Operation HOPE Announces HOPE Program Results During Financial Literacy Month

More Than One Million Individuals Served to Date
LOS ANGELES--(Business Wire)--
Operation HOPE (HOPE) chose financial literacy month to highlight program
results, announcing today that its "silver rights" campaign to empower the
underserved has helped more than one million individuals move up the economic
ladder and has raised over a half billion dollars in historic grant funding and
community investment.

"Operation HOPE continues to bridge the economic gap, focusing our efforts on
educating the underserved consumer and empowering them with the language of
money. Seventeen years since inception, following the worst urban riot in U.S.
history, HOPE continues to stay focused on its original vision, mission, mandate
and on-the-ground work for people," said John Hope Bryant, HOPE founder,
chairman and CEO, who also has a role as vice chair on the President`s Advisory
Council on Financial Literacy. "Our achievements demonstrate our ability to
provide aspirationally relevant empowerment-based programs and services to
individuals, particularly in these challenging economic times."

For the past 17 years the organization has been putting financial literacy at
the forefront of the nation`s agenda, empowering both adult and youth in
financial literacy, through its core programs: HOPE Coalition America - the
financial emergency preparedness and recovery division, currently featuring the
Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline (888-388-HOPE); Banking on Our Future - the youth
financial literacy training portfolio; the HOPE Banking Center Network - brick
and mortar centers featuring internet access, credit management, home and small
business loans, and with strong support from our growing family of more than
8,000 HOPE Corps volunteers.

HOPE Results Report Card:

HOPE Coalition America (HCA)

* 2008 to date some 220 individuals and families claimed $662,760 in tax refunds
and Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC). Since program inception, HCA has assisted
over 4,500 people for total tax refunds claimed in excess of $12,600,000;
* Modified or restructured home loans for 775 homeowners for a total of
$226,476,780 through the Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline.

HOPE Banking Center Network (HBCN)

* Reached $415,284,363 in mortgage and small business purchase and refinance
loan approvals.
* Funded loans totaling $203,417,653 for home and small business.
* Provided financial literacy to 46,147 adults and counseled 19,891 through HOPE
Center financial education and credit counseling services.

Combined these programs have generated more than $641,000,000 in total loan
commitments for HOPE clients.

Banking on Our Future (BOOF)

* Educated 81,125 students in 2008, bringing the program to more than 372,000
since 1996.
* Provided financial literacy training to over 6000 youth and women in South
Africa since June, 2007.
* Launched Banking on Our Future College Edition with Spelman College in
partnership with the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCU), ultimately bringing financial literacy empowerment to 10
more HBCU`s in 2009, and all 105 campuses over the next five years.

As a social investment banking and public benefit organization, HOPE makes
access to dignity-centered financial services in inner-city and underserved
communities a top priority. It was HOPE's advocacy that inspired our nation to
make financial literacy U.S. federal policy, which subsequently led to the
creation of the non-partisan President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy.

Operation HOPE provides its economic empowerment programs through a series of
collaborations with private sector, community and government partners, without
which the success of these initiatives would not be possible. For a complete
list of HOPE Partners log onto www.operationhope.org.

About Operation HOPE, Inc.

Operation HOPE is America's leading nonprofit social investment banking and
financial literacy empowerment organization. With more than 400 private sector
partners, 1500 nonprofit organizations and schools, and 100 government partners
in 68 major U.S. cities as well as South Africa, HOPE has raised more than $500
million in its pursuit of educating, assisting and inspiring the next generation
of global stakeholders. Through international initiatives and its three
principal programs, Banking on Our Future (teaching school children about
money), HOPE Coalition America (Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline, 1-888-388-HOPE,
financial emergency preparedness and disaster relief), and Walk-In HOPE Centers
(loans, bill pay, computer literacy, understanding banking principles),
Operation HOPE has delivered services to more than one million low-wealth
individuals and assumed the responsibility of piloting the Silver Rights
Movement towards making free enterprise and capitalism relevant to all
underserved communities. To learn more about HOPE, visit www.operationhope.org
or read our blog at www.operationhope.org/blog.

Operation HOPE, Inc.
Sherry T. John, 213-891-2908
sherry.john@operationhope.org

Copyright Business Wire 2009