The Coalition for Economic Opportunity (CEO) is a Charlottesville-based advocacy organization hosted by the Legal Aid Justice Center. CEO’s mission is to foster the development of fair, reasonable, and just financial service products and, in particular, alternatives to the high-interest, short-term, payday and car title loans that are aggressively marketed to low- and moderate-income customers in greater Charlottesville. 

CEO’s members include leaders from Charlottesville anti-poverty organizations, faith-based organizations, grassroots organizations, the advocacy community, the business community, and other concerned local citizens.

Why did CEO come together?

CEO was founded on the premise that the battle against predatory payday and car title lenders has three primary fronts: first, lobbying and public policy advocacy to ensure that the baseline legal framework meaningfully protects consumers; second, litigation to hold wayward lenders accountable; and third, the creation of loan products that actually give low- and moderate-income communities a viable alternative to the lenders who prey on consumers in crisis. 

All three fronts in this battle are absolutely critical. As a coalition, we chose to focus our energies on the third front. We made that choice because we believe that the availability—or, more accurately, unavailability—of alternative loan products in Charlottesville, and indeed elsewhere, represented an underappreciated but crucial element of the problem. 

Read more: Why is it important to create alternatives to payday and car title loans?

As we looked around our community, we saw predatory lenders, with brightly-lit signs and slogans, on nearly every street corner.  What we did not see—and what community members could not readily find—were genuine alternatives. We have set out to change that. We want to make affordable small-dollar loans (meaning loans for under $1,000.00) with reasonable terms available to those in need and to make the launch of this alternative product widely known in the community. That is, by helping to introduce alternatives into the marketplace, we want to go toe-to-toe in Charlottesville with payday and car title lenders.

How are we going to change this state of affairs?

Click here to read more about Charlottesville City Council's response to CEO's presentation on the Bank On Greater Charlottesville initiative.

What is CEO doing to launch Bank On in Charlottesville, and how can you help?

Sign Up to Receive Email Updates, and Sign On to Our Petition

You can sign up here to receive email updates about important CEO and Bank On events and news about our progress. 

Please also take a moment to sign on to our petition to show your support of CEO's efforts, and consider sharing the petition with family, friends and community members. Signing on is quick and easy!

Make a Donation

You can make a tax-deductible donation to support our efforts. Your donation will be put to good work. Among other things, it may help support staffing or outreach costs to advocate or implement Bank On. Or it may help grow our alternative loan fund, which will be used to make small-dollar loans to low- and moderate-income folks at an affordable interest rate and reasonable repayment terms—that is, to make loans that are everything payday and car title loans are not. 

You can donate in two easy ways. You can send a check made out to the Legal Aid Justice Center. Write “CEO” on the check memo line and mail the check to LAJC, 1000 Preston Ave., Suite A, Charlottesville, VA 22903. 

Or you can donate online here. In your online donation, make sure you type “CEO” into the notes box.

Encourage Your Organization to Participate

If you work at a financial institution, graphic design company, public relations firm, media outlet, or social service provider, talk to your colleagues about Bank On and explore how your company or organization can become a participant in Bank On. To learn more about what your company or organization can do to help Bank On, send an email to CEO@justice4all.org or call (434) 977-0553 ext. 126. 

Join Us

If you are interested in volunteering with CEO or simply want more information about the work we do, send an email to CEO@justice4all.org or call (434) 977-0553 ext. 126. 

Whether you are interested in learning more about the causes and consequences of being unbanked/underbanked, or about how check cashing outlets and payday and car title lenders hurt borrowers and communities, or about how alternative loan programs can succeed in creating genuine options for consumers, or about how Bank On initiatives can bring the unbanked and underbanked into the financial mainstream, or about how these issues impact people right here in Charlottesville, click here to connect to our Resources page.

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