An Immigrant’s Mission to Lead Social Change through Financial Self-Sufficiency

Michael Mendenhall: Welcome to PeopleForce Podcast by TriNet, I'm your host, Michael Mendenhall. TriNet is a full-service HR solutions company, committed to empowering small to medium-size businesses, by supporting their growth and enabling their people. We work with amazing small to medium-size businesses, and I'm excited to bring their stories and voices here to life. You can catch new episodes of PeopleForce Podcast every month on Apple, Spotify, YouTube and Rise.TriNet.com.

Today I have the pleasure of introducing José Quiñonez, CEO of a nonprofit company called, Mission Asset Fund. José also serves on several consumer advisory boards, for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, U.S. Bank, Experian and Capital One. When he came to the U.S. at a young age, he saw firsthand the difficulties immigrants faced, when trying to make ends meet. Especially without a credit score, or access to banking services. He took this financial adversity and sought to improve it by creating a new model based on the Mexican Tanda system. Today, the Mission Asset Fund organization helps low-income families, by facilitating zero interest lending and simultaneous credit building. Recently, during COVID, José’s passion to support underserved, resulted in raising $36 million to help 50,000 people, with direct cash assistance. José, I want to thank you so much for being here.

José Quiñonez: Well, thanks for having me Michael, I mean it has been an honor.

Michael: Wanted to go back I mean, you have such an interesting life and career, and I wanted to go all the way back to where you grew up, who inspired you, who mentored you at an early age that got you sort of down this path. And maybe, you were looking to do something else? And then this led to a different path and a lot of times careers zigzag and passions change. So I'd love to go all the way back, talk about you know, who influenced you as you were growing up, and what led you to this. And if you had other interests and then those changed, based on you seeing things that were maybe alarming to you.

José: Yeah, no, thanks with the question, I mean I do think about that a lot. I mean because I think, when you're in a space for social change, you have to know exactly what is motivating you to do this work. Because this is not easy work. I mean you're trying to change, you know, a world to make it a better place to allow for people to improve their lives, you know, outside of our own. You know, it takes a lot, it takes a lot from individuals, so I have to think about that all the time. And you know, for me, you know, as an immigrant, I was born in Mexico, came to this country when I was nine years old, 1980, you know, came here undocumented. So that was like the life that I knew as I was growing up. I mean I was taught to you know, to stay hidden, you know, to be little, to make myself small, to like not you know, not ask for help.

I mean I was even taught to like not even talk to the teachers because of our immigration status. I mean for me, that all changed in 1986, when President Reagan signed an amnesty law that allowed my family to come out of that situation. And thankfully, I was 15 at the time, I was able to continue on with my schooling, my education without any hiccups. But I remember those lessons of like, you know don't make yourself seen, you know stay in the shadows, stay on the margins, just you know, work and keep your head down. But soon enough, I realized like we can't do that for everybody, right? And because we, you know, that was gonna deprive people of being fully ourselves. And so everything that I've done in my career has really been about, how can we allow more people to be fully themselves. You know, in the way that I was able to sort of experience it, you know, in my early days.

Michael: It's such a great example when you think of immigration, you know, we were all immigrants, and you know, quickly started to contribute to the economy. And I think you're just a great example of an immigrant who has given back so much, to not only to socially, but also to the economy, and I think it's just a great example. When you were growing up, was there someone that influenced you, who mentored you when you were 15, 16?

José: Yeah.

Michael: You're thinking about college, and now you've gotten to a point where you can come out, you can be public, you can participate. Who influenced you?

José: You know, there was many people along my journey, and you know, that were critical in very different junctures. You know, from teachers in high school, to people that you know, saw my potential even before I saw it myself. Or you know, I mean for example, there was one advisor, who after I was a part of this you know student movement at UC Davis at that time. And I came, I went to her office to kind of get some advice on what to think about after I graduated UC Davis. And I remember walking into her room, you know, trying to you know, I was open to all possibilities, and she basically asked me like, "Well, what do you wanna do after you graduate?" And I was like, "Well ma'am, I might go to you know, Sacramento State, you know, get a master's, work in Sacramento or something like that." And then she like looked at me, like literally just shook me and basically like, "No, you are much better than that. You're gonna go to Princeton and here's what you're gonna do. Here's what's gonna happen." And she like literally like laid out all the things I needed to do in order to present, you know, a great application, right. And then this is, to me, at that point, I didn't even know what Princeton was. That was not part of my upbringing, if you will, right? You know, but she, instead of saying, "Oh, that sounds great, you can go to Sacramento State," blah, blah, blah.

