Financial Freedom Starts Here
1 in 3 women (and 1 in 4 men) may experience gender-based violence. Nearly 99% endure the control of financial abuse. With FI SAFE, your institution can help provide safety & financial freedom.
How Domestic Violence Impacts Lives
Gender-based violence affects more than 40% of women1.
In abusive relationships, control is often financial. After survivors escape, they may encounter job loss, credit damage, and ongoing financial challenges, making recovery seem impossible. Sadly, your community (and even your institution) has far too many people in this situation.
FI SAFE merges technology and empathy (we call it “tempathy”), with your credit union, to break this cycle, delivering personal and financial freedom.
"Tempathy" Powers
With a majority of abusers tracking victim devices and online activity, we recognized the need to provide discreet tools of assistance. Our Tempathy Partners enable users to:
- Interact with a trauma-informed AI chatbot to get 24/7 answers to a range of questions (chats never logged nor used for training)
- Connect with domestic violence agencies and appropriate credit union staff within a camouflaged and untraceable app
- Exchange messages and calls without appearing on phone records, while retaining needed notes
- Access a private browser for account opening
From Control to Freedom
Abuse depends on control. Breaking that control is our goal. Victims first reach out to their local domestic violence agency or women’s shelter (who help them find a safe space, physically or digitally). Our Tempathy Partners connect these survivors to your credit union, where your staff can begin the work of financial empowerment.
FI SAFE trains your institution to separate the phone, checking/savings accounts, credit cards, and begin rebuilding credit scores…all things which can prevent survivors from retaining employment or even finding a place to live.
Be Part of the Solution!
Provide a hand up, not a hand out. We help your institution embrace their “superpowers”. Some you know about (CDFI, ITIN, no-credit account opening), some we’ll help you discover! All while fostering a path to financial wellness and lifelong loyalty.
Members of your team will receive our survivor-informed training on Compassionate Banking, identifying how to avoid triggers, and a range of other insights to communicate most effectively, while most importantly, doing no additional harm.
Your team will be prepared to empower financial futures!
How Your Financial Institution Participates
Join FI SAFE
FI SAFE enables your credit union to meaningfully be there for domestic violence and human trafficking victims, some of whom may be existing members or staff. A partnership allows us to guide your team through training, staff empowerment, and tech needed to build a productively empathetic support system. It’s a conversation: We’re always listening to those affected to improve our practices.
Support Purple Bridges
Our non-profit, Purple Bridges, serves as the caring parent for our FI SAFE effort. Through it, we facilitate conversations between your credit union and a local domestic violence agency so you can be there for survivors. Purple Bridges also manages relationships with technology providers to ensure tools to make that victim-to-CU communication seamless, secure, and private.
Join FI SAFE
FI SAFE provides training, staff empowerment, and the tech needed to build a productively empathetic support system. We’re always listening to those affected to improve our practices.
Support Purple Bridges
Our non-profit, Purple Bridges, serves as the caring parent for FI SAFE. We facilitate conversations between your credit union and a local DV agency so you can be there for survivors. We’ll also manage relationships to provide tools that create seamless, secure, and private communication.
Contact Us
FI SAFE is an initiative which cares. About empowering women and all those impacted by intimate partner violence, addressing the challenges facing community financial institutions of all sizes, and bringing private, yet seamless, ways to engage and delight members.
Across it all, we aim to raise the status of community financial institutions through ensuring the stories you hear every day get told. People want to bank and work with organizations which share their values.
With FI SAFE at your institution, we’ll empower your team to maximize their positive impact on the local community, and work to get those stories heard by your future members.
Let’s discuss FI SAFE for your team and members.
