Meet our members! AFN’s greatest asset is our members—a diverse network of national, regional, and community-based foundations, financial institutions, and grantmakers—investing in advancing equitable wealth building and economic mobility. Check back each month and meet your peers!
1: What’s your main interest/focus on asset building in 2021?
Helping hard working people build resources and establish patterns of behavior that enable them to secure economic “breathing room.”
2: What’s the most “ah-ha” provoking new book or research that you’ve read in the past year?
AFN’s paper, “A Framework For Measuring Financial Resilience Outcomes” by J. Michael Collins and Katie Lorenze. I became fascinated with the four “B’s”: Buffers, Borrowing, Benefits and Backstops and the possibilities of implementing them with our staff and our clients.
3: What advice would you give to a colleague starting out in the asset building field?
Make the effort to talk and listen to those caught in the whirlpool of financial hardship and understand their fears and pain.
4: What’s your favorite binge-worthy show, series or podcast?
Merlin
About Bruce Willson, President & CEO, United Way of Northwest Louisiana
We seek to improve the lives of the ALICE (Asset limited, Income Constrained, Employed) population in the ten parishes of northwest Louisiana by addressing the issues of health, financial stability and education.
