Wealth Beyond Riches: Building Prosperity With Purpose, Values, and Impact

Empowering Women: The Financial Literacy Movement That Changes Lives with Danielle Piskadlo (Ep. 15)

• Abbey Henderson, CFP®

Share episode

Empowering women financially can transform entire communities, and the numbers prove it!

This week on Wealth Beyond Riches, Abbey Henderson, CFP® , CEO Wealth Advisor & Coach, sits down with Danielle Piskadlo, Executive Director at Women’s Money Matters, to explore the vital role of financial empowerment for women and the community impact of their organization. 

Learn about the unique model and approach of Women's Money Matters, the systemic barriers women continue to face, and how mentorship and financial literacy can uplift women and their families.

Abbey and Danielle discuss: 

  • Spotlight on Women's Money Matters, formerly Budget Buddies, and its financial empowerment programs for women and girls
  • The systemic barriers to financial stability that disproportionately affect women, especially women of color
  • Insight into how Women's Money Matters uses small group settings and one-on-one mentorship to foster financial well-being
  • Volunteer opportunities and how you can contribute to the financial literacy and empowerment of women
  • And more!


Connect with Abbey Henderson: 

Connect with Danielle Piskadlo:


About Our Guest:

Danielle Piskadlo has been the Executive Director of Women’s Money Matters (WMM) since 2019 and has been an enthusiastic volunteer and supporter of WMM in a variety of capacities since 2016. Prior to joining WMM, Danielle was part of the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion, where she was an advocate for women’s financial empowerment and inclusion internationally through microfinance, impact investing, and executive leadership. Danielle has spent time living in Perth, Beijing, Hyderabad, and San Diego and is a travel enthusiast who has visited over 35 countries. She moved to MA to study public administration at the Kennedy School at Harvard and international business at the Fletcher School at Tufts. Danielle worked at her family-owned auto shop in VT growing up while running, hiking, skiing, and playing ice hockey- all activities she continues to enjoy today. She lives in Acton with her partner, Dan, two sons, and fur baby, Wally. Danielle spends most of her free time with a good book.

WBR_EP_15


ProudMouth (00:01)

Welcome to Wealth Beyond Riches with Abbey Henderson, CEO, wealth advisor, and coach at Abaris Financial Group. In this podcast, we help generous, fun, and passionate professionals overcome their biggest financial concerns while leveling up their lifestyles based on their values. We do this by exploring the five levers, which represent the diverse resources each person possesses throughout their lifetime. These levers encompass finances, health, mindset,


relationships and time, offering a holistic approach to personal development and growth. Join us on this transformative journey as Abbey and her guests draw from years of experience to guide you in achieving your life goals while staying true to your values. But that's not all. This podcast will equip you not just to build personal wealth, but also to understand how your prosperity can contribute to the betterment of the world around you. By exploring strategies for giving back and making a positive impact,


will empower you to create a life of significance and leave a lasting legacy of positive change.


Wendy (01:10)

Hello and welcome to the Wealth Beyond Riches podcast with your host, Abbey Henderson, where we talk about enriching your life in every way. I'm Wendy McConnell. Hi, Abbey, how are you? I'm good. It's summertime. Woo!


Abbey Henderson (01:21)

I'm good, Wendy. How are you? No, I know. Finally, finally it feels like we've actually turned the corner and there will be no more surprises.


Wendy (01:31)

I know, and we just needed to slow down now. So what do we have on top for today?


Abbey Henderson (01:36)

Definitely.


So we have the next episode in our spotlight series of nonprofits that Abaris Financial Group, my firm, has supported. And as we've talked about, probably touched on it in almost every episode so far, philanthropy and service is so important to everyone at Abaris, not only because we're a B Corp, but also because one of our core values is service and philanthropy.


And we love to put our money where our mouth is. We have a group at Aberus, AFG Charitable, that gives money to various organizations every year. And we have been thrilled to give grants to what was formerly Budget Buddies and is now Women's Money Matters. And I'm so excited to have Danielle.


