The other day I met with a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur to discuss SaveTogether. The matched savings account was a new concept to him. But he thought the basic idea of asset-building was compelling and sounded like the kind of thing that would be on the agenda of the nonpartisan Hope Street Group, which promotes policies fostering an “Opportunity Economy.” I admitted that I had never heard of the Hope Street Group but was glad for the pointer.
When I googled Hope Street, I discovered, sure enough, that “Savings & Assets” is one of their core areas of interest. The website has a policy brief on “Personal and Family Savings” and their blog includes such recent posts as “Encouraging Employees to Save” and “Incentivizing Savings in an Economic Downturn.”
I’ve written this blog on asset-building for almost two years now. How could I not have heard of the Hope Street Group all that time?
In my own defense, they haven’t put out any new publications related to savings and assets (other than blog posts) since mid-2007. And they don’t seem to be very well networked with other organizations in the asset-building field. Makes me wonder if they’ve kept a low profile by choice, or if they just lack the resources and connections of the leading think tanks in the field — The Aspen Institute and New America Foundation. In any event, I’ll keep an eye on their blog from now on and report any interesting news they send out.
