[Editor's note: Exciting news with more to come!]
Qvisory is integrating its content, tools and services with two leading organizations – LifeTuner and Rock the Vote – to carry on its vision of economic security for young Americans. We recently sat down with the leaders of each organization to discuss the many ways that Qvisory users and all young adults will benefit from this announcement.
Question: How did this come to be? Why did the three of you decide to work together?
Gina Glanz, President, Qvisory: Qvisory’s commitment to providing young workers with resources to reach their financial, health and career goals generated a loyal group of followers. However, to meet the organization’s goals, Qvisory leadership understood the audience would need to grow bigger and faster – especially in light of the research data that showed the extraordinary impact of the economic recession on the lives of young people. Through past experience and discussions, Qvisory knew where it needed to go for leverage — LifeTuner (sponsored by AARP) and Rock the Vote. These two organizations represent the most forward looking and imaginative approaches to supporting young adults. We are delighted they will carry the Qvisory mission forward.
Heather Smith, Executive Director, Rock the Vote: Qvisory shares our belief that education and positive reinforcement are the best ways to encourage and inspire advocacy. Young adults have an incredible opportunity to increase their share of voice in the political process but often lack the support and tools to take action. We look forward to expanding Rock the Vote’s presence and impact through the incorporation of Qvisory’s tools into our site.
Diane Ty, Senior Vice President, AARP: LifeTuner and Qvisory have had multiple conversations about how we might work together because of our common mission: to inspire and empower young adults to achieve financial independence and take a more proactive approach towards building their futures. Qvisory has built an impressive knowledge library that will fit very well with existing LifeTuner resources.
Question: What will this transition mean for the existing Qvisory community?
Gina: LifeTuner is absorbing most of Qvisory’s content into its site (posted as blogs in the community section of LifeTuner.org), and offers robust tools and forums with expert participation to help increase user’s confidence in managing their money. The Rock the Vote audience will have a newly inspired advocacy agenda and, next year, will be able to access new products and services that meet their everyday life needs.
Heather: We’re extremely excited to welcome the Qvisory community to Rock the Vote and hope they’ll contribute as passionately as they have on Qvisory.
Diane: LifeTuner.org was designed for an audience that is similar to Qvisory’s. The Qvisory community will find a number of welcoming similarities between our sites. The tools and resources are very comparable and should help make the change pretty simple.
Question: How will this change help young people overcome the current challenges they face?
Gina: Our goal was to help young people take control of their personal finances as well as make change by influencing those who make decisions that impact their lives – corporate and government leaders. With a more robust set of tools on LifeTuner.org and the powerful voice of Rock the Vote, the Qvisory community gains valuable personal resources and collective strength.
Heather: There are many complicated political issues facing this country and every one of them impacts young people on a daily if not hourly basis. How will new healthcare policies affect us? Are our leaders doing enough to support green energy? Most importantly, what can we all do ourselves to effect change? Our goal is to help the 45 million young adults in this country speak as one voice; adding Qvisory’s community will strengthen that goal.
Diane: LifeTuner connects young people with financial experts who offer completely free and unbiased financial insight and tips in an ad-free environment. That’s extremely rare in today’s financial landscape. We know that individuals respond to different messages and want access to resources and tools. The more breadth we offer and the more young people we reach, the more lives we’ll be able to positively impact. Adding Qvisory’s content to our own widens LifeTuner’s reach.
Question: Will there be any linkages between LifeTuner and Rock the Vote now?
Heather: There’s an enormous amount of confluence between our missions and LifeTuner will be an important organization for us moving forward and vice versa.
Diane: We’ll remain separate entities with our own focuses, Rock the Vote on political education and advocacy, and LifeTuner on financial literacy and independence, but given that we share the mission of educating young adults in an unbiased way, we’re definitely looking at opportunities to work together on future projects.
