Columbus Business First Covers Bread Financial’s $1.8 Million Investment in ROX

Nov 17

Nov 16, 2023

A Columbus public company has invested $1.8 million in a locally headquartered

nonprofit to expand in-school programming for girls across the country.

Bread Financial Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BFH) is helping finance Ruling Our Experiences'

mission to implement girl-positive education in all 50 states. Rox (stylized ROX) offers a

20-week program dedicated to teaching girls how to handle challenges, create

supportive relationships, navigate social media, manage stress and foster academic and

leadership skills.

Today it serves more than 500 schools in 30 states.

"Rox is leading the way to understand girls’ experiences and creates programming to

build their confidence, make positive life and relationship choices, and empower them

now and in the future, developing the next generation of leaders... We believe investing

in girls from an early age will create a lifelong foundation for success," Val Greer,

executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Bread Financial, said in an

email.

Rox says it has served more than 40,000 girls since 2006. Its latest annual operating

budget was about $2.5 million.

Bread Financial has been a longtime supporter of the nonprofit. The company, formerly

Alliance Data, has provided more than $3 million in financial support, including funding

the 2017 and 2023 Girls’ Index reports, research Rox conducted to better understand

issues facing girls today.

Bread Financial's latest investment will go toward training school leaders to facilitate

Rox programming in schools, spreading the organization's brand awareness and

discovering ways to deepen connections and create bigger impacts in young girls' lives,

Rox CEO Lisa Hinkelman told Columbus Business First.

"We're supporting parents to be able to have better conversations and generate more

supportive environments for their girls," she said. "We're equipping teachers and

counselors and coaches and mentors with tools to better support the girls in their lives.

For us, it's about how we get to the girls to directly impact and empower them, but then

also how we use what we know to educate and influence the adults who are part of her

life."

That's something Bread Financial leaders believe in.

"The same girls who participated in the Girls’ Index Report are those who are our future

doctors, CEOs, public servants, mothers, and role models to others," Greer said. "It is

incumbent upon all of us to recognize where we have and should play a role in investing

in them to ensure positive outcomes."

In addition to Bread Financial's philanthropy, Rox also recently received $250,000 from

the Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation to help reach all 50 states with this same

programming.

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