And, you know, if, if I would've done that, you know, it would've been fine. I think I would've found a fine life as well. But she saw so much more, you know, of me, right? And so she was able to sort of connect all the dots and help me sort of think about myself in that situation. And then, that actually happened two or three years later. I applied for you know, for a master's program at Princeton, you know, and they accepted me. And so I was able to sort of you know, have that experience as well. But that wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for this advisor, who saw much more of me than I did of myself at that moment.

Michael: Well that's probably because you, you were hidden for so long and you were told not to, not to, to do any of this. And you know, that probably affected that. What were you studying? So when you, when you were in high school, and you were going to college, what interest did you have? Was it, was it in mathematics? Was it in engineering?

José: You know early on I wanted to be a doctor, that was my thing. I was gonna, you know, get a medical degree. And it was all because I saw this, this show about Doctors Without Borders, you know, when I was in high school. I saw this beautiful program about them. I was like, oh my God, I wanna do that, I wanna be a doctor and travel the world and help people all over the world, right? To me, he just sounded like magical to kind of do that. And, and I did. And so also when I applied to UC Davis, like that was my stated purpose in life. Like, I wanna be a doctor so I can join this organization and help people all over the world. And they, they bought that idea, right? But as soon I, you know, I was at Davis and I started taking all those, you know, science courses. I'm like, maybe not. I couldn't. I was like, I don't know if I can.

Michael: Too, too much chemistry in biology.

José: Yeah. Yeah, it was too much. I was like, I can't even pronounce this word, so maybe that was not the thing. But by that point however, I thought, "Oh, it cannot be the doctor, I can actually be the executive running that organization. You know and I had that sort of like mindset to say, "I don't have to give up what I really want to do, which is help people." I, you know, figuring out that there's different ways of doing so. So instead of being the doctor, I could actually be the person running the nonprofit. So it kind of changed my perspective as, okay, I can still do what I wanna do. Ultimately, it's about being of service to people, people that need, you know, people that need help.

Michael: Did you throughout any of this, whether it was college or just thereafter, experienced discrimination?

José: I mean yeah, you know that happens all the time, right? You know to me being an immigrant, being a person of color, you know I was feeling slightly you know, outside of the norm, right? It happens. And you know, but I'm of the mindset that you know, I am here for a purpose. I'm here to do something specific, and because of that I always look for people that are gonna help me. Even because of that, that I've always found people that give me good advice, give me suggestions, some more of myself than I did. People that help me, you know find my own way. And I never got stuck with you know, people that didn't like me, or people that were discriminating, nor did I get stuck in that feeling of being discriminated against, right?

That was not what I got stuck in, because I always knew that, it's like if people only saw me as being Mexican, that is like the least that they know about me. You know what I'm saying? If they only knew, right? If you only knew Eddie, but they don't, right? So I only sort of like, you know forgave them, even because of that. You know but to me, I didn't get stuck. Like I have bigger things I need to do in life, you know that life is short and I know my energy is short, so please get out of the way so that I can actually do the thing I need to do. And honestly that was really the driver of all of my career. From you know, going to Princeton, to working for a member of Congress. For working with a lot of national organizations, you know throughout my earlier career. Even started in MAF, you know when you started in the Mission Asset Fund, we definitely had the sort of ideas, like look we're here to prove something bigger. We're not just here to you know, do conventional wisdom, or do that. We're trying to demonstrate something bigger than this, and we need the time and space and resources. So, we were able to align ourselves with people that wanted to help make that happen.

Michael: Do you think 'cause you know, right now we just see this polarization certainly happening in Washington. You are a nonprofit you're looking for funds, there's regulations around what you do, I'm sure as well, being that you're in finance, is it getting better or worse? So this idea of discrimination, the polarization, has that affected your nonprofit, and do you think, 'No, we've improved,' you have some extremist, but we've improved really in this area?

