Meet The Unlocked Foundation — the women-founded, nonprofit organization that empowers you to take the brave steps to close the wealth gap.
The Unlocked Foundation is building more than a financial literacy platform, it’s creating a lifestyle through elevated and experiential events, podcasts and summits. Previous events (which are free to the public) include The Women’s Wealth Summit in Miami, focusing on budgeting, tax, debt, navigating economic downturns, etc., the “Champion Her” Women’s Wealth Summit in the Hamptons, which focused on the pay inequalities facing women in sports, music, and entertainment, and Unlocked’s anniversary celebration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which offered a private tour of the “Women Dressing Women” exhibition celebrating women’s progress and opportunities as designers in the fashion industry. Their events have featured trusted experts to support members’ financial and emotional growth—such as leading advisors from UBS and Dr. Robin Smith, Oprah Winfrey’s former therapist-in-residence.
Savaria Harris, Rachelle Laroche, Sabrina Mentor, Nishitha Kambhaladinne, and later Melissa Dincher, established the Unlocked Foundation in 2022 after being driven by the desire to empower women to take bold steps in addressing wealth disparities. Fast forward to now, Unlocked boasts over 2,100 members across 12 countries.
What inspired your team to start the Unlocked Foundation, and what personal experiences shaped its mission?
SH: The founders of the Unlocked Foundation knew one another from an employee resource group at work. We were all different races and ages and had different professions, careers, and even different personal lives in terms of being married or mothers. We were also all doing well professionally – yet, for all of us, the number of money talks we were having with our friends, mentors or sponsors about what to do with the money we were earning, how to negotiate our salaries or even build wealth was non-existent. Money was this secret thing that women were supposed to figure out on their own. That struck us as crazy.
RL: To add on to Savaria’s comments, our initial conversations as part of our employee resource group focused on how we as women internalized and are impacted by the issues that we uniquely struggle with in silence. Having to carry the mental, emotional and physical workloads of our households weigh us down and materialize as barriers in our career progression. Being able to have authentic and very direct conversations about what’s holding us back truly led to an awakening in us – it definitely awakened me. Many times, getting out of your own way, not allowing fear to control you and allowing yourself to excel is the first challenge one must overcome to unlock their journey to financial freedom and wealth.
What specific gaps or challenges in the community does the Unlocked Foundation aim to address, and how do you measure your impact?
SH: Although the pay gap gets a lot of discussion in popular culture, the foundation focuses on addressing the wealth gap. That’s because even if you cure the pay gap, women would still have a wealth gap. Wealth is the result of asset accumulation over time and women didn’t have the ability to independently accumulate assets in the US until 1974 when they could for the first time apply for a credit or bank account without a man. So we haven’t had the time to build wealth that men have enjoyed and we don’t often have the confidence or knowledge of how to do so. The Unlocked Foundation believes that by connecting women to knowledge and networks to help them build wealth, we can also address the gaps women face on pay and networking.
We’re still in early days, but we measure impact by the number of people we reach with our content – whether online, through our podcast or summits. We also measure our impact through the wealth progression stories of our community members. Members are not just making new friends through our events, but they’re also unlocking new job opportunities, customers and deal flow. As we scale, capturing all of these success stories and sharing about them to attract new members is among our goals.
MD: In my line of work in wealth management, I encounter so many women who are going through a pivot or transition, such as a divorce or widowship, or going back to work after caring for children, or pivoting careers, and there is a common theme – that most women defer their financial decisions to their male counterparts. Therefore, women have missed out on years of investing, maybe even of working, and they have a lot of catching up to do. This has vastly contributed to the wealth gap. The Unlocked Foundation aims to make money conversations accessible so that women can talk about investing strategies to build wealth. Our community comprises women who are educated, high earners, and professionals who want a safe, beautiful and elevated space to have the conversations beyond wine and books and children to investing and career building strategies.
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced as founders, and how have you overcome them?
