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Celebrating its 20^th year, Bank of America’s signature Neighborhood Builders® program continues to be one of the nation’s largest philanthropic investments into nonprofit leadership development, while providing unique multiyear flexible grant funding annually to two high-impact nonprofits in nearly 100 communities nationwide. In Atlanta Bank of America has named Tommy Nobis Center (TNC) as a 2024 Neighborhood Builders for its work to provide youth and adults with disabilities with the training, education and resources needed to achieve their full potential through employment opportunities. The bank awarded Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (ANDP) for its work to develop, finance and advocate for affordable housing with a focus on declining neighborhoods.

Both Atlanta nonprofits are each awarded a $200,000 grant over two years, comprehensive leadership training for each organization’s executive director and an emerging leader, and access to a national network of nonprofit peers. Since the program’s inception in 2004, 42 nonprofits have been selected as Neighborhood Builders in Atlanta, with the bank investing more than $8 million in philanthropic capital into these nonprofits

“This year we celebrate 20 years of strengthening Atlanta nonprofits that provide solutions to local challenges and promote economic advancement,” said Al McRae, president, Bank of America Atlanta. “Providing these nonprofits with flexible funding and comprehensive leadership training helps them address critical needs and create meaningful, lasting change in our communities. Countless individuals, families and neighborhoods have felt the profound impact that these Neighborhood Builder nonprofits have had in Atlanta over the past two decades.”  

For more than 47 years, Tommy Nobis Center has changed the lives of individuals with disabilities through the advancement of its mission: “Empowering People Through Employment.” TNC works with youth and young adults with disabilities as they transition out of high school to identify and prepare to work in desired careers that allow for economic freedom and more independent living. Their robust educational services are offered at their Academy as well as their Early Youth Employment Services, while actively serving in more than 54 schools in metro Atlanta. This new grant funding will support the expansion into a new facility, enabling the organization to serve a greater number of individuals with disabilities throughout the metro Atlanta area

“Tommy Nobis Center is a real business solution for companies that want to have a well-rounded workforce,” said Dave Ward, president and CEO, Tommy Nobis Center. “Bank of America has been a long-standing partner to us for many years, and this grant will allow us to serve more people and change more lives.”

The Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership works to expand the city’s supply of affordable housing and revitalize disinvested neighborhoods. It has supported construction of more than 11,000 homes for people with low-to-moderate incomes, offering down payment assistance to buyers and helping them make connections to other housing support programs that make homeownership affordable. The bank’s funding will support ANDP’s single-family acquisition strategy. ANDP is the first nonprofit in the county to develop a first-look relationship with a large national investor to review homes prior to them being placed on MLS with the option to purchase them at a discount. ANDP will prioritize homes for immediate homeownership but is also poised to benefit from this unique market opportunity by expanding its single-family rental portfolio over the next 24 months.

“At a pivotal moment in our history, Bank of America partnered with us to refine our systems and grow the scale and production of our acquisition model,” said John O’Callaghan, president & CEO, Neighborhood Development Partnership. “Today, with Bank of America’s investments, we produce 100 homeownership/rental homes per year.

Neighborhood Builders is part of the bank’s longstanding efforts to build thriving communities by addressing issues fundamental to economic opportunity. The invitation-only program is highly competitive, with awardees selected by a committee comprised of community leaders and past awardees. Since 2004, Bank of America has invested over $300 million in grants to nearly 1,800 nonprofits and helped more than 3,500 nonprofit leaders strengthen their leadership skills in nearly 100 communities across the U.S. through Neighborhood Builders and Champions.

The Neighborhood Builders invitation-only program is highly competitive. Nonprofits are selected by a committee comprised of community leaders and past Neighborhood Builders awardees. The first markets Bank of America launched the Neighborhood Builders program in 2004 were: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Broward, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Hartford, Houston, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Newark, New York, Oakland, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa and Washington, DC.  

Past Atlanta Neighborhood Builders include East Lake Foundation, The Literacy Lab’s Leading Men Fellowship, Atlanta Beltline Partnership, Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs, Latin American Association, YWCA and Open Hand Atlanta. 

 The tech workforce saw modest movement in the latest national employment data, according to CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the tech industry and workforce.

Analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) #JobsReport data reveals the tech unemployment rate for the month fell slightly to 2.5%, matching the low end of the rate for 2024. The national unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.2% in November. 

Employment within the technology industry sector was essentially flat with a decline of 1,636 jobs for the month.¹The tech sector employs nearly 5.6 million people, which translates to a percentage decline of essentially 0%. 

Tech professions throughout the economy declined by 6,000 in a national workforce of nearly 6.5 million workers.²

“While a flat month in the aggregate as some employers take a breather, the data continues to highlight the diversity of hiring activity across the tech workforce,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer, CompTIA. “Across industry sectors, metro areas and company sizes harnessing tech talent remains a top priority.”

Active employer job postings for new hiring totaled more than 475,000 in November, down about 42,000 from October.³ Companies added nearly 184,000 new tech job postings last month, with employers in consulting, finance, manufacturing and technology hardware, software and services among the most active.

Artificial intelligence (AI) hiring momentum continues to build. In the aggregate employers recorded nearly 331,000 active job postings throughout 2024 in recruiting for AI job roles and AI skills, a year-over-year increase of 71%.

Across all tech occupations 44% of November postings did not specify a four-year degree requirement for applicants. Some occupations had notably higher percentages, including network support specialists (84%) and tech support specialists (71%).

The data indicates hiring for work from home (WFH) positions is holding steady at about 20% of total tech job recruiting. On a hiring activity volume basis, the top WFH positions include software developers, IT project managers, data scientists and analysts, tech support specialists, and systems analysts.

The “CompTIA Tech Jobs Report” is available at https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report.

Snappy’s 2024 Holiday Gifting Report reveals that holiday gifting has the potential to play a crucial role in building customer loyalty. According to the report, 65% of customer loyalty program members expressed a desire to receive holiday gifts from the brands they support, underscoring the growing importance of holiday gifting as a key driver of ongoing customer engagement and brand loyalty.

The Holiday Gifting Report also found that more than half of all respondents (52%) believe receiving a holiday gift from a brand significantly increases their loyalty, with an additional 38% reporting a somewhat increased sense of loyalty. Together, these findings indicate that 90% of loyalty program members feel more positively about a brand when they receive a holiday gift, suggesting that gifting is an important strategy for brands seeking to deepen connections with their customers.

More Key Findings From The Holiday Gifting Report:

• 57% of consumers are members of at least one customer loyalty program, with the majority participating in multiple programs. Of these, 50% are members of 3-5 loyalty programs, highlighting the competitive nature of maintaining brand loyalty.

• Despite their participation in membership programs, only 42% of loyalty members have ever received a holiday gift from a brand, indicating a missed opportunity for brands to engage with and recognize their most loyal customers.

Holiday Gifting as a Strategic Opportunity

Holiday gifting allows brands to differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded loyalty landscape. As the survey results suggest, companies that integrate strategic holiday gifting into their customer loyalty strategy can build stronger relationships, enhance retention, boost customer lifetime value, and create brand advocates.

This year’s holiday spending is expected to push the nation’s $1.17 trillion in household credit card debt even higher—and with rising debt, cardholders are increasingly at risk of falling behind on their payments.

A new analysis from Upgraded Points sheds light on credit card delinquency rates in the U.S., broken down by metro and state. Researchers ranked locations by the share of cardholders with severely delinquent debt as of Q4 2023, the latest data available.

Credit Card Delinquency in Georgia

• Last year, 16.5% of cardholders in Georgia had severely delinquent debt (90+ days overdue), the 3rd highest delinquency rate in the nation.

• The average credit card debt in Georgia was $6,757.

• Additionally, 33.3% of Georgia cardholders utilized more than 75% of their total credit, which can hurt credit scores and make it more difficult to secure loans or favorable interest rates in the future.

Access to credit is an important resource for managing personal finances, whether to pay for major purchases, serve as a bridge to cover regular expenses, or smooth out spending when something unexpected happens. But reliance on debt like credit cards can also mean racking up large balances that are hard to pay off.

In this tumultuous economy, rising financial pressures have caused more individuals to struggle with credit card payments, leading to higher delinquency rates and worsening financial strain. This analysis examines how credit card delinquency rates vary across the U.S., highlighting the regions and demographics most affected by financial instability.

For the full report visit upgradedpoints.com

Travel Growth Marketer Role

The Rise of Travel Growth Marketers The job title “growth marketer” is hot of late. Salaries are impressive, often above $100k. The role is created for growing visibility and reach, marketshare, sales, revenue, content, product improvement, and developing new types of customers. I like the idea of this role. The focus is on growth and…

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Business leaders registered a huge shift in positive sentiment about prospects for the U.S. economy and their own organizations in the wake of the recent U.S. presidential election, according to the fourth-quarter AICPA & CIMA Economic Outlook Survey. The quarterly survey polls chief executive officers, chief financial officers, controllers and other certified public accountants in U.S. companies who hold executive and senior management accounting roles.

Two-thirds (67%) of business executives said they were optimistic about the economy’s prospects over the next 12 months – a dramatic rise of 41 percentage points from the previous quarter. It’s the highest the measure has reached since early 2020, when it stood at 74 before cratering due to pandemic-related business shutdowns and travel bans.

Business executives’ outlook on the global economy also improved markedly, with those expressing optimism rising from 19% to 41%, quarter over quarter.

“Business executives say they’re looking forward to less regulation and more favorable tax policies and we’re seeing that optimism translate into higher profit expectations and revenue estimates,” said Tom Hood, AICPA & CIMA’s executive vice president for business engagement and growth. “Our first quarter 2025 survey, once the new administration’s policies actually begin to be put in place, will offer insight into whether the enthusiasm is sustainable or not.”

Inflation reclaimed the top spot for business concerns in the survey. Domestic political leadership, which has ranged from No. 4 to No. 7 on the list over the past three quarters, disappeared from the top 10 altogether.

The AICPA survey is a forward-looking indicator that tracks hiring and business-related expectations for the next 12 months. In comparison, the U.S. Department of Labor’s November employment report, scheduled for release tomorrow, looks back on the previous month’s hiring trends.

Other key findings of the survey:

• Revenue and profit expectations for the next 12 months both rose substantially. Revenue growth is now expected to be 3.3%, more than double the 1.5% projection last quarter. Profit projections are now 2.2%, up from 0.2% last quarter.

• Business executives who said they were optimistic about their own organization’s outlook over the next 12 months rose from 41% to 53%, quarter over quarter.

• A majority (57%) of survey respondents expect their businesses to expand over the next 12 months, up from 44% last quarter.

• Those who said they had too few employees rose from 29% to 38%. One-in-five said they were ready to hire immediately, up from 14% last quarter. Employee and benefit costs, availability of skilled personnel and staff turnover all remained top concerns for employers.

There are a lot of ways the ball can be dropped when it comes to your insurance. People often assume that they’re covered in ways they aren’t. If you’ve ever been in this position, you know how frustrating it is to have large and unexpected costs after an accident. Hear more on how Georgia Farm Bureau helps their members don’t drop the ball from Whitney Mooney, Associate Director of the Information and PR Department.