What a nail-biting finish to the year! Last night (Dec 29, 2022), President Biden signed into law Secure Act 2.0, including workplace emergency savings – hooray!
With that lead unburied, we can finally wrap up the year and celebrate all that we’ve done and accomplished.
Thank you for following us – learning why we are so passionate about this mission to truly enable financial well-being and wealth in all working Americans, not just those that can afford it. Without the immeasurable support of our early customers and Savers, investors and advisors, partners and cheerleaders, we certainly wouldn’t have come this far. You make us slightly less delusional!
Emergency savings will boom in 2023 – and we’re poised for a breakout year
From small businesses to household brand names, we’re excited to have signed a record number of new clients this year. We’re only just getting started – with our best-in-class platform, SOC 2 Type 2 certification, and upcoming MBE designation, we’re poised for a breakout year with enterprise- and mid-market-led growth.
And all of that growth is not in isolation. As a former academic, I know the power of data and knowledge, and we’re excited to analyze and report out what’s working well and where we will need to improve. A big thank you to our non-profit and foundation partners – to be previewed soon – for this opportunity to build better.
How employees saved for emergencies this year
If the last couple years have hit our physical and mental health, this year in particular has made us all too aware of our financial health. We saw greater demand for saving and tapping those funds when needed.
We are proud to see that on average, employees had balances of $1,735 as they ended 2022, well above the oft-cited $400 statistic. Given that a disproportionate number of our employee participants are BIPOC and female, we’re especially happy to see these balances given our Sunny Day Fund’s 2022 data report found that 51% of Black respondents had access to less than $1,000 in liquid savings.
This is a huge step making wealth equitable and accessible for working Americans.
We also saw withdrawals – which need to be celebrated! Sunny Day Fund is there to be tapped when needed, and our behavioral guardrails help employees understand that these savings are there exclusively for emergencies and their planned goals.
We saw those withdrawals, especially in the middle and end of the year. While we expect the average number of withdrawals to be greater in actuality (given mid-year sign-ups), it was eye-opening to see that the average withdrawal was roughly $300, again harkening back to that oft-cited $400 statistic.
Read how the program is working at Alleghany for more data insights and testimonials.
Awarded best emergency savings benefit design
We also picked up a couple awards this year, starting with winning Best Emergency Savings Design at HXD2022, by Mad*Pow and Commonwealth, a leading researcher on workplace emergency savings. Thank you so much for this recognition of building a solution with our employee users!
That hyper-focus on financial and digital inclusion also earned us a spot in the distinguished Inclusive Fintech 50, where we were one of only three companies representing the US.
Sunny Day Fund was also thrilled to participate in top accelerator programs: The Financial Solutions Lab, MassChallenge FinTech, and InsurtechNY. The enterprise partners and mentors developed through these networks will be yielding big results in 2023!
Finally, we also got our SOC 2 Type 2 Certification – streamlining our ability to work with more mature organizations with IT, legal, and other assurances. It also further distinguishes us in the market.
Back in person: Sunny Day Fund hit the road in 2022
The team would always joke with me because I’d still wear a dress shirt at home for Zoom calls. But now we got to actually dress up for in-person! Check out a few of the many events we spoke at this year – shout out to Ben Hays, Rachel Fox, and others for joining us on the road.
And for those that focus on financial health in the workplace, please make sure to read my reflections from Financial Health Network’s EMERGE Conference.
Sunny Day Fund in the news and airwaves
We keep learning of all the places our customers, Savers, and broker partners mention us in the news, and we want to thank all of them (and you!) for keeping us top of mind. We’re so grateful to you.
Here’s a selection of news stories featuring Sunny Day Fund:
- The New Employer Benefit: Matching Emergency Savings – The Wall Street Journal
- Your Employees Want Financial Independence, Here’s What Your Company Can Do To Help – Forbes, May 2022
- Emerging Brands: Kevin hart’s new restaurant hart house aims to reinvent fast food, and not by being plant based – Restaurant Business Online, Sept 2022
- Double-clicking on Emergency Savings – Massena Associate, Dec 2022
And for those long drives back home:
- Sid Pailla on The Stakeholder Podcast, Jan 2022
- Financial Equity & Inclusion with Sid Pailla – Inclusion Catalyst, Dec 2022
- Inspired Impact: Sid Pailla – Orapin Public Relations, Dec 2022
How about a couple featuring Rachel Fox, our amazing new head of Business Development?
- How to Be Open About Finances – with Girls that Invest author Simran Kaur – Suswati Basu Podcast: How to Be…, Nov 2022
- How to make saving for emergencies easy! – Strategies Options and Solutions Podcast, Oct 2022
A big thank you to our growing, mission-delusional team
A product may not be hard to build, but a company – with a culture and drive, aligned with a fierce mission – certainly is. Thank you to all of our team members, advisors, and mentors for helping us get to this milestone.
Please continue to follow us on LinkedIn so that you can share our new job posts and perhaps even join us one day!
Sunny Day Fund is excited for 2023!
Here’s to our Savers, our employers for rewarding that behavior, and our policymakers for joining the fun! Together, we’re achieving financial well-being for all.
Cheers to sunny days ahead in 2023! Follow along on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
