Scaling Impact

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E45: How to Leverage Technology to Amplify Impact with Compass Working Capital’s Markita Morris-Louis

In this episode, the CEO of Compass Working Capital Markita Morris-Louis talks about what an asset-building model looks like, how to fund a company’s growth, and how you can leverage technology to amplify your impact.

Markita Morris-Louis is an experienced Leader with a demonstrated history of working in various fields including the financial services industry, housing and community development, and the performing arts.

Markita is now the CEO of Compass Working Capital, a nonprofit financial services organization whose mission is to support families with low incomes to build assets as a pathway out of poverty and toward financial stability. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact:

  • How to tackle poverty by providing access to assets.
  • What an asset-building model looks like.
  • How to create a culture focused on high standards.
  • Different ways you can scale a business.
  • How to fund a company’s growth.
  • How you can leverage technology to amplify your impact.
  • Ways to expand bottleneck problems.

Resources:

Connect with Markita Morris-Louis:

Connecting with the host:

Quotables:

  • 5:01 – “We all need assets in order to invest in our future and move our family forward but unfortunately many families with low incomes are living in asset poverty which basically means that they don’t have enough assets to cover even 3 months of basic living expenses without income so if you experience a disruption in income, you lose your job or your hours are reduced most families that kind of situation turns into a full-blown financial calamity.”
  • 5:36 – “40 percent of Americans don’t have access to 400 dollars in case of an emergency and we’re definitely thinking about how can we change our society, change our economy, so that family with low incomes can have access to these assets that will allow them to move out of poverty, think long term, dream and set aspirations for their family.”
  • 21:15 – “We were planning a launch of a remote service pilot and then the universe gave us the ideal laboratory to test all our remote service theories because we were trying to understand can we do our financial coaching work and service delivery work to family in a completely remote environment.”
  • 25:14 – “One of the team members once they learned the work they were going to be doing at Compass the way they described it is like I can’t not do this work, I have to do this, this is so important and such a good fit for me and everything about what I want to do and I hear that stuff all the time from your team and I know that is a huge component of your leadership, the team that you built, all the amazing people at compass the way that you think about solving these problems on such a scale to drive amazing impact.”
  • 33:15 – “There are traps to fall into which you describe so well, technology doesn’t make up for a broken or missing process, you have to have a process first and foremost that’s fundamental to everything that you’re doing, technology can help you do it faster, more cost-effectively, more efficiently to reach greater scale if you leverage it the right way you don’t need to go down those rabbit holes you don’t need to spend a lot, you can do a lot with a little so if you feel yourself spinning your wheels, getting stuck, budget overruns, it’s taking too long stuff like that if you’re experiencing any of that kind of stuff you’re doing it wrong.”