Ajay Banga, Chairman and CEO, Citigroup Global Consumer Group International, and Marc Morial, President & CEO of the National Urban League, announced the expansion of a national financial education program to six new markets: Philadelphia, Stamford, Long Island, Baltimore, New Orleans, and St. Louis.
"As a recent addition to the National Urban League's Board of Trustees, I am pleased to present this grant for $745,000 from the Citigroup Foundation to the National Urban League for its continued dedication and commitment to serving the needs of the African-American community," said Ajay Banga, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Citigroup's Global Consumer Group- International. "At Citigroup, we are committed to making communities better because we are there."
"The relationship with Citigroup is designed to inspire and educate African-Americans to become more knowledgeable about saving, investing, and borrowing," said Marc Morial, President & CEO of the National Urban League. "This is one of the first steps toward accomplishing the Urban League's mission to enable African Americans to secure economic empowerment. Together, we will help empower individuals and families and strengthen communities across the country."
The financial education program, expanding to six new cities, is designed to help people attain homeownership, broaden employment opportunities and teach the skills needed to make informed financial decisions. Each Urban League affiliate will use Citigroup's financial education curriculum to train its constituents on banking, money management, saving, investing, and credit. Local Citigroup businesses will support the programs with volunteer teachers and events.
In 2004, the Citigroup Foundation provided a three-year $900,000 grant for six NUL affiliates-New York City, Rochester, Chicago, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego– to enhance financial literacy among adults through the use of the Citigroup Financial Education Curriculum. In 2005, Hartford was added and given a two-year grant of $70,000. The program will remain in the seven cities and will expand into the six new markets.
To date, there have been over 3,000 clients trained and 100 Citigroup volunteers, many from Citigroup's African Heritage Employee Network in New York.
In 2004, Citigroup and the Citigroup Foundation announced a 10-year, $200 million global financial education commitment, the formation of a new Office of Financial Education and a global initiative designed to encourage its 300,000 employees around the world to devote time to support financial education and other charitable causes. Under the new initiative, employees may take a day off from work to volunteer for non-profit organizations in their communities.
Enviroshop is maintained by dedicated NetSys Interactive Inc. owners & employees who generously contribute their time to maintenance & editing, web design, custom programming, & website hosting for Enviroshop.