Piskadlo here and she's executive director at Women's Money Matters and she has a fascinating background which I'm gonna let her talk about but the quick two -sentence version is that she was an advocate for women's financial empowerment and inclusion at the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion. She's a graduate of UVM. She's a graduate of UVM.


and she has two master's degrees, one from the Harvard Kennedy School and the second from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. So Danielle, welcome. We're so excited to have you.


Danielle Piskadlo (03:11)

Thank you so much for having me today. It's great to be here with you.


Abbey Henderson (03:13)

Yeah, yeah, no, we're thrilled. So I alluded to an interesting journey to get to your position today. So tell us a little bit about how you got.


Danielle Piskadlo (03:24)

Yeah, thank you for that opportunity. So I started off my career working internationally in microfinance or financial inclusion. And there has always been a big theme in microfinance about really supporting women through sort of self -help groups around the world with financial products and services. And so that theme has been one that has


always really been of interest to me, you know, when women are financially powered that has such incredible benefits on their families and their communities. And so, so as you said, I was working for over a decade at the Center for Financial Inclusion, mainly in Sub -Saharan Africa with microfinance institutions. And we were really focused on building their leadership teams and their boards. And I...


Although I was working with a lot of boards and writing about governance had not directly been a part of a board. So I was connected with Budget Buddies, as you mentioned our previous name, years ago through a board fellowship. And so I joined their board for a year as an observer and just absolutely fell in love with the mission and the model and the impact that they were having. And so...


joined in a couple of governance roles until the two founding mothers announced that they were retiring and thought, this is just too great of an opportunity for me to not throw my hat in the ring. So I haven't looked back since and it's been an amazing journey.


Abbey Henderson (05:04)

That's awesome. So you touched on a little bit, but tell us more about the importance of, as your website says, creating a world where all women and girls are financially empowered.


Danielle Piskadlo (05:17)

Yeah, this is the crux of everything that we do and personally like a big driver for me in my career. All the research is really clear that women, especially women of color are really disproportionately impacted by so many systemic barriers in policy design and development around different access to financial services and products. And so,


This starts at many different levels from pay inequities to just higher rates of poverty in general. And so we're here to ensure that women and girls are in the driver's seats of their own financial futures. And that's a really empowering thing to be a part of. Many women feel like they are struggling alone and.


you know, that this is sort of all on them, that they are the ones that just, you know, that just should be able to figure this out. And really, you know, that's a really tough place to be, especially when, you know, it's not all just due to, you know, personal decisions that are being made around finances. There are these bigger forces at play. And so we really appreciate the opportunity to be a part of their journey.


and to really help them see like no matter what income level, there's many like themes throughout that just have to do with women understanding the larger systemic barriers, but also understanding their own finances and credit scores and feeling really empowered about their ability to make personal choices and decisions that have them, as I said, kind of feeling more in the driver's seat of their own financial.


well -being.


Abbey Henderson (07:11)

So I'm gonna throw a little bit of a curve ball at you, because I didn't give you this question ahead of time. But I'm curious, just, you know, because some people listening might not see this in their day -to -day lives. Could you maybe give one or two examples about sort of the systemic issues that are surrounding this, just for people who maybe aren't aware and aren't seeing it?


Danielle Piskadlo (07:14)

Well, go for it.


Yeah, there's three main issues that we focus on from an advocacy perspective because they do disproportionately affect women, especially women of color. So the three main kind of systemic barriers that we really focus on are pay inequity. So we're a signing member of the Boston Women's Workforce Council's 100 % Talent Compact. They put out data related to pay inequities in Boston, which


On average, women are still to this day making about 30 % less than their white male counterparts. And that gets increasingly a bigger gap for women of color. The other two issues we look at are having financial literacy in the K through 12 education system. So that's something that still doesn't exist, or I should say exists only in certain.


Abbey Henderson (08:27)

Crazy.


Danielle Piskadlo (08:30)

very select school districts. And we'd like that to be a more broader access to that financial literacy to be more broadly accessible. And then the third issue we look at is really the benefit cliffs. So this refers to policies that keep women sort of trapped in a cycle of being on public assistance. And when they start to move off of that public assistance, it's


Abbey Henderson (08:39)

Mm -hmm.


