The Organization for a New Equality

Links and Resources

Asset Development

• MIDAS is a statewide collaborative of community-based, nonprofit organizations that help working low income residents of Massachusetts build assets and achieve greater economic stability.
• CFED is a nonprofit organization that expands economic opportunity. CFED identifies promising ideas; test and refine them in communities to find out what works; craft policies and products to help good ideas reach scale; and foster new markets to achieve greater economic impact.
• The Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University helps broaden wealth, reduce inequality, and improve the social and economic well-being of American households by fostering the adoption of an asset policy framework through research, analysis, education, and public engagement.
• United for a Fair Economy raises awareness that concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corrupt democracy, deepen the racial divide, and tear communities apart.

Financial Education

• The Massachusetts Area Financial Literacy Group serves as a clearinghouse for courses that seek to educate consumers and small business owners about any aspect of personal or business financial planning. The Group was created by the Boston Alliance for Economic Inclusion former, Boston New Alliance Task Force, as a mechanism to encourage partnership-building and information-sharing.
• Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending

Debt and Credit

• The Plastic Safety Net: The Reality Behind Debt in America presents findings from a national household survey of credit card debt among low and middle income households.
• Tomorrow’s Money is sponsored by the Massachusetts State Treasurer’s Office and The Bond Market Foundation. It provides information on personal finance issues for Massachusetts residents.
• myFICO provides information on how to improve your FICO score.
• BankRate.com provides calculators as a tool to help you determine what it will take to pay off your existing debt

Homeownership

• Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA)
• Citizens Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA) is a nonprofit umbrella organization for affordable housing and community development
• Freddie Mac
• Fannie Mae

MicroEnterprise

• The Center for Women and Enterprise
• Wild Women Entrepreneurs
• The Small Business Administration
• State of Massachusetts Economic Development – Business Resource Team

Education

• Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority (MEFA) is a non-profit state organization that serves students and families in Massachusetts, and out-of-state students and families pursuing higher education in Massachusetts. They offer a number of resources to help make paying for college possible.
• The Education Resources Institute (TERI) promotes educational opportunities for all people of all ages and backgrounds. They administer and guarantee loan programs for students at all education levels, and sponsor college access programs targeting underserved individuals, who are often the first generation in their families to go to college.
• Massachusetts Board of Higher Education coordinates Massachusetts system of public higher education.
• Sallie Mae

Retirement Information

• The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College promotes research on retirement issues, to transmit new findings to the policy community and the public, to help train new scholars, and to broaden access to valuable data sources.
• The Department of Labor’s guide to Taking the Mystery Out of Retirement Planning
• U.S. Social Security Administration