Welcome to the new Move your Money Project!
“Move your money to a small bank or credit union,” was the original spirit of the MoveYourMoneyProject.org website – a somewhat grassroots movement encouraging consumers, their friends and family, and even local businesses, to support local banks and credit unions.
Please watch this Move Your Money video:
Our New Direction for Move Your Money
While MoveYourMoneyProject.org is under new ownership, we are committed to maintaining the spirit of supporting small, local banks while also helping our readers find ways of saving money, even if that means with big banks. While we might not always like it, it is sometimes a necessary “evil” to do business with the omnipotent big banks, so why not learn ways to make it a mutually beneficial relationship (think making the most of credit card points or actually using those companion airline tickets that seem to have more blackout dates than not!)?
Move Your Money Too Big To Fail
We don’t believe in the “too big to fail” mantra and so there’s no reason why the big banks can’t work for the consumers. We also understand that, as cliché as it sounds, time actually is money so you won’t find any articles or tips on the site that require hours of additional research or effort. Who doesn’t hate all the fine print and additional disclaimers that seem to permeate business today?
We want to educate and encourage our readers to make better decisions with how to spend their money and as consumers ourselves, we know that it’s easy to get overwhelmed by too many details or instructions, so the information on the site will be straightforward.
We welcome reader comments and encourage readers to send in tips that work for them – we will gladly post ideas submitted by readers and even give you a shout out. One deposit at a time, we can all make a difference – make a difference in our own financial security, a difference in our community and a difference in the economy as a whole.
Our Older Backstory:
The Move Your Money project is a nonprofit campaign that encourages individuals and institutions to divest from the nation’s largest Wall Street banks and move to local financial institutions.
Our project was started around a dinner table before Christmas by Arianna Huffington and a few friends as a discussion of how individuals could limit the power of the big banks and create a more sane, stable financial system. The solution was simple: move your money out of the “Too Big To Fail” banks and into local community banks and credit unions. These smaller financial institutions are typically more conservative about how they manage their money, they’re more closely connected to the people and businesses who live near them and they’re more inclined to make loans they know will get paid back. In other words, they have the values that more people would want banks to have. Plus, they tend to have fewer fees and offer better returns for consumers. It’s neither a conservative nor liberal idea; just a way for individuals to vote with their dollars and create a better financial landscape.
Thanks in part to a great video, in part to its simplicity and in part to the thousands of people who have taken up the cause, the idea spread like wildfire. More than 150 different media outlets have covered the campaign, from major sources like CNN and ABC World News to small-town newspapers and student weeklies. Major politicians and celebrities like Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Bill Maher, Michael Moore, and Alan Cumming have endorsed the idea, and large national organizations are hopping on board to take our message to their members (check out our Campaigns page to see whom we’re working with).
In our short existence, we’ve had some amazing success. An estimated two million people have left their big banks in the first three months of 2010, and even more, are on their way. A Zogby poll showed that nine percent of American adults had moved some of their money away from the big banks in protest, and a JD Power and Associates survey revealed that almost two-thirds of consumers would consider leaving their bank. As a result of all this moving, local banks and credit unions are opening record numbers of new accounts.
We started out as an all-volunteer operation, but as the idea has taken off we’ve realized the need to grow. We are now organized as a nonprofit and are raising money to help hire a few staffers and give them the support they need. If you can, please consider making a donation below.
Thanks for stopping by. We hope this idea will continue to spread in a thousand different ways.
More news and info about MoveYourMoneyProject.org: