A FORMER NUN WITH A FINANCIAL EDUCATION MISSION- JANIE BARRERA

by: Johanna Hoyos

“LEARN FROM OUR ELDERS, MAKE WHAT YOU LEARNED YOUR OWN, AND HAVE THE ENERGY AND THE ‘GANAS’ TO TELL OTHERS AND TEACH OTHERS.”

Janie is a sixth-generation Texan. Her family settled on the east side of the Rio Grande River, Mexico. As history and territory lines evolved - they became U.S. citizens. “We never crossed the border. The border crossed us,” she says.

FOR 20 YEARS, her parents started and owned a Mexican restaurant called “La Mexicana” in Corpus Christi. At age 14, she had her first job as a waitress at the family’s restaurant. She had the opportunity to work with all types of people. A core value instilled by her parents is always to treat everybody the same. That courtesy and respect have earned Janie several relationships up to this day.

Her parents put her through catholic school from first grade to high school with hard work and sacrifice. The nuns taught her about social justice, and she identified deeply with her religious upbringing. Hence, Janie graduated from high school in 1973 and entered the convent that summer.

While in the congregation, Janie ran the Telecommunications Center for the Diocese of Corpus Christi. She helped build the first nonprofit radio station in the city. The center grew from three employees to twenty-eight employees. The Bishop wanted to ensure expansion and decided to hire someone else “who could do the job.” He believed Janie lacked the business experience, so she decided to get her MBA from the University of the Incarnate Word. Even then, gender income inequality was already a reality. All the sisters got paid $6,000 a year; it didn’t matter what they did at the convent, while the new male employee got paid $50,000 to do Janie’s job. That was the turning point to something grand for Barrera.

After completing the MBA, she left the convent where she was a sister for 15 years. Making her career pivot to her first job with the Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) – as the Air Force marketing director. In the meantime, she searched for a way to combine her social justice and nonprofit experience with social enterprise and to assist people in finding financial stability. This interest arose because of a personal reason. After 20 years with the restaurant, her parents ended up with nothing for retirement: no pension, only money from social security. Her mother with an 8th- grade education and her father with a 4th-grade education, finance illiterate, resulting in Janie seeing a gap in society. Additionally, her family never spoke about the stock market, financials, and the way to manage money.

That is what drove Janie in the financial direction. She started in 1994 as the first Accion Texas employee with Accion International’s help, an organization focused on micro- lending efforts around the world. After 20 years working at Accion Texas, Janie rebranded Accion Texas into LiftFund to be able to expand its services and reach. LiftFund started in San Antonio and is now lending in 15 States. LiftFund has over 100 employees and has disbursed over 420 Million dollars to business owners in underserved communities. Those owners are 82 % BIPOC (black, indigenous, or people of color), 67 % are low-moderate income individuals, 40 % are women, 25% are startups, and 6 % are veterans. The entrepreneurs LiftFund works with are individuals who do not know how to navigate the financial system or are not qualified under the terms and regulations of the banks. The average loan size is $25,000, and the repayment rate is 96%.

What still gives her the utmost excitement about the work is providing a lifetime skill. “Give a person a fish, and they eat for a day. Teach them to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime. At LiftFund, we help people buy the pond where they fish, and now, they have an asset to leave for the next generation,” she tells all her employees and team members. Janie believes that they are not only providing funding, resources, and guidance to help entrepreneurs, but they are also allowing entrepreneurs to leave a legacy for generations to come.