How It Works

Prosper operates through group-based programs at specific workplaces and locations. This allows us to provide in-person support and keep the program simple and effective.

We partner with employers and local communities using criteria that is simple, fair, and cost-effective. We focus on hourly and low wage workers who struggle most with savings. 

First, participants must be considered low-income earners in their respective communities. This means participants must make minimum or near minimum legal wages.

Second, participants must commit to save money every month. The amount they save is up to them.

Third, participants must invest their savings and match in publicly-traded companies every month.

Empowering low-income earners to make their own savings and investment decisions aligns with our core belief of respect.

Each worker typically receives a monthly match of up to 10% of their salary.

For example, if a worker saves $100 per month, then we will match with $100 per month. The amounts vary depending on if workers are full or part-time and how much they can afford to save every month.

Our goal is help workers save the equivilant of three months of living expenses, ensuring that they can meet their most basic needs and any short term emergencies like job loss or other unforseen expenses.

The amounts given will vary widely depending on the context and goal.

We make ongoing, monthly cash transfers and we inform recipients exactly how much they will receive and when during the enrollment process. 

In some cases like projects that include randomized controlled trials (RCT), we may give onetime to one group to compare results to another group that receives monthly.

Participants are eligible to receive monthly cash transfers for 12 months.

For example, if a worker saves 10% of their monthly income alone, then they should have enough to cover one month of living expenses in 10 months. However, with a monthly savings match from us, workers should be able to save in half that time.

Our goal is to help workers create a financial cushion for 3 months of living expenses and to establish an enduring savings habit.

Recipients are supposed to invest, not spend their cash transfers. If cash transfers are not invested, then recipients are no longer eligible to participate in our program. We allow some flexibility in participants are unable to save for one or two months.

Potentially. “Sustainable” interventions are ones that will continue to benefit the recipient in the long-term without needing ongoing support.

It takes an average of 66 days to form a new habit, with a range of 18 to 254 days depending on the complexity of the behavior and the individual. Our 12 month program provides a solid timeframe to form a good savings and investment habit.

We know that saving money consistently over time isn’t easy even for high income earners because people like to spend as much as they earn. Saving for a rainy day almost seems like an old fashioned idea, which is indicative of global spendthrift culture.

Besides long-term savings, participants use their cash transfers to invest in large cap companies like Apple, Google, and McDonald’s. This allows savings to grow over time and introduces participants to long-term asset ownership and appreciation.

We will study the outcomes of our projects, looking for the best possible ways to enable low income workers to save money and establish financial stability.

We intend to operate in the United States and select international locations.

Not yet.

We will assess new regions and communities that we can expand to, though we can’t guarantee when or whether we will be able to work in a given community or country.

We send recipients cash transfers directly to their bank or brokerage accounts.

We manage the program and we work with three types of partners.

• Employers who employ the workers participating in our program.

• Online investment platforms that facilitate trades.

• Donors that make our work possible.

The main corruption/fraud risks to our programs are:

• Manipulation of the list of eligible recipients

• Diversion of transfers sent to eligible recipients

To address the first risk, we implement a comprehensive audit process with multiple independent checks to ensure enrolled recipients are eligible. These checks include:

• In-person site visits to workplace

• In-person visits to meet, qualify, and teach recipients.

• Audits by senior management

To address the second risk, we use identity-matching between our records and those of our payment providers, and follow-up communication to ensure money reaches the intended recipients.

Consider a program giving food aid to people in poverty – the procurement process of finding a food producer is open to corruption, and the long journey the food takes from manufacturer to recipient is open to diversion at every step.

In a Rainy program, money is digitally transferred from our bank account directly to the recipient.

We still must carefully safeguard this process as risks remain. However, there are far fewer variables to monitor compared to other forms of aid.

We teach and demonstrate the financial markets, dollar-cost-averaging, and budgeting. We show participants how to purchase shares of publicly-traded companies and we fund their first stock market purchase.

We suggest that participants invest in large companies like Apple, Google, McDonalds, Ford, etc. However, participants can buy shares of any publicly traded company they like.

To encourage minimum portfolio diversification, participants should invest in at least 3 different companies.

Absolutely! Let's say you want to invest in a company, but its stock price is higher than what you can pay. Instead of buying a whole share of stock, you can buy a fractional share, which represents a partial share. 

For example, if a company's stock is selling at $1,000 a share and you were buying $100 worth of it, you would own 0.1 (10%) of a share. With fractional shares, investing is very accessible.

Managed funds provide quick and easy portfolio diversification.

However, we want participants to experience buying companies directly themselves, not indirectly thru funds.

We believe there is a deeper pyschological attachment to assets that are directly owned. We want participants to accumulate and hold, not sell.

No, we’re not a retirement fund. Retirement funds are a terrific way to save money and we encourage workers to take advantage of them.

We’re different than retirement funds for a few reasons:

• Our match doesn’t have a vesting period; the money we give participants is their immediately and not locked up.

• No distribution age. We don’t require participants to hold funds until they are retirement age. Consequently, our program has no special tax breaks or tax deferment.

• Our participants manage their own funds and trades. In retirement accounts, investments are usually managed by third parties.

• Our matching period expires in 12 months.

We invite and welcome researchers and policy makers to evaluate, study, publish, and co-design our projects.

We collect data sets from all of our projects and each project includes a group of 20+ plus participants (will increase in future), so there’s enough participants and data to to ask questions, experiment, draw conclusions, and make arguments.