José: I mean both things are happening right, things are getting worse for people. I mean just reading, you know a situation in Florida, for example. You know there's a lot of immigrants that are really scared to come out of their homes right now, I mean. I can go down the list, and I don't want to turn the conversation into that. But the situation is getting bad, but at the same time you know, there are a lot of people that with good hearts, people that want to help, there are a lot of companies, you know foundations, corporations, individuals, you know that also see that best of America, the best of who we are as a people, as a country, as a nation, that wanted to help. And because of that, you know they sort of see MAF, as being a conduit to doing so. Were sort of like a vehicle to deliver resources to the people that need it.

So in that sense you know, this if for MAF, we're doing so much more work now, then ever before. It's not that we're just out there looking for money, because it's more like, we're here to help people in a very specific way. In way we can uplift them, we can, you know do it from a point of respect in building that dignity, so that those individuals can continue living life, right? In a way that is meaningful you know for them. So both those elements are there, but I think for me, what gives me hope in this work, is that there are still a lot of people that want to do what's good for our country. And I think we wanna be in the right side of history in that sense. And we need to continue that fight, right? Because it's not like, you know, civil rights happen or these laws were passed and then we're done. It's like, no, this is a constant effort that we all have to be a part of. And I'm glad that, you know, we have something like the Mission Asset Fund to actually make that a reality for people.

Michael: You mentioned you know, you were in Congress, but you've been on boards, you know you've worked with the Federal Reserve in San Francisco. Did all of those experiences, those sort of zigzags around, help you now with Mission Asset Fund? In how you organized and how you deployed it operationally? Was that really a great experience then, all of those adding up to what you're doing now?

José: Yeah, definitely. I mean, my mode is this is like, you know, I'm learning something from the work that we’re doing in terms of how we're engaging, you know, poor people. And those insights, those lessons, and I'm trying to bring impact, bring it to every table that I sit. Whether it's being the chair of the advisory council for the San Francisco Federal Reserve, or now I consider another one with the Treasury Department, trying to advise them on how to deal with racial equity. Like I bring those lessons to whatever table I'm at, because I think we as a society as government, as a civil society, we really don't know how to help poor people. We've been in this "war on poverty" forever, and we're still in it, right? And so I sort of see myself as a messenger.

Michael: And some of it isn't just about giving them money.

José: No, right.

Michael: We tend to think you know, give them a check and we're done and off we go. And I think it's so much more than that. Talk to us about that.

José: Yeah, no. It's exactly right. I mean of course money is important, every dollar, it has to be about that. There's also another element about helping people, you know build their, you know personal development, I mean we talk about it at MAF, as self-advocacy. You know, that we're trying to provide people with advice, natural advice and training. But it's in a way that's about building their self-advocacy, because they're the ones that are gonna be like, living with themselves for the rest of their lives.

So we try to make sure that they feel a lot more empowered. I feel a lot more you know, assured of themselves, so that whenever they walk into a bank, or whatever financial institution, they can do so with a spring in their step, right? And demand the best rates, you know the rates that we would want, right? And so do it in a way that they can you know, build themselves up. Because once that happens, that actually is a benefit, not to just that individual, but it actually is a benefit to us as a society and the economy, right? Because now their dreams can be financed, there's more business get to start up capital. You know they can buy and get them mortgaged to buy that house, they can get the loan to get the cars and so forth, right? But it's about building themselves as people, as individuals so that they can demand the best treatment possible.

Michael: You've said something that I think is important, we do need more dreamers and more visionaries, and a lot of times that does come from the diversity, and the population. I want you to talk a little bit about your company. The mission, the purpose and talk about what you do, so that the listeners really know, what you're doing there on the ground in the Mission District in San Francisco.

José: The Mission Asset Fund, what we've been doing for the past 15 years is to try to help low-income immigrants, build and improve their financial lives by helping them become active and visible and successful in the financial marketplace. And so what we're doing, is basically finding different new ways, of making their lives better, by creating products and services like lending circles, immigration loans and other products that really appeal to their needs, specific needs. And what we found was that, and for a lot of poor people, not just immigrants, but poor people in general, they really are what I call like the secondary users of financial products and services in the marketplace. You know 'cause they're not really the ones that the banks and credit unions and other lenders redesign products for, right? So have to sort of make do, with whatever products that are out there, and there's always like a misalignment because of that.

So what we're trying to demonstrate is that actually when you build products with that in mind, guess what? More than likely they are going to be successful, they are gonna pay back, you know our repayment rate for lending circles, is like 99%. We have like less than 1% default rate on such loans, which is incredible news in our financial marketplace. I mean the national, the normal default rate in the market lender's space is more like 15 to 20%. So for us to kind of get a 1% default rate is incredible. But really I attribute the fact, well we built this product for this specific community, they're the primary users, and because of that they're being a lot more successful. And so we ask the question, can you imagine if we did that of a lot of other aspects of their lives like building our health systems around their need to work, our school systems around their need, or even housing around their needs, instead of them being the secondary users of those products. And so we're trying to learn a lot from what we're building, at MAF, and in doing so, in a way that actually expand people's understanding and vision of what's possible and helping poor people achieve their potential.

Michael: And how many people have you served?

José: Yeah, we work with close to a 100,000 people, over the course of the years, providing them with small dollar loans of $1,000, you know $500 a time. And sometimes we do provide, emergency grants during COVID. We mentioned, you know we did emergency grants project, to help people that were left out of the federal assistance. We also right now, we have a guarantee income program, for families that need a little more help to kind of get back in to the fray, if you will. And so overall, we helped close to a 100,000 people. Now and I say that, you know and for some people, sounds like a lot, 'cause it is a lot for a nonprofit level. You know but we proudly demonstrate that by showing up in a way that is meaningful, and build the products that our helping people, you know people do respond back. And they engage with us, they work with us, and they really are, you know, making lives better because of it.

Michael: I thought it was interesting, your offices are right on the street, in the Mission District in San Francisco, people can just walk in. Do you have people that do just walk in?

José: Yeah, all the time. You know that's why we're here. I mean to me we are an embedded community, we're in-community, and really that's the way we learn from them. What is happening community, what are they grappling with? What are they struggling with? And from those conversations, from those engagements, you know we're building the products and services like and end scale at the national level. So being, you know, rooted in the Mission District, is really important to us, but then we turn those insides into products. You know we’re using what I call the best of technology, and the best of finance to help poor people, throughout the country. But those lessons really come from, our engagements with people right here on the street, the people that just walk in through our doors right now.

Michael: That's terrific. But I wanted to call out also, you've expanded, you're not just in the San Francisco Bay area. You've now expanded more nationally. Talk a little bit about that.

José: Yeah, that's exactly right. So we started our work in the Mission District, to serve folks in the Mission in San Francisco. It's a vibrant community, it's a gateway, we're a community has been like that for generations. I mean during early 1900's, there was a high wave of immigrants, Mission District was their home. You still see remnants of what happened here. And so every wave of immigrants, have made the Mission District their home. But what we did was, let's build products and services here, but use technology to that scale nationally. So we're scaling our work, but with the office in the mission as a physical presence, but we're scaling nationally by partnering with other organizations and other communities throughout the country. And so the way we're doing that, is basically we're a franchising our products and services, our technology, so that other nonprofit and other communities, they don't like have to replicate everything. We basically say, "Here's the product. Here's the service." And we help them implement in their respective community. So through that network approach, is what I call a network approach, to scale, we've been able to take what we're learning in the mission, and help individuals all across the country.

Michael: So your organization has grown. I mean you have been very successful as a nonprofit. You started small, I want you to talk about that, and you've grown. Who do you look for? How do you hire and how do you retain? 'Cause so much today is about retention as well, so it's about finding the right people, retaining them, certainly in an economy, where fully employed, even today. So talk to us a little bit about that, how you built the organization, structured it, find people and retain them.

José: That is an important question, I mean that's kind of getting into the mechanics of running any nonprofit, or full profit company, for that matter. Because it is about what are we providing, what are we doing, and how do you attract the talent, the passion, you know the people that are committed to what we're doing here at MAF. So one of the things that we did early on, I mean even while we look for TriNet, our HR provider, was to say that look we don't, like I don't wanna think about HR, I don't wanna think about payroll. I just wanna bring the money and pay people, right? But really it was really quite benefit for me personally, we needed to make sure that I had the right benefits package you know, for staff, because we we're competing with other tech companies in San Francisco.

So we needed to make sure, that we were at least competitive to attract people. Or not make them less, you know, or make staff worse off, you know, financially because they're working for a nonprofit. And so being a part of of TriNet allowed us to say, "Hey, we have the best packages, you know we are gonna make sure that you are taken care of," and doing so in a professional manner, and exactly in the way we wanna be treated. So that was critical, right? Now in terms of hiring people, I mean that's always hard. I mean how do we find the right talent, the right skill set, and doing it in a way that we can apply for our mission, in a nonprofit mission.

