SpringFour Wins 2015 Empowerment Award-SpringFour CEO Rochelle Nawrocki-Gorey Shares her Award Remarks

SpringFour is proud to be the recipient of the 2015 Empowerment Award last month.   President, CEO, and co-founder Rochelle Nawrocki-Gorey accepted the award, delivered a word of thanks and shared a vision about what is next for SpringFour.

Click here to read more about the 2015 Empowerment Award.

Click here to read more about the Award and its sponsor, Promontory.

From Rochelle Nawrocki-Gorey:

Thank you. We are extremely honored to be here tonight and grateful to be receiving the 2nd Annual Empowerment Award.

We are especially honored to be receiving the Award from the Promontory Group-a group that is committed to financial innovation and the promotion of responsible lending products.Thank you Gene and the Promontory team for making this central to the work that you do here.

When we started SpringFour back in 2005 we knew it was important to connect homeowners to local services when they were behind on their mortgage.  Our research also told us that banks and loan servicers were looking for ways to connect their borrowers to local help.

We understood that when a person could not pay their mortgage, there was a reason. Something was happening in their financial life that made paying that bill impossible. We also knew that for many of those situations, solutions existed.

Non-profits and government agencies exist to help with utility bills, legal assistance, childcare, food expenses and more. But those in trouble didn’t know about them.

ational call centers could not be the experts in each community where they serviced loans.

We set about to change that and we built SpringFour.

Today, with our partners, we make over 1.5 million referrals each year.   We have over 9,000 resources in 175 cities around the country. We offer help in 26 different service categories.

Just today, at 5 pm. we had made over 3,600 referrals for consumers in need. This month we are on track to make over 100,000 referrals.

But we want to do more.

First, Let me share with you the power behind a referral and how a simple technology solution is creating significant financial savings for American families.

Making these referrals means that a veteran waiting on disability benefits will continue to have a home AND be able to buy groceries to feed his family. Because prior to a referral from SpringFour, this family did not know how they were going to be able to pay for both.

It means that an elderly woman with limited income who was spending $500 on prescription costs now pays only $200 a month. That’s a $300 per month savings.

And as we expand into connecting consumers with innovative and responsible financial products, it means that a family no longer is using high priced check cashing services to access their own money. They have connected with a more appropriate financial product and are saving almost $100 per month.

On average, consumers save $250 per month with SpringFour referrals.

The amount of savings that we are helping people obtain is significant. More than 50 percent of Americans cannot afford a $400 emergency expense and 40 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

With SpringFour referrals, we are transforming consumers’ financial outlook. Money saved can be allocated toward retirement, college savings or paying down student loan debt.Or it can be used to meet mortgage payments that before were unaffordable.

We are excited to announce that because of this Award, we will be able to build out LifeKit and expand into new markets like student loan servicing and consumer banking. LifeKit is a new mobile app that will allow us to extend our relationship with any consumer no matter where they are at financially.

LifeKit will provide consumers with connections to innovative and appropriate financial products, tools and services. Through this mobile technology, we look forward to reaching many more consumers.

I also want to extend my thanks and appreciation to a few amazing people that without their support, dedication and hard work, SpringFour would not have received this Award.

I’d like to thank Larry Gorey, my husband for giving me the encouragement and support to turn an idea into a company.

I’d like to thank Dean Caldwell Tautges who started as a SpringFour’s 1st customer when he was Director of Counseling at the Homeownership Preservation Foundation and has since become a valuable partner and co-worker at SpringFour. Dean keeps everything moving and turns ideas into reality.

Thank you to Jon Roketenetz, who has been with us since day one, he’s the mastermind behind the technology that is at the core of everything we do.

I’d also like to thank you subscribers, banks both large and small, loan servicers, non profit housing counseling agencies, veterans organizations and employee assistance programs. These forward thinking companies have committed to helping their customers not only because it’s the right thing to do but they know it’s also good for business.

Our work is far from over but with this Award, we are looking forward to working with you to help even more consumers become financially healthy because it’s in all of our best interest to do so.

Thank you.