Danielle Piskadlo (08:59)

negatively impacts them because they can't make up the earnings that they lose by being on public assistance. So broadly, those are the three kind of large systemic barriers that we focus on because they impact women across all of our programs and all of our workshops.


Abbey Henderson (09:18)

Yeah, that's super helpful. It really sets the context, I think, for the rest of our conversation. So tell us a little bit about your model and your approach, because it's special.


Danielle Piskadlo (09:29)

Yes, it is special. Yeah. So we bring together intentionally small groups of women or girls who are facing similar financial challenges. And they come together in small groups to be supportive of each other, to exchange information with each other, and to learn together. They then are matched one to one with a mentor. We try for a near peer mentor. So that means that in our younger programs,


which we call Life Launch for girls as young as eight. They're ideally having a mentor that is either a middle schooler or a high schooler that they can kind of look up to. And each woman is matched with one mentor that is a coach just there for her to go through the program with her, a volunteer. And then they go to a series of financial health workshops that we run. We have volunteers that come in to present those on different topics related to


to everything from we start off with sort of goal setting and vision boarding to really understand like, what are we saving for? What will it feel like to be financially empowered? And then really dig more into how can we kind of use a spending plan, especially when, you know, income and expenses can be really very readable. But also how do we think, like, how do we go about building credit, repairing credit, looking at our credit scores?


and everything from eating healthy on a budget to understanding and protecting ourselves against fraud. So a lot of topics that we cover over a period of three months in weekly workshops. So we're trying to really break down each topic and make it digestible and actionable, and then come together again the following week and build on that knowledge.


Abbey Henderson (11:02)

Mm -hmm.


That's really cool. And how are your clients finding you? So what does your outreach look like?


Danielle Piskadlo (11:16)

Yeah, so that's a great question. They can find us all sorts of different ways now. Like they can be referred to us by word of mouth that someone else who's been through the program can, we've had lots of women refer maybe their daughter or vice versa and friends and family. They can come to us through a partner, social services partner. So mainly shelters, housing authorities, Department of Transitional Assistance or some of the general groups that we work with. And,


Really, they honestly can sometimes just be searching online for I Need Help and they come across a website and they can fill out a form and we can put them into the next program. We always have programs starting at different times, different days of the week, different, you know, trying to meet everyone's schedule. We have Saturday programs now, so really trying to be as accessible as we can in that way.


Abbey Henderson (12:10)

Very cool. And do your smaller groups get really attached and they stay friends and they graduate but they somehow are still in your sphere for...


Danielle Piskadlo (12:15)

Bye.


They do. So this is actually one of, I'm so excited about this, because one of the biggest things we would get at the graduation is like not a dry eye and everyone wants to know how do we stay in touch. And so we actually were so fortunate to be able to build out a community platform. It's also an app, has over a thousand community members on it already and it's still relatively new, but each group gets their own like connection spot on that app. And so they can stay connected and.


you know, cheer each other on and share updates and ask for help. We have a portal where they can ask for help. We share jobs, really trying to build social capital as well. But it's been an amazing experience. You know, we had one woman who was very nervous about facing her ex -husband in court and we put out a notice, we need help for someone to just be an emotional support person in two days. And some of our volunteers showed up to be there for her. So it's a really powerful community that.


we've created and women do feel connected to it and they trust us and we're so we feel so honored to be a part of that of their journeys.


Abbey Henderson (13:28)

That's awesome. So I'm sure you've got pages and pages and pages of anecdotes and qualitative data about what an amazing impact you've made on people's lives. Can you just talk a little bit about maybe more of the qualitative impact and then also if you're tracking any metrics in terms of the impact that you're having?


Danielle Piskadlo (13:48)

Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, in terms of the... Can I switch those? Can I do the... Okay. So, we definitely have like entire testimonies that are coming to us, you know, every day and we're really fortunate for all of those. But we have been trying to be more, you know...


Abbey Henderson (13:56)

Absolutely, you can do in whatever order you want.


