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June 17, 2022 8:35 PM
EDT
Atlanta, GA

EY Announces S. Mark McKenna, MD, MBA of OVME as an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2022 Southeast Award Winner

Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) today announced that Chairman, Founder and Chief Medical Officer S. Mark McKenna, MD, MBA of OVME was named an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2022 Southeast Award winner. Entrepreneur Of The Year is one of the preeminent competitive business awards for entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies who think big to succeed. An independent panel of judges selected Mark based on his entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth and impact, among other core contributions and attributes.

"I am honored to receive this esteemed honor. The fuel of any great entrepreneur is a great team, and this instance is certainly no exception," says Dr. McKenna who founded OVME, a trusted medical aesthetics studio, which has garnered a loyal following and a reputation as a pioneer for its luxury treatments, expertly trained medical staff, tech-enabled approach, and self-love mantra. Known for bringing out the best in others by delivering exceptional aesthetic outcomes, the brand currently has a total of nineteen studios in eleven markets across the US, with another six set to open by the end of 2022.

As a Southeast award winner, Mark will now be considered by the National independent panel of judges for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2022 National Awards. National finalists and winners, as well as the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner, will be announced in November at the annual Strategic Growth Forum®. The Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner will then move on to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Award in June 2023.

The Entrepreneur Of The Year program has honored the inspirational leadership of entrepreneurs such as:

  • Cherie Kloss of SnapNurse
  • SaejuJeong of Noom
  • Joe DeSimone of Carbon, Inc.
  • Howard Schultz of Starbucks Coffee Company
  • Jodi Berg of Vitamix
  • Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn Corporation
  • Hamdi Ulukaya of Chobani, Inc.
  • Kendra Scott of Kendra Scott LLC
  • Andreas Bechtolsheim and Jayshree Ullal of Arista Networks
  • James Park of Fitbit
  • Daymond John of FUBU
  • Sheila Mikhail of AskBio

Sponsors
Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards are presented by PNC Bank. In the Southeast, sponsors also include PNC, King & Spalding and Cresa.

About Entrepreneur Of The Year®

Entrepreneur Of The Year is the world's most prestigious business awards program for unstoppable entrepreneurs. These visionary leaders deliver innovation, growth and prosperity that transform our world. The program engages entrepreneurs with insights and experiences that foster growth. It connects them with their peers to strengthen entrepreneurship around the world. Entrepreneur Of The Year is the first and only truly global awards program of its kind. It celebrates entrepreneurs through regional and national awards programs in more than 145 cities in over 60 countries. National overall winners go on to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ title. ey.com/us/eoy

About EY Private
As Advisors to the ambitious™, EY Private professionals possess the experience and passion to support private businesses and their owners in unlocking the full potential of their ambitions. EY Private teams offer distinct insights born from the long EY history of working with business owners and entrepreneurs. These teams support the full spectrum of private enterprises including private capital managers and investors and the portfolio businesses they fund, business owners, family businesses, family offices and entrepreneurs. Visit ey.com/us/private

June 16, 2022 6:00 PM
EDT
Glenview, IL

Beltone Introduces Custom Rechargeable Hearing Aids in a Modern Earbud Design

Beltone, winner of Newsweek's "Best in Hearing Care Retailers" award revealed today that it has once again expanded its product line with the introduction of the new Beltone Imagine™ Custom rechargeable hearing aids. The new hearing aids restore natural hearing in a sleek and comfortable earbud design. They are available in modern In-style™ or Blend-In colors, are weather-and-sweatproof, and last all day on a single battery charge.

"Beltone is committed to creating innovative hearing aid technology and incorporating stylish designs that will allow our patients to feel confident in wearing their hearing aids in all aspects of life," says Beltone President, Mike Halloran. "Because of their modern design, these new custom rechargeable hearing aids offer a different approach to treating hearing loss than what is traditionally thought of for hearing aids, and we are excited for those ready to start their hearing health journey with Beltone."

Beltone's custom hearing aids are molded to fit users unique ear canals to provide all-day comfort. The customized earbud design sits in the ear so users can wear glasses or face masks with ease. With sound that adapts to every situation, the custom hearing aids are suitable for those with active lifestyles as they are weatherproof-and-sweatproof and nano-coated inside and out for continuous wear and easy cleaning. Users will be able to connect to life easier with hands-free phone and FaceTime calls for iPhone and iPad* with a simple tap of a button. They can also easily stream music and take calls from Android™ smartphones directly to the ears. Additionally, users get up to 24 hours of quality sound on a single charge, so they can feel confident about joining any conversation throughout the day. Check out a short video about Beltone's new custom rechargeable hearing aids here.

Additional features:

  • Using advanced technology, the hearing aids adapt automatically to different sound environments, allowing users to stay in control even in extra-noisy environments.
  • Easily adjust the hearing aid sound with the Beltone HearMax™ app available for iPhones and iPads or Android smartphones.
  • To add to the ultimate personalized experience, users will receive custom charger to pair with their custom hearing aids.

The Imagine Custom rechargeable hearing aids will be available beginning June 29 at any of the 1,500 Beltone hearing centers.

June 15, 2022 5:40 PM
EDT
ATLANTA, GA

Veristor Named 2022 Southeast Regional Partner of the Year by Arctic Wolf

Veristor Systems, Inc., a trusted provider of transformative business technology solutions, today announced it has been named Arctic Wolf's Southeast Regional Partner of the Year for 2022. This honor recognizes the company's commitment to improving its customers' cybersecurity posture through a strategic partnership with Arctic Wolf that focuses on joint business growth and planning, engagement and training, demand generation, and executive and security practice alignment.

"As a strategic partner of Veristor, Arctic Wolf has done a phenomenal job in helping our customers mitigate cyber risks and mature their security programs," said Brian Yost, Director, Cyber Security Strategy, Veristor. "We are honored to be selected as an Arctic Wolf Partner of the Year and look forward to our continued collaboration in the delivery of security operations solutions that help put an end to cyber risk."

Celebrating their fifth year, the Arctic Wolf Partner of the Year Awards honor top-performing partners for their achievements in helping organizations improve their security operations through the use of Arctic Wolf solutions and for their commitment to shared customer success through a partnership with Arctic Wolf.

Veristor offers Arctic Wolf's security operations platform as part of its suite of security solutions that simplify security complexity and defend critical business data from cyberattacks and data breach events. The comprehensive Veristor security and privacy service portfolio helps organizations of all sizes identify and address security and privacy exposures before they become problems so that companies can move beyond being reactive to proactively address risk before it becomes an incident.

"The Arctic Wolf partner community continues to lead the way in embracing security operations and playing a transformative role in the security journey of their customers," said Will Briggs, Vice President of Americas Channels and Program, Arctic Wolf. "Our Partner of the Year Awards recognize and celebrate those partners who share our mission to end cyber risk, and we congratulate the winners on their significant achievements."

Arctic Wolf is a global leader in security operations, who pioneered a cloud-native security operations platform designed to end cyber risk. Built on open XDR architecture, the Arctic Wolf Security Operations Cloud ingests and analyzes more than two trillion security events a week across endpoint, network, and cloud sources to deliver critical security outcomes and optimize an organization's disparate security solutions. Now deployed to more than 2,700 customers worldwide, the Arctic Wolf Platform delivers automated threat detection and response at scale and empowers organizations of virtually any size to establish security operations with the push of a button.

June 15, 2022 10:00 AM
EDT
NEW YORK, NY

AlphaSense's Valuation Jumps to $1.7 Billion with $225 Million Series D Led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Viking Global

New York-based AlphaSense, the leading market intelligence and search platform, today announced its $225 million Series D financing round led by the Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management (Goldman Sachs) and Viking Global Investors. The financing values the company at $1.7 billion, which is nearly double the valuation from its $180 million Series C funding in September 2021 that was also led by Goldman Sachs and Viking Global. This new funding round includes a substantial debt investment from funds and/or accounts managed by BlackRock earlier this year.

The valuation increase is commensurate with AlphaSense's rapid and sustained growth and follows the achievement of key revenue and product milestones; notably, annual recurring revenue (ARR) now exceeds $100 million. In addition, AlphaSense experienced significant gains in other key metrics, including user and customer base, which both grew by well over 100% in the past year. AlphaSense's base of 3,500 customers now includes over 78% of the S&P 100, 97% of the Dow 50, 70% of the top asset management firms and banks, and leading companies in wide-ranging industries such as energy, industrials, consumer goods, and technology, with the platform appealing to knowledge workers across a wide range of roles including strategy, competitive intelligence, investor relations, corporate development, and financial analysis.

AlphaSense's platform leverages proprietary search technology powered by AI and NLP to extract relevant insights from an extensive universe of public and private content, including company filings, earnings transcripts, expert interview transcripts, news, trade journals, and equity research. Having on-demand access to key data points and insights enables professionals to make critical decisions with confidence and speed, thus improving business performance and outcomes.

"We are excited to upsize our investment in AlphaSense," said Holger Staude, a Managing Director within the Growth Equity business at Goldman Sachs. "Achieving high organic growth and strong business fundamentals while exceeding $100 million in ARR is a substantial accomplishment and demonstrates the team's focus on building an enduring business in a large market."

John Doyle, Director of Venture Lending at BlackRock, added, "AlphaSense's impressive growth and high-quality customer base reflect the power of its platform to substantially improve productivity and enable smarter data-driven decisions for users across industries and roles. We are excited about our debt investment in AlphaSense at this important stage in its evolution."

The capital infusion will be used to further invest in product development, content expansion and customer support, and to drive organic growth as well as strategic transactions. Recent acquisitions include the purchase in October 2021 of Stream by Mosaic, provider of a leading library of expert interview transcripts, as well as the purchase of Sentieo, a financial intelligence platform designed for investors, which closed last month.

"We are thrilled by the continued support of preeminent investors like Goldman Sachs and Viking and the addition of BlackRock as we embark on the next chapter of our growth," said Jack Kokko, CEO of AlphaSense. "This round of funding will allow AlphaSense to invest in our growth and capitalize on opportunities to expand our content sets and improve our value offering, furthering our mission to help companies across all industries make better decisions with greater confidence and speed."

About AlphaSense

AlphaSense is a market intelligence platform used by the world's leading companies and financial institutions. Since 2011, our AI-based technology has helped professionals make smarter business decisions by delivering insights from an extensive universe of public and private content—including company filings, event transcripts, expert call transcripts, news, trade journals, and equity research. Our platform is trusted by over 3,500 enterprise customers, including a majority of the S&P 500. Headquartered in New York City, AlphaSense employs over 1,000 people across offices in the U.S., U.K., Finland, Germany, and India. For more information, please visit www.alpha-sense.com.

About Goldman Sachs Asset Management Growth Equity

Bringing together traditional and alternative investments, Goldman Sachs Asset Management provides clients around the world with a dedicated partnership and focus on long-term performance. As the primary investing area within Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), we deliver investment and advisory services for the world's leading institutions, financial advisors and individuals, drawing from our deeply connected global network and tailored expert insights, across every region and market—overseeing more than $2 trillion in assets under supervision worldwide as of March 31, 2022. Driven by a passion for our clients' performance, we seek to build long-term relationships based on conviction, sustainable outcomes, and shared success over time. Follow us on LinkedIn.

About Viking Global Investors

Founded in 1999, Viking is a global investment management firm that manages approximately $48 billion of capital for its investors. It has offices in Greenwich, New York, Hong Kong, London, and San Francisco and is registered as an investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. For more information, please visit www.vikingglobal.com.