SH: The truth is that the Unlocked Foundation is a new non-profit, so we are still volunteer led, and everyone has demanding careers in law, finance and real estate. There’s so much demand for our content that we can’t scale as quickly as we would like to do so without more money.
It is amazing we have put on 15 events and continue to host these free wealth summits, but we’re a five person team with some contractor support. We’ve been resourceful in leveraging partnerships to receive in-kind and cash donations, but like all non-profits we need money and resources to be energized by more than the passion of the team.
To ensure that 100% of our energy goes to a message of wealth building, we scaled back all programming to be focused on our Women’s Wealth Summits, which are free events open to all focused on connecting attendees with the knowledge and networks to help close the wealth gap. We’re on our fourth one and they all are always fully subscribed with a wait list. We’d love to do more, but we need more money to do so.
RL: One of the biggest challenges we are facing is how to get companies engaged and involved in our mission. In a crowded field of corporate philanthropy, we spend countless hours convincing companies to care. They say they do, but when it comes time to commit, we get a whole host of excuses and purported conflicts. We are a persistent group, so it won’t deter us and, if anything, has motivated us to push harder. The right corporate partners for us will materialize because we understand fundamentally that as founders will receive hundreds of “no’s” before we receive the right “yes”!
How do you engage with the communities you serve to ensure your programs are relevant and effective?
SH: Community engagement is at the heart of the Unlocked Foundation’s mission. We actively seek feedback from our members to tailor our programs to their needs. Our events, like the Women’s Wealth Summits, are designed to be interactive, featuring roundtable discussions on topics such as budgeting, taxes, estate planning, and fashion as a commodity. By fostering an environment of open dialogue and continuous learning, we ensure our offerings remain relevant and impactful.
MD: Our network and community is the cornerstone of everything we do at The Unlocked Foundation. Therefore, we ensure we actively listen to what our community asks for – whether that be heavier content, more opportunities to network with like-minded women, different cities, representation from more industries, etc. The Board dedicates several hours to strategy sessions to ensure we’re implementing the desires and goals of our community.
What partnerships or collaborations have been key to your growth and success so far?
SH: Collaborations have been instrumental in the Unlocked Foundation’s growth. Our partnership with UBS has been particularly impactful, enabling us to host the Women’s Wealth Summit during Art Basel in Miami. Other notable partners include law firms like Kirkland & Ellis and DLA Piper, as well as organizations such as Impax Asset Management and Beacon Hill Legal, and charity organizations such as The Tory Burch Foundation and Mothers2Mothers. These alliances have provided valuable resources, expertise, and platforms to amplify our mission.
RL: Behind the scenes we have some incredibly powerful partners and mentors, Jay Stockwell at Claritas is a prime example. A great network of people who believe in your mission is incredibly impactful and important.
MD: I am extremely proud of the strategic partnerships and sponsorships we have been able to garner and foster. In particular, law firms, financial institutions and fashion conglomerates have been instrumental in making our events a huge success.
Where do you see the Unlocked Foundation in the next 5 years, and how can people get involved today?
SH: In the next five years, we envision the Unlocked Foundation expanding its reach globally, offering more comprehensive programs and resources to empower women in their financial journeys. We aim to establish a robust network of partners and mentors to support our growing community.
Individuals can get involved today by becoming members, attending our events, downloading our soon-to-launch app, or supporting us through donations and partnerships. Together, we can work towards a future where every woman has the tools and support to unlock her full financial potential.
RL: I see amazing things for Unlocked. I see the foundation as one of the most powerful networks where our members can open up our app and submit business proposals, questions about a job offer, scout for opportunities and more – all knowing that there is a trusted space and genuine community to tap into the resources that will get you to the next level. Forget the 2nd, 3rd and 4th degree connection – once you’ve been “unlocked” you have access to everything firsthand!
MD: In five years, I see The Unlocked Foundation as the go-to community for professional women and male allies who want to build wealth in ways that are accessible, inclusive and intelligent. I see our wealth summits becoming larger in scale, more in-depth in content and setting the standard for beautiful, elevated events that people want to attend to talk about money.
