First Step Alliance
2024 Impact Report

Message From Our Founder

Dear friends,

First Step Alliance is pleased to present our 2024 Impact Report, highlighting a year of accomplishments in advancing our mission to improve access to affordable financial services and education for justice-involved individuals. We extend our deepest gratitude to our Board of Trustees, Officers, Advisory Council members, interns, and other volunteers, whose dedication and expertise are the foundation of our continued success.

In 2024, we continued to build program partnerships with reentry organizations and government agencies to reach those in need. In addition to expanding our Fresh Start Financial Education & Banking Programs, this year marked the launch of our new entrepreneurship initiative in partnership with Harvard Law School, SCORE, the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Returning Citizens, and other community organizations. Fresh Start Entrepreneurship equips individuals with the essential information and mentorship needed to start a new business.

We also reached several milestones in our efforts to create a first-of-its-kind financial institution for formerly incarcerated individuals—a not-for-profit credit union bringing affordable financial services to thousands of community members.

Many thanks to all for your generous grants and donations that help support First Step Alliance and financial inclusion for justice-involved people.

With gratitude,

Nancy Eiden

Founder & Board Chair

First Step Alliance

Helping People Take the First Step to Financial Freedom

Our Programs

Fresh Start Financial Education

First Step Alliance provides justice-involved individuals access to a free online financial education learning program that includes many important topics to help improve their financial health. Certified credit counselors work one-on-one with community members to help them overcome financial challenges. This program is designed to accommodate a wide range of people, regardless of financial acumen or learning style. We reach incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people through partnerships with community organizations, government agencies, and secure learning platforms:

Fresh Start Financial Education includes:

Free online financial education learning program to help people develop responsible money management habits and build credit.
On-demand learning in both English and Spanish through a smartphone, computer, or tablet.
Designed to accommodate all levels of financial acumen.
Many ways to learn: e-books, interactive courses, videos, webinars, podcasts, and games.
Certificates of completion for each course completed.
Free one-on-one financial coaching by certified credit counselors in English and Spanish.

Fresh Start Entrepreneurship

Fresh Start Entrepreneurship & Financial Capabilities is a collaboration among several entities with a shared goal of promoting economic empowerment for justice-involved individuals. We launched this program in Boston in partnership with Harvard Law School, the City of Boston Mayor's Office of Returning Citizens, and SCORE, resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration and mentor to America's small businesses.

This year we held our first two cohorts, with more than 80 justice-involved people from the greater Boston area applying to the program.

Program Goals

Fresh Start Entrepreneurship aims to provide justice-involved individuals with the education, mentoring, and legal assistance they need to start and run their own business. The program's unique curriculum combines entrepreneurship training and money management skill development with individual coaching by experienced business mentors, certified financial coaches, and instructors with lived experience. To help remove barriers to mainstream banking and build credit, participants have access to an affordable bank account and free credit counseling services. Program graduates may also be eligible for a micro-grant to help them get started. Business ownership represents an alternative path to income and wealth creation opportunities for justice-involved individuals.

Fresh Start Entrepreneurship helps people turn their ideas into reality by providing essential business training, personal finance knowledge, individual mentoring, and access to affordable banking products and credit-building resources.

What People Are Saying

"This kind of training program helps people who are at the very beginning of dreaming about their business. They’re just starting to figure out, how do I do this on a larger scale? How do I make this a sustainable income source for myself?"

--- Carmen Halford

Harvard Law School, TLC

Program Partner

Fresh Start Banking

Millions of justice-involved people continue to be shut out of mainstream banking, can have their bank accounts suddenly closed, and are credit invisible, forcing them to rely on high-cost, often predatory providers.

While we continue our efforts to start a new credit union for justice-involved individuals, we make affordable banking available to community members through our collaboration with an established federal credit union. The Dora Financial mobile banking program is convenient and easy-to-use, and is available for download on an iPhone or Android in English and Spanish. First Step Alliance works with our community partners to make this program available to justice-involved people.

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This program offers the following foundational banking features:

No-minimum, no-credit check, no-fee checking account
Visa debit card
Direct deposit of paycheck or government benefits
Thousands of fee-free ATMs across the country
Mobile deposit of checks
Cash deposits through ATMs
2-day early payday with direct deposit
Credit builder product

Fresh Start Banking serves as a pathway to credit union membership, helping people qualify for additional financial products in the future.

Thought Leadership: Building Community Awareness

We continued raising awareness through advocacy, panel discussions, and articles on key reentry topics, including:

We also explored criminal justice reform initiatives and global efforts to reduce recidivism:

Our Google Ads grant has helped amplify these articles, boosting our web traffic to 10,000 monthly visitors and drawing more attention to the financial and other issues justice-involved individuals face.

First Step Alliance and our programs have also been featured in several prominent publications, including the Wall Street Journal, American Banker, Business Insider, Credit Union Times, and, most recently, in Harvard Law Today's article From Incarceration to Entrepreneurship.

Earlier in the year, we led a panel discussion on “Impactful Partnerships Serving the Justice-involved Community” at the Inclusiv Annual Conference, which brought together over 700 participants. Inclusiv, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), is dedicated to helping low- and moderate-income individuals and communities achieve financial independence through credit unions. Following this event, we launched an initiative to form a coalition of financial institutions to help advance financial inclusion for justice-involved individuals across the country.

Looking Ahead

Our Fresh Start Programs have reached many formerly incarcerated individuals through partnerships with community organizations and government agencies. We are also working with several technology companies to make these educational resources available on tablets to incarcerated individuals. In addition to expanding partnerships and increasing our program cohorts during 2025, we will continue our efforts to launch a new credit union for community members.

Where We Are Today

Our Proposed Federal Credit Union will provide a financial home for justice-involved people and their families, offering access to a wide array of affordable financial products and services. The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) approved our request to move forward with a new charter application and First Step Alliance is the approved Membership Association.

The credit union organizers have broad support from regulators, Congressional members, the credit union industry, and community organizations. Many have signed on to a Letter of Support to demonstrate their commitment and interest in this initiative. The next step is to secure the initial regulatory capital and startup funds needed to open the doors to this groundbreaking financial cooperative in 2026.

Acknowledgements

First Step Alliance is committed to financial inclusion for justice-involved individuals. By working toward a more equitable and accessible financial system, our goal is to help our community members rebuild their lives, and achieve financial stability and economic mobility.

We wish to express our sincere gratitude to the following organizations for their generous grants:

Alloya Corporate Federal Credit Union
City of Boston - Mayor’s Office of Returning Citizens
Financial Health Network
Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund
Live Life Fully Foundation (US Alliance Financial)
PSE&G
The Robert & Maurine Rothschild Fund
Robert Half Foundation
Walmart

...and to the many community members, friends, families, and allies who donate their time, treasure, and talent to help improve the financial lives of justice-involved individuals.

"Dreaming after incarceration can be difficult. The Fresh Start program helped me out in way you couldn't imagine. My vision widened, and I decided I wanted to open a CDL driving school. Fresh Start helped me put that business plan into action.”

--- Wayne Lane

Owner at Switching Lanes

Program Graduate