Danielle Piskadlo (14:15)

quantitatively focused in terms of the metrics that we're tracking. And so in that period that we are working with women of three months, we have actually seen increases in credit scores. This is a new one that we're tracking of 42 points, which is a huge indicator towards greater financial stability. We have women take a financial well -being through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, they have a financial well -being score and we have increases in that.


of 13 points just in that three months. So that is very exciting to see. And then the two that we've recently started tracking that I'm very excited about are increases in savings of 157%. So savings to me is such a key part of having like of having that financial security. We talked to every woman about the need for an emergency fund and we all saw the importance of that during COVID and how many women were losing.


Abbey Henderson (15:11)

Mm -hmm.


Danielle Piskadlo (15:14)

losing and leaving jobs, but also increases in income of 29 % as well. So those are some of the metrics that we are tracking in terms of our outcomes. But in terms of the stories, there's so many that I could share. I think at the end of the day, what we hear a lot of is just what I mentioned before of women feeling like I'm not alone in this and that.


Here's a whole amazing group of women who are facing similar challenges, but we're in this together. And our coaches very much are also in this. Many of them have shared lived experience. They've left the bad relationships. They've dug themselves out of debt. They've had to sort of go through, you know, paying back loans and they've done a lot of that on their own. And now they want this opportunity to kind of come and give back and.


be able to just be there as a source of support for another woman so that she doesn't feel that sense of aloneness. So, you know, we get in our programs generally just a lot of single moms and that is a really tough to be supporting a family on your own often, you know, sometimes in shelter, there's many challenges that we are.


Abbey Henderson (16:23)

Mm -hmm.


Danielle Piskadlo (16:32)

trying to be a part of the solutions for us. So because of that, we've actually partnered with some new partners recently too, including Tech Collaborative, so we can give out computers, Second Chance Cars. We've been able to award cars to some of the women in our program who really need that transportation to get to work and have that source of steady income, and also direct relief through Boston Bullpen and Neighbor Share and.


Abbey Henderson (16:34)

Yeah.


awesome.


Danielle Piskadlo (16:58)

directly as well. So we're trying to be more holistic in the way that we're able to serve some of the women in our programs because the needs we hear every day are pretty great in many areas.


Abbey Henderson (17:11)

Yeah, for sure. I'm just curious listening to you talk. Do you find, do you have any anecdotes or data about how much you're impacting the financial literacy of the kids of these women? Because like, you're not, you know, obviously you're not just changing their lives, the women you serve, you're completely changing the trajectory potentially for their kids too.


Danielle Piskadlo (17:38)

Yeah, so I do have a story that I can share on this. I have many stories because we do a lot of our programming, you know, whether actually whether it's virtual or in person, like because we focus on women and many of the it's almost 70 % of the women that we work with are moms. As I said, many of them single mothers. And so there are always kids in the background or at the workshops in person and, you know, and.


Abbey Henderson (17:44)

Yeah.


Danielle Piskadlo (18:08)

now that we're working in elementary schools, or many young girls that we're serving directly. But we do hear about this a lot, that the moms in our program are getting their children involved in sort of the bigger picture, right? Like they want their kids.


their kids want them to be less stressed out about finances. And it is important that they understand sort of the family picture. Like, you know, this is what we're saving for. And so kids are often involved in like the vision boarding. Like if we can save for this, we can have whatever it may be, this new couch or this trip or, and having the kids be a part of that vision and understanding like that, that's what then, you know, we seal, we hear a lot of stories about how, you know, they're then.


motivated to save and to like not ask for that like, you know, treat or toy or something in the in the grocery store. So really bringing the kids in most of the women have, you know, at least two children. And so we do know that there's sort of that ripple effect of of our programming in terms of being able to impact children as well. So, yeah.


Abbey Henderson (19:10)

Mm -hmm.


awesome. So I bet people are gonna be listening and thinking how can I get involved? So tell us, tell us their options if they're sitting there thinking that.


Danielle Piskadlo (19:24)

Great.


Yeah, so we are a volunteer -based organization and that's very intentional, like especially with the coaching, it's really important that we are creating a strong relationship based on trust and, you know, mutual respect and so it's not lost on the women and girls at Enora program that this is not someone who is being paid to be here just because I'm part of their caseload or...


whatever the case may be, right? This is someone who's giving up time with their friends and family because they really care about me. And many times because they have shared experiences, right? That they sort of have been there, done that and want to give back in this way. So we're always looking for more coaches. This fiscal year, we will serve more than double the number of women that we did last year. And that shows you there's a really big need right now. I mean, especially with rising.


