Thank you to the 110 people who attended our successful “Lending & Transcending” fundraiser. For this event, our generous supporters gave 85 gifts and pledges totaling nearly $30,000!
Our successful fundraiser was a joyous celebration of community-centered healing, art, and entertainment. As always, we are honored to partner with you as we continue our efforts to eliminate predatory lending in Minnesota. Our transformational lending programs exist because of your support. We’d also like to give special thanks to one of our board members, Sola, for championing our efforts in his testimony and Lady Midnight for a truly magical and inspiring performance.
“It’s expensive to be poor. It’s not enough to just refinance bad loans. What excites me about the future of our work and why I decided to join the Board of Exodus Lending is that we are working to meet the needs of our community with financial products that prioritize people over profit. Small dollar loans is likely what we may invest in next, which would enable us to fight payday loan lenders mano e mano.”
– Sola Olateju, Exodus Lending board member and program graduate
Additionally, with this support from our passionate community, we can continue “pioneering a reimagined world of consumer lending,” as described in a recent Ethnic Media Services article, Exodus Lending: An Escape Route for Victims of Predatory Loans.
Consumers across the state deserve the dignified lending our programs strive to implement. In order to make this dream a reality, our partners at Minnesotans for Fair Lending are tirelessly working on a campaign to regulate predatory lending at the municipal level. For example, The Mankato Free Press recently highlighted their efforts to encourage Mankato officials to pass an ordinance capping interest rates at 33%.
In case you missed it, here are some of the latest news items on predatory lending:
Exodus Lending E-Newsletter: July 2022