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?
The pandemic continues to have major economic consequences, especially for lower-wage and displaced workers. It has also exacerbated longstanding inequalities based on race and ethnicity. During 2021 and beyond, we will be working with community-level organizations to develop and implement innovative, flexible service models that expand inclusion in the financial mainstream and help workers and their families cope with profoundly challenging economic circumstances.
2: What’s the most “ah-ha” provoking new book or research that you’ve read in the past year?
“White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo. In consideration of America’s reckoning with systemic racism and heightened racial tensions, this book served as the jumping-off point for my personal journey and efforts to get uncomfortable, learn, and determine my role in creating positive and lasting change.
3: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from a grantee or a colleague?
I’m always impressed by the dedication and creative solutions that local nonprofits bring to their communities. Even more so by their eagerness to share their experiences—both successes and challenges—with nonprofit professionals working on the same objectives in other communities. Over the years, I’ve observed the power of bringing these practitioners together in networks that enable sharing, collaboration, and mutual encouragement.
4: What is your favorite vacation spot or most memorable leisure trip?
My most memorable leisure trip was a two-week whitewater rafting excursion on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 2016.
About Laura Caley, Program Manager, FINRA Investor Education Foundation
I oversee financial capability programming with emphasis on helping lower-income workers and households achieve their financial goals through the workplace.
The FINRA Foundation empowers underserved Americans with the knowledge, skills, and tools to make sound financial decisions throughout life. We accomplish this mission through consumer education programs, practitioner training and professional development, research, grantmaking, and partnerships with leading nonprofit organizations at the community and national levels. For more information about FINRA Foundation initiatives, visit www.finrafoundation.org.
FINRA—the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority—is a not-for-profit organization dedicated
to investor protection and market integrity. It regulates one critical part of the securities
industry: brokerage firms doing business with the public in the United States. For more
information, visit www.finra.org.
