The SunTrust Foundation recognized a local D.C. nonprofit for providing low income residents with programs to help them learn financial literacy. On Oct. 17, SunTrust presented Capital Area Asset Builders (CAAB) with its first Lighting the Way award for the organization’s positive impact on the Washington D.C. area by promoting financial education. The award included a $50,000 grant to the nonprofit.
“Through the support of the SunTrust Foundation we are now able to put this $50,000 investment to good work in the greater D.C. area,” Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz, CAAB’s director of external relations said at the event.
(left to right) Rich Petersen, Stephen Bridges, Joseph Vaughan, Joseph Leitman- Santa Cruz, Dan O’Neill and Nancy Register pose with the check that SunTrust is providing to CAAB. (Courtesy photo)
The organization is known for its matched savings program – Back on My Feet — that assists residents of the Greater D.C. community with saving money for post-secondary education, buying a home, or starting or expanding a business. According to Muriel Garr, vice president of SunTrust in the greater Washington area, the program consists of individual development accounts and encourages people to save by matching $8 to every $1 in savings – a much higher rate than a bank would normally do. The maximum match is $4,000.
“We think this is a very important way that SunTrust can make a big impact in the community and that’s through supporting organizations that really make a difference and a big impact in other people’s lives and promoting financial confidence,” said Dan O’Neill, CEO and president of SunTrust Bank’s Greater Washington and Maryland division.
One of the people in the savings program is Stephen Bridges. As a recovering drug addict, Bridges said he decided, three years ago, that it was time to get his life together. He entered the Back on My Feet program that provides a running-based model that restores confidence, strength and self-esteem, enabling individuals to tackle the road ahead and move toward jobs, homes and new lives, according to the program’s website. After Bridges was clean for 60 days, he was then introduced to CAAB and other financial literacy programs.
“It was a time when money management or the idea of owning a home or going to a good school or having a really good job was . . . for many different reasons it just seemed to be that’s not the cards I’ve been dealt,” he said. Bridges said he had to realize, through CAAB, that you have to put something in to get something out, which he said came to fruition when he saved his first $25.
“I remember when I got my first statement from my first $25 I put in the $1- $8 match, I said ‘hmmm ok, we’ve got something going here,’” he said. Now Bridges is in the process of purchasing his own home. “A part of that journey was ‘can I?’” said Garr. “It’s about changing lives and so I’m glad we’re able to do it.”