Abbey Henderson (19:56)

Mm -hmm.


Danielle Piskadlo (20:22)

prices, inflation that we all know about. And so we are always recruiting for coaches and they can find us at, you know, womensmoneymatters.org. The other opportunity to volunteer with us is by being a presenter. Some of those presenter roles, we have all the materials, so presenters are never asked to create their own materials. We can train on, we train on all of these different volunteer opportunities, but.


some of the time we ask that the presenters have a financial background in case there are questions about, you know, technical questions about what goes into my credit score. But there's many roles for presenters that don't require that financial background. You know, as I mentioned, the vision boarding or eating healthy on a budget, there's a lot of workshops that we run that don't require that. So those are the two main volunteer roles we have. I mean, there's of course always governance positions with our advisory group or our board, program leader roles.


that we're recruiting for, for both in -person and virtual programs. So really volunteers can be anywhere now. We are very fortunate to have a volunteer base that now spans across the nation and I think even into other countries. So yeah, so the word's really getting out and I think it's really because of that direct connection that you're able to build with a woman in your community that you may not otherwise know. So.


Abbey Henderson (21:36)

wow.


Danielle Piskadlo (21:49)

It's been pretty powerful to see how much that our mission and impact really resonates with.


Abbey Henderson (21:56)

Yeah, that's awesome. So we're starting to run out of time. What would you like our listeners to take away from this episode? If they remember one or two things, what would you want them to remember?


Danielle Piskadlo (22:09)

Just the powerful thing it is to really invest in women and how much the research shows that women spend, I think it's like 91 % of their disposable income and reinvesting in their families and in their communities. And so that leads to so many of the follow -on effects that we want to see in terms of when women are financially stable, there's


research that proves that there are increases in nutritional outcomes and educational outcomes. And so the impact of supporting a woman on her financial journey and meeting her wherever she may be has these great community outcomes as well that we should all be pushing for and advocating for.


Abbey Henderson (23:06)

said. So where can our listeners find out more about you and about Women's Money Matters?


Danielle Piskadlo (23:14)

Yeah, the main place is our website, womensmoneymatters.org, but also we're on all of the social media platforms. So following us there is another way to kind of get the more up -to -date information as well. But yeah, signing up for our newsletter on our website is a great way to stay informed and connected with us. And if they're interested in volunteering, there's applications on the website as well. And if they know someone who might benefit,


a woman living on a low income that would like to join a program, there's also a link to that on our website. So that's the place to learn about us.


Abbey Henderson (23:53)

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. It's such an important issue with, you know, it's one of those things where it's like the pebble in the pond, right? You make an investment, as you said, sort of in the pebble and it just ripples out and affects so many other things in a positive way.


Danielle Piskadlo (24:10)

Absolutely. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate the invitation and opportunity to share more about our work.


Abbey Henderson (24:18)

You're so welcome.


Wendy (24:21)

Abbey, how do we get in touch with you if we have some more questions?


Abbey Henderson (24:25)

The best ways I'd say would be email, abbey@abarisfinancialgroup.com. There's also the website, abarisfinancialgroup.com. We are also on all the social media platforms, typically both myself individually and then also the firm. And all of these things will be in the show notes.


Wendy (24:46)

All right, sounds good. Well, thank you, ladies, and thank you for listening today. Please like, follow, and share this podcast with your friends. Until next time, I'm Wendy McConnell.


ProudMouth (25:03)

Thank you for listening to the Wealth Beyond Riches podcast. Be sure to visit our website at www.abarisfinancialgroup.com. And don't forget to click the follow button to be notified when new episodes become available. The opinions voiced in Wealth Beyond Riches with Abbey Henderson are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine what may be appropriate for you, consult with your attorney, accountant, financial or tax advisor.


prior to investing. Guests on Wealth Beyond Riches are not affiliated with CWM LLC. Investment advisory services offered through CWM LLC, an SEC -registered investment advisor.