – Hope Enterprise Corporation (HOPE) released a report today that profiles the stories of residents and small businesses from the Gulf Coast and New Orleans who worked with HOPE in the weeks, months and years following the storm. On the Gulf Coast, HOPE recounts its work through its Home Again Program. Home Again rebuilt 64 homes on properties that were catastrophically damaged by the storm for low-income residents of the region. Rose Brown was one of the people. “It was like a miracle because I didn’t think I was going to get another (house).” Brown remains in the home today and regularly hosts Sunday dinner for her family. In New Orleans, several entities worked together with HOPE to assist small businesses after the storm. Kevin Davis, the owner of Parkside Barber and Beauty, received a loan from HOPE through the Louisiana Small Business Loan and Grant Program. “A friend of mine told me about HOPE,” said Davis. “I’m real diligent, so I wasn’t going to stop.” As a result of HOPE’s financing, Park Place Barber School was the first barber school to open east of the river after the storm. The report also acknowledges all of the contributions made by HOPE’s partners and the resulting collective impact. “HOPE’s work on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and in New Orleans would not have been possible without the support of generous donors and partners from across the Mid South and nation, said Bill Bynum, CEO of HOPE. “Through their support, HOPE was able to make a tremendous difference in the lives of local people in the months and years that followed the storm. View the full report.
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August 19th, 2015
New Orleans, LA (August 19, 2015) – Hope Enterprise Corporation (HOPE) celebrated the re-opening of McDonogh 42, a charter school located in New Orleans’ 7th Ward following significant damage incurred from Hurricane Katrina. Through the New Markets Tax Credit Program, HOPE provided $6 million in financing for the school’s $23 million rehabilitation. The school will provide a high-quality learning environment for 550 K-8th grade students, including state-of-the-art classrooms, science labs and a library / media center. Ninety-nine percent of the students attending McDonogh 42 are racial minorities and all of the students are eligible for free and reduced lunch. The McDonogh 42 project represents the first investment of the HOPE Charter School Facilities Fund (CSFF). Over the next five years, HOPE’s CSFF will invest $70 million in the acquisition, renovation and new construction of charter school facilities that will serve low-income families and distressed communities in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.In addition to providing financing for the project, HOPE is actively working with the school to launch a children’s savings account program and to connect parents, faculty and residents of the surrounding community to HOPE’s products and services. “Supporting opportunities for students to succeed through the transformation of McDonogh 42 is at the heart of our mission,” said Bill Bynum, CEO of HOPE. “We look forward to an ongoing partnership with the leadership of the school to provide financial education, child savings accounts and other services for the children, families, and staff of McDonogh 42 as well as in the surrounding community.”
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October 9th, 2014
HOPE’s Bill Bynum Accepts 2014 Ned Gramlich Award Industry’s Highest Award Recognizes More than 30 Years Dedicated to Breaking the Cycle of Poverty in Underserved Communities Jackson, MS (October 9, 2014)—Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) announced that it will give the 2014 Ned Gramlich Award for Responsible Finance to longtime justice advocate Bill Bynum, CEO of Jackson, Mississippi-based Hope Enterprise Corporation/Hope Credit Union (HOPE). OFN selected Bynum for this prestigious award—the highest individual honor in the opportunity finance industry—for his inspiring career dedicated to advancing economic opportunity for disenfranchised, underserved, and poverty-constrained communities. He is receiving the award for his lifelong efforts to fight inequity through serving—and providing a voice to—“riskier” populations.
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July 11th, 2014
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded an $8 million grant to Hope Enterprise Corporation to establish the HOPE Charter School Facilities Fund, which will support financing for the renovation and construction of high-quality charter school facilities in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Western Tennessee. The charter school movement has been sweeping the Mid South over the last few years. Between the 2009-2010 school year and the 2013-14 school year, the total number of charter schools in AR, LA, MS and TN increased by 77%. As the number of charter schools in the region expands, financing adequate and affordable facilities is a significant challenge.
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