Our society is built upon systems of trust; such as social security and credit scores. However, many are unable to participate in these systems due to lack of documentation, no entry into building credit, or just poor understanding of these systems resulting in bad credit. Mission Asset Fund provides tools and knowledge to help these individuals get back on track financially and with their dreams. They do this via a no-interest, no-fee, low-risk loan system called a Lending Circle and through in-person financial classes to learn better financial habits.
What is a Lending Circle? Simply a group of people who, each month, puts in a set amount of money. Then one person in that group gets a payday of the cumulative total paid in that month. This continues each month until every person gets their lump sum. As a result, everyone has paid off the loan from each other. This repayment is reported to the Credit Bureaus by MAF each month for each participant.
Codepath-MAF was tasked with helping these systems and tools scale so the MAF Lending Circles could reach more of those who can benefit from them. We accomplished this by providing an app with the following:
- real-time updates from MAF staff for check in, payment reminders, etc
- communication between participants for social trust building and encouragement
- building good habits around spending by consciously tracking spending habits with regular reminders to input what you’ve spent
- further building those habits with financial goal setting (including the lending circle) related to what you spend
Available on iOS and Android.
Beyond MAF, we built this app for the general user who may simply want to get smarter about tracking their money and accomplish their financial goals; whether that be save up for a new phone, go on a vacation, or pay off school debt.
For detailed specifics of each app check their READMEs here: