Former Fellow Founds Organization to Fight Poverty
By Julie Saksa
PP55 Intern
Sherry Riva ’92 is a former Princeton Project 55 fellow whose fellowship experience helped direct her to where she has landed right now: helping Boston’s working, low-income families find economic security. An entrepreneur, Riva founded Compass Working Capital in 2004 and was incorporated in 2005. Riva says now, “I love the work – families, program development, policies that help families build wealth.”
The road to beginning her own start-up organization began with Riva’s Princeton University education and the opportunity to pursue a fellowship. Riva graduated with a major in religion, and completed a fellowship in Chicago at La Rabida Research & Policy Center, working with advocacy and public policy programs specializing in services to children and child welfare programs.
Interested in advocacy and public policy after her fellowship experience, Riva went back to school at Trinity in Ireland, receiving a double master’s degree in ecumenical studies and public policy. She moved back to Boston and worked for a short time with a state child welfare organization, and also served as a PP55 mentor for a fellow in Boston.
Riva’s next job moved her to Seattle, where at 28 years old she served as the Executive Director of Jubilee, a transitional shelter for women who are homeless. She ran the shelter for more than two years, and also hired a PP55 intern for one summer.
Riva moved back to Boston, and while she raised her young family, she jumped back into the community at Project 55, serving for three years as the director of the Social Venture Fund, a PP55 program that worked to identify emerging social entrepreneurs and invested in those they felt were capable of leading a non-profit organization.
The Robinson Family, one of the families who has benefited from the organization Sherry Riva '92 founded, Compass Working Capital.
The idea for her organization started from Jubilee and the shortcomings of the shelter system. “I felt like a lot of the women who left the shelter were still a few precarious steps away from poverty,” Riva says. She attended a conference and heard a speaker talk about asset-building as an anti-poverty program. The idea grew, and combined with what she had learned about entrepreneurship from the social venture fund, Riva took the leap and started her own organization to help fight poverty among Boston’s low-income working families.
Founded in 2005, Compass Working Capital builds on the principles of a national asset development movement. Compass’ web site notes that, “Broad-based asset building is widely seen as one of the most effective strategies to help working poor individuals and families enter the financial mainstream and achieve the American dream.”
Compass provides financial education about how to save, and offers matched savings accounts for small businesses, first homes, and college educations. Compass looks at net worth rather than income as a way to address poverty, and operates on the premise that building wealth – such as owning a home – is better than merely transferring income – such as giving out food stamps to low-income families.
Riva is full of advice for budding entrepreneurs and new university graduates, urging discernment of what truly interests new graduates: “I think it’s really important to think about the issues you feel most passionate about, and connect with organizations with really high-quality people.”
Riva knows that, “on the entrepreneur side, the road will be so bumpy,” and the more experience and preparation an individual has, the better they will be able to handle the bumps. And Sherry Riva has done just that, maneuvering the bumps to successfully start her own organization, helping Boston’s working low-income families achieve their dreams.
To learn more about Compass Working Capital, visit their new web site at www.compassworkingcapital.org.