Media Contact  

Name: Caitlin Kelly
Email: alphasense@vividand.co
Phone: (843) 817-0330

Source: AlphaSense

June 15, 2022 8:34 AM
EDT
Charleston, NC

GameDay Spirits Releases First Ever Sports-Themed Canned Cocktail

GameDay All American Spirits releases the first ever sports-themed canned vodka cocktail just in time for pre-season—GameDay Spiked vodka cocktail. GameDay Spirits specially crafted three performance cocktails infused with real fruit juice, electrolytes and a game-winning personality.

Each flavor brings a bold, new spin to the beverage category. At only 99 calories and 5% alcohol by volume, GameDay Spiked vodka cocktail is gluten free, six-times distilled, all natural, carbonated and ready to challenge the industry titans and win over consumers as the true MVP can of the summer.

GAMEDAY SPIKED FLAVORS:

  • THE GOAT (FRUIT PUNCH): A perfect combination of fruit flavors makes this spiked cocktail The Greatest Of All Time. With 60mg of electrolytes, the GOAT is a high performing cocktail that will enhance your pre or post-game swagger.
  • CLEAT CHASER (LEMON LIME): The Cleat Chaser is always the team favorite. Spiked with a lemon-lime twist and 75mg of electrolytes, any athlete would find this smooth GameDay vodka cocktail irresistible. Who says you can't win them all? Show your wild side and choose the Cleat Chaser.
  • CINDERELLA STORY (STRAWBERRY LEMONADE): This Strawberry Lemonade cocktail is inspired by the underdog. Like our vodka, you've managed to defy expectations and prove all the doubters wrong. Spiked with 90mg of electrolytes, this delicious Cinderella Story will help you overcome any hurdle thrown your way and remind you that anything is possible. Keep grinding. Keep believing. Shock the world.

Co-Founder Susie Perez-David said, "Over the last 2 years, we have worked with the nation's top flavor houses and formulation teams to create the best tasting, ready-to-drink cocktail in the market.  Our three performance cocktails are delicious and refreshing, and we know fans will be excited to take their cans from the beach to the tailgate come Fall."

GameDay Spiked vodka cocktails will be available nationwide beginning June 15, 2022. Cans will be packaged by flavor in packs of (4) 12oz slim cans at $9.99 per pack. Individual cans will be available for purchase at $2.49 - $2.99.

June 14, 2022 4:04 PM
EDT
Atlanta, GA

Court TV renews 'Someone They Knew With Tamron Hall,' adds true-crime series to primetime

Court TV has renewed the original true-crime series "Someone They Knew With Tamron Hall" for a second season and has added it to its primetime schedule weeknights at 7 p.m. ET. The show now serves as lead-in for the network's flagship program "Closing Arguments with Vinnie Politan" (8-10 p.m. ET).

Hosted by Daytime Emmy Award-winning TV host, journalist, and author Tamron Hall, "Someone They Knew" stories are told from the points of view of the people impacted by the case, including lawyers, jurors, members of law enforcement and the victim's family and friends. Using new interviews, archival footage and re-creations of the crime, the goal of each episode is a balanced story from victim to verdict. Hall is not only a seasoned crime reporter and true crime author, she is also committed to sharing stories consistent with the Court TV lineup.

Court TV has had a strong start to the year with the success of "Someone They Knew" and live coverage of the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard case. The network's coverage of Depp vs. Heard nearly quadrupled the audience for the networks' live trial coverage as compared to the pre-trial period (+278%). Daily streaming hours more than quintupled during this same period (+415%). More than 500,000 viewers – the most since the network relaunched in 2019 – tuned into Court TV to watch the verdict in the trial on Wednesday, June 1.

"Court TV is on pace for its most-watched year yet," said Ethan Nelson, acting head of Court TV. "Viewers tuned in for every second of our insightful coverage and expert analysis of the Depp-Heard trial and they have also embraced 'Someone They Knew with Tamron Hall.' We are looking forward to having Tamron in primetime as well as the compelling cases we're planning to air in the months ahead."