And that's an ongoing process, because there's a lot of young people, young professionals that wanna work for nonprofit, and gain that experience, and a lot of them after they get that experience, they move on. And we sort of accepted that idea, You know we are either training a lot of people that go to other nonprofits, work for government or work for other companies, but at least they are getting that sense of providing a service to people that stays with them, even throughout their careers. But we still have to do that, we have to train people, we have to find people, we have to onboard them and so forth. And now because of COVID, we were able to do that on a national level. And once again we're trying that, it was very helpful. Now we can hire people in whatever state, and no matter where they are, as long as their talents match up with our needs. But it is an ongoing effort, ongoing struggle, but thankfully you know we have the tools to make it happen, and make it happen in a very seamless way.

Michael: Do you find that the younger generations, the millennials or the Gen Xs, are far more interested in the nonprofit sectors, about really fixing things they see socially, fixing things with the environment, that they are more engaged, than maybe the baby boomers. Or now it's really just finding the right people that have a passion for what you're doing?

José: I like to think that you know, I think the Gen Z gives me a lot of hope in the future. I mean every time I see, you the Gretas of the world, really fighting you know, for environmental rights, I mean it gives me so much hope, I mean it really does, I mean even my own daughter. She's 15 and you can't, like I like to talk with her, or argue, but I always lose the arguments. Yes, I always lose. But so I definitely feel hopeful in this generation, and that's why, you know from where I stand, I want MAF to be a great experience for people that come in, and they work for MAF, so that they can see what's possible, so we can uplift their hope and desire to do more. Because I think you know, we're at the point where we definitely need change. We need generational change, we need a difference in vision and perspective, and I cannot wait for that generation to basically take over the reins. You for them to take them because I think their imaginations are infinitely more expansive than ours. So we're gonna be like that bridge frankly. So I wanna do my part to make sure that bridge is solid, you know so they're not as jaded as we may be, our generation at this point.

Michael: Not as much baggage.

José: Exactly. Not as much baggage. You know and do my part in that sense. But I am hopeful, I'm learning a lot from them in terms of how to use technology. I mean that generation basically grew up in the cloud, what I call, they grew up using all these platforms. You know for me as an advocate, you know I'm making that happen. But I definitely do see their desire for change. And they're also very impatient, which I love, because we need change now. You know but I love…

Michael: Are you engaged in all the social channels with Mission Asset to get it into that generation and have them engaged?

José: Oh yeah definitely. We do our best in terms of being in all the social media space. But even in just the folks in MAF staff, there is a sense of urgency to do things fast, which is great. I guess what I contribute to that conversation, is making sure that we keep our clients front and center. That we keep our community front and center to everything that we do. So that way we're building for them, not just building for ourselves yet again.

Michael: Well, where can people, because you have such a great organization. It's growing, it's contributing, it's hopefully changing socially, how people think about funding people, who they may consider to be in poverty. Where can they go to contribute, if they wanted to give. You know hey, if it's $10, $50, whatever it is, where can they go to do that?

José: Yeah thank you for posing that question, and they can definitely go to missionassetfund.org. And there's a donate button, that they'll see on our…

Michael: Right there? Is it right up front?

José: It's upfront. You know it's not hard, you might have to scroll a little bit. But please donate, provide some assistance. We basically take all those resources and give it right back to people in the form of either grants or support our loans, or even to support our technical assistance, that actually goes you know to develop, helping the people, self-advocacy, you know in training. So any help it is really meaningful and thank you for posing that question.

Michael: Well listen, thank you so much for spending time with us. I mean what a great opportunity for people to engage. And certainly, to learn about what you've done and what you've created. And the change and the legacy you have already made for many people. You know, congratulations to that, and we're honored to have you on the show.

José: Thank you, so much.

Michael: I want to remind everybody that our PeopleForce Podcast by TriNet is committed to helping small and medium-size businesses and their leaders with timely and relevant business content. The PeopleForce Podcast drops new episodes every month and we hope you continue catching our new episodes on Apple, Spotify, YouTube and Rise.TriNet.com. To get relevant SMB news and info, make sure you subscribe to our podcast and to our newsletter at TriNet.com/insights.