Source for Depp vs. Heard trial viewing data (4/11/22-5/27/22) vs. prior four weeks: Linear TV - Nielsen, live + same-day viewing. Reflects total viewers 2+ M-F 9a-7p. Streaming - Google Analytics, O&O CTV, FAST and O&O Web data. Includes data for Court TV.com, Android TV, Roku, Vizio & Fire TV. Does not include FAST data from Pluto TV.

June 9, 2022 2:21 PM
EDT
DALLAS, TX

ARMM Offers Teachers the American Tactical Defense MAGLITE® Sponsored Active Shooter School Training

ARMM Inc. (OTCQB: ARMM) (the "Company" or "ARMM") a firearms lifestyle platform focused on Self-Reliance, is pleased to announce that it has added the American Tactical Defense ("ATD") Active Shooter School Training, sponsored by MAGLITE®, to its ARMM Academy.

The events that have recently occurred in Buffalo, New York, followed by the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma have cast the national spotlight back on firearms. Armm's leadership strongly believes in empowering citizens with education, confidence and real-world solutions to defend themselves and others in the event of an active shooter scenario. The Company is partnering with American Tactical Defense LLC, the most current, proven, active shooter training for schools.

The training content will be hosted with the Discipline section of the platform and app. The ATD, MAGLITE® Sponsored Practical Defense Video Series includes the following modules:

MAGLITE® Practical Defense – Active Shooter School Training / American Tactical Defense

MAGLITE® Practical Defense – School District – School Bus Driver Active Shooter Training / American Tactical Defense

MAGLITE® Practical Defense – Home Defense Training / American Tactical Defense

MAGLITE® Practical Defense – Phone vs Flashlight - American Tactical Defense

In the coming weeks, ARMM and American Tactical Defense will be hosting an Active Shooter School Training Live Webinar, at the Maglite Campus in Ontario, California. The Company will also be distributing a link to participate in the Webinar.

Teachers that participate in the Webinar will receive a free copy of the Teachers Pocket Guide to Active Shooter Response, and School Administrators will receive the School Threat Assessment Checklist.

"Now more than ever, given our mission of self reliance, firearms education and training, situational awareness has become paramount. We will not wait for political solutions, and are excited to share ATD's invaluable skill set and content in order to empower citizens, teachers and administrators at this time," said Mark Lawson, CEO of Armm Inc.

June 6, 2022 2:33 PM
EDT
Charleston, SC

Bank of America Credit and Debit Card Data Shows Continued Growth in Consumer Spending, up 9% year-over-year in May

The Bank of America Institute today released its findings from the latest Consumer Checkpoint, which aims to provide a holistic and real-time estimate of U.S. consumers' spending and their financial well-being, leveraging the breadth and depth of Bank of America proprietary data from its 67 million consumer and small business clients

Highlights of the publication:

  • Aggregated Bank of America credit and debit card spending was up 9% in May1 year-over-year; within this, credit card spending rose by 16% year-over-year, while debit card spending increased by 4%.
  • Total payments growth across all channels was up 6% year-over-year in May, from sources like wire payments, Automated Clearing House (ACH), cards, Billpay, etc., while overall transaction volumes were up 8% year-over-year.
  • Gasoline spending as a share of total card spending surged to 7.8% for the week ending May 28, up from 6.4% in February; lower-income consumers (<$50k/year), average share-of-gas-spending rose to 9.5%.
  • Spending per household increases varied by region, with the South outpacing the rest of the country while the Midwest lags on a year-over-year basis. For example, compared to the 4.3% year-over-year increase in average of spending per household throughout May on a national basis, Miami residents' spending increased 6.8% while Chicago residents' spending increased per household rose by 1.4%.

"Our card data shows continued growth in consumer spending, but inflation is challenging households' purchasing power," said David Tinsley, senior economist for the Bank of America Institute.  "That said, spending on services like travel and entertainment remained strong and households continued to have higher savings than they did before the pandemic. Overall, we still remain cautiously optimistic for the U.S. consumer."

April 19, 2022 4:00 PM
EDT
Charlotte, NC

CivicEye Launches Inaugural Law Enforcement Empowerment Program

CivicEye, the end-to-end provider of cloud software for Public Safety, today announced the launch of the Law Enforcement Empowerment Program (LEEP), an opportunity for tribal law enforcement agencies to partner with CivicEye to conduct a free Records Management System (RMS) pilot program. This program will be a vital tool in enabling agencies that otherwise couldn't afford software or solutions for their departments. The LEEP program for 2022 launches with the primary focus on tribal law enforcement, seeking to enable these agencies to enlist new strategies and technologies that not only help drive efficient internal processes today but also drive more efficient policing and build safer communities for years to come.

Application to the program will be open from April 19 to May 16, 2022, at 12 PM EST (please apply online here). It is recommended that police chiefs and/or authority figures with tribal departments complete the application. Up to 10 tribal law enforcement agencies will be selected to participate in the program, at no cost, for a term of two (2) years of free access to CivicRMS, on-site training and implementation, and transition services at the conclusion of the program if they decide not to continue using the application.

Native American Law Enforcement agencies have faced significant challenges securing funding to properly staff and give their departments access to needed resources to serve their communities. By using CivicRMS, agencies will be able to create incident reports, analyze crime trends, monitor drug offenses, and drive more efficient processes. This high-performance, modern records management system will be easy to use and allow for more time spent in the community and less time behind a computer.

"Small and medium law enforcement agencies have struggled to receive funding and don't have modern applications and technologies to help them move forward. CivicEye felt we could make a difference by developing LEEP," said Nathan Leatherwood, Head of Growth and Client Success at CivicEye. "We're excited to partner with Tribal Agencies in this initiative and look forward to hearing the successes that come from it."

There are approximately 20,000 law enforcement agencies today, 13,000 of which have less than 10 officers. It is these small agencies that typically have struggled to secure funding or allocate funding to enhance their police technologies. This inspired Leatherwood to develop the LEEP program at CivicEye, to empower and modernize these small agencies with the CivicRMS software for free for two years. LEEP alleviates the stress around funding for tribal agencies and grants them the opportunity to implement a software over an extended period of time.

April 18, 2022 4:00 PM
EDT
Charleston, SC

Blackbaud Customers Come Together to Raise Millions for Ukraine

Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the world's leading cloud software company powering social good, today announced it has achieved carbon neutrality across its operations and data centers for 2021, and that it will engage with the Taskforce and Climate Financial Disclosure (TCDF) and CDP to ensure transparent sustainability reporting and progress. With a multi-pronged climate strategy, Blackbaud is focused on reducing its emissions, using energy efficiently and investing in environmental projects for a more sustainable future.

"As a company with a longstanding track record of commitment to social good, we prioritize our obligation to operate our business sustainably," said Rachel Hutchisson, vice president, global social responsibility, Blackbaud. "We are committed to doing our part for climate change by calculating and reducing our emissions, investing in renewable energy and sustainable projects, and working with our employees, customers and partners to collectively advance our efforts."

Blackbaud began its carbon neutral journey by evaluating its Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, which included emissions from its owned buildings (Scope 1), emissions from sources that are not owned but controlled—like leased offices (Scope 2)—and then emissions from data centers, cloud services and employee work from home energy consumption (Scope 3).

Reducing emissions has been a top priority for Blackbaud over the past several years. Blackbaud transitioned to a remote-first workforce strategy in 2021, which helped fast-track the company's goals for minimizing environmental impact. Since 2019, Blackbaud has reduced its global real estate footprint by 50%; reduced the energy emissions required to run its office space by 63%; and reduced employee commute emissions by 75%.

With its remote-first strategy, Blackbaud has retained one owned office building—its LEED Gold certified world headquarters in Charleston, SC. This building leverages solar power and operates with 30% more energy efficiency and 20% less water than other buildings of its class. Blackbaud has also implemented strong waste reduction and wellness programs to create a healthy, sustainable campus.

To balance the remainder of emissions from its business operations, Blackbaud has invested in renewable energy credits (RECs) and carbon offsets. The company purchased Green-e® RECs, which funded clean energy generation at a South Dakota wind farm, to account for its Scope 2 emissions. To reduce the effects of Scope 1 and Scope 3 emissions, Blackbaud is supporting several carbon offset projects, including Mississippi valley reforestation in the U.S., community reforestation in Ghana and a portfolio of global renewable energy projects.

This milestone of achieving carbon neutrality builds on Blackbaud's recent sustainability progress. In 2021, Blackbaud formed an ESG steering committee that is co-chaired by CEO Mike Gianoni and has board oversight. Blackbaud also joined the UN Global Compact, which is focused on aligning business activity to the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs). Earlier this year, the company made a multi-year, six-figure gift to Project Drawdown, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and a leader in science-based climate solutions research, communications and engagement. Blackbaud's gift is supporting Project Drawdown's efforts to reach educators, students, professionals and a general audience of individual change agents interested in climate change and solutions. Project Drawdown is partnering with Blackbaud to consult on environmental strategy and provide educational opportunities for Blackbaud employees on how to apply climate solutions in their own lives and how to become climate advocates.

As a next step, Blackbaud will adopt the TCFD framework in its reporting this year and will also report climate data to CDP to continue enhancing transparency around its sustainable operations, and to continue working toward its climate goals. These disclosures help companies outline climate-related risks and their plans to minimize those risks through governance, and by setting targets and measuring against them.

"We've been committed to social good from day one, and our mission is to help good take over the world," said Hutchisson. "Reducing environmental impact and advocating for climate solutions is one way we are bringing that mission to life. Achieving carbon neutrality is a significant step in our journey, but we know there is more work to do, and we remain focused on progress."

February 28, 2022 11:00 AM
EDT
St. Louis, MO

Justine PETERSEN Establishes Innovative Loan Fund to Offer Lower Interest Rate Car Loans to Drivers with Challenged Credit Histories

Justine PETERSEN and NISA Charitable Fund are partnering to address the impact of high-interest car loans for drivers in Greater St. Louis with challenging personal credit scores. As one of the nation's leading credit building organizations and community development financial institutions ("CDFIs"), Justine PETERSEN launched a pilot, auto loan refinancing program called DRIVE with wrap-around financial credit counseling with the collaborative support and a $250,000 investment from NISA Charitable Fund.


"Research shows that those with subprime credit in St. Louis are paying an annual interest rate of approximately 20% for their auto loan, which consumes a disproportionate share of their monthly income," said Robert Boyle, Founder and CEO of Justine PETERSEN. "Low- to moderate-income households can stretch their dollars if they work with a CDFI to rein in their high-interest auto loans and participate in a comprehensive credit counseling program. With NISA Charitable Fund's vital financial and operational support, the initial results of our pilot program are encouraging, and we hope to expand our partnership base and participant pool during the second half of the year."

The DRIVE pilot program enables selected participants to refinance their auto loan at an attractive annual interest rate of six percent, representing significant monthly savings. Individuals also receive a personalized credit action plan to help repair their credit score. Recently, Katherine Faulkner, a DRIVE participant, refinanced her car note with a DRIVE loan, lowering her annual interest rate from 20.35% to 6%, saving over $120 per month. "It was a great change for the better," stated Ms. Faulkner, "I have the joy of knowing that I am no longer paying all of that interest on my loan, and now I have more money in my pocket to meet my other monthly expenses."

"This is precisely the type of meaningful impact we want to achieve in our collaborations with community organizations in St. Louis," said David Eichhorn, CFA, NISA's CEO and Head of Investment Strategies. "Our work with Justine PETERSEN is about yielding tangible, scalable results and remaining true to NISA Charitable Fund's mission to support organizations that are improving access to capital among traditionally underserved groups in St. Louis."

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