Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Business is an unlikely hero: a force for good working to solve society's most pressing challenges, while boosting bottom line. This is social purpose at work. And it's a dynamic journey. Purpose 360 is a masterclass in unlocking the power of social purpose to ignite business and social impact. Host Carol Cone brings decades of social impact expertise and a 360-degree view of integrating social purpose into an organization into unfiltered conversations that illuminate today's big challenges and bigger ideas.
Carol Cone:
I'm Carol Cone and welcome to Purpose 360, the podcast that unlocks the power of purpose to ignite business and social impact.
In this episode, I had the privilege of speaking with Jonathan Fantini Porter, Senior Vice President for the Americas at the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth, the social impact hub of MasterCard, launched in 2014. Our conversation focuses on MasterCard Strive USA, a bold initiative launched in 2022 to help small businesses grow and thrive with a goal to unlock 50 billion, that's billion with a B, in lending capital, reach 5 million small businesses and build stronger networks of support. Strive USA offers a three-pronged approach: access to digital tools, capital, and community networks. We close with Jonathan's thoughtful advice for professionals advancing in their social impact careers. This is such a rich and inspiring conversation you won't want to miss, so let's get started. So welcome to the show, Jonathan.
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
Carol, thanks so much. Really looking forward to this conversation and so grateful for all the work you do and spreading this very powerful message. Really looking forward to the conversation.
Carol Cone:
Well, thank you. So I always like to start out with a little bit of background and your background is very interesting. And also what is your personal purpose?
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
That's a great question and an apt question. I think the two chapters of this career before joining Mastercard to your point 90 days ago, really two areas. So I was in national security early on, that was at the White House at Homeland Security and across that world, then in economic development and financial services. And so most recently running a development and trade partnership that was formed by the World Bank and the White House and Fortune 100s, and then advising financial institutions and governments on economic growth strategies at McKinsey. So a span of starting off really in that security space and then seeing the long-term opportunity when we think about how we build resilience and growth. So a shift into development and economic policy and financial services was really the two chapters.
But I think between both of those chapters, there is the same underlying purpose and that's really, I'd say building high performing teams that together are creating pathways to whether it be prosperity or opportunity or security in the lives and communities of others. And I think that's really the core driver there, that building high performing teams that create those pathways to prosperity and opportunity.
Carol Cone:
So you somehow connected with Mastercard, you're doing some amazing work other places. So why did you make the jump?
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
It's a great question and it ties to purpose, right? So the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth is the philanthropic arm of Mastercard and it's really focused on how we leverage the company's data and technology and venture philanthropy expertise across the board to deliver strategic growth and strategic growth through partnerships with financial institutions, with FinTechs, digital partners, foundations, you can go down the list, multilateral institutions, governments. But we're really focused on three core areas. Financial security and health, small business resilience and growth, and then ensuring access to emerging technologies, whether that's AI or blockchain or equipment that really is the foundation when we think about long-term economic growth for economies and communities.
And so that ends up tying into that source of purpose for me of how you drive prosperity and opportunity at scale really. And you think about the history of what we've done through Mastercard Impact Fund, we've invested $432 million in 186 organizations. I think it was 104 countries. We've put 55 or so million into developing impact data science and supporting that through thousands and thousands of practitioners. So it's an incredible platform for opportunity and impact and it's really what drew me to Mastercard and the Center for Inclusive Growth.
Carol Cone:
So one of my favorite recruiting questions, it's absolutely my favorite and I always ask, what's the most important thing you've learned from your mother? What's the most important thing you learned from your father? Now you probably have the most distinctive background of the over 200 guests I've ever had on the show.
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
I'm so grateful to you for that question. It is. It's foundational to my life as our parents are foundational to all of our lives, and my sense of purpose is grounded in their experience. And so for your listeners, my father was born in Argentina in the '50s, middle class family, went to a military academy there in Corleone and his father was living in Buenos Aires. And then in the '70s while he was in college, he's an engineering student, a civil war erupted in the country. Fast-forward, 30,000 dead, many, many more imprisoned in torture centers across the country. And so he was a political prisoner for four years, that included solitary confinement. He experienced torture nearly every day. So it was a horrendous experience. And meanwhile, my mother, Mary Evelyn Porter from an entirely different world, Canadian-born, raised in the US, British father, she's pursuing her PhD at the University of Texas at Austin at the time.
And she had joined an organization that had recently started Amnesty International in that period. And so she had this relentless energy that she was trying to find a purpose to place it to, somewhere to put that energy to, into that practical action. And so for four years she waged this campaign that involved the State Department and other governments in trying to secure the release of this one man. And so four years later, July 1979, he was released as a result of her actions. And in fact, they met the day of his release at the prison where he was being held, where he was told by the guard to walk out and not to turn back. And 46 years later, we just celebrated the 46-year anniversary of his release, which he often refers to as his birthday.
Carol Cone:
Oh, that's amazing.
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
It was. They didn't know each other at all before that, but it forged a bond between them and it was the foundation in every way of my sense of purpose, my sense of reason for work and for energy. That I'd say an action, and this was my mother's experience, no matter how small, can have immeasurable impact on the lives of others and in the community or in a society.
He endured some pretty unimaginable brutality. And even in those most trying moments, frankly, he dug deep. He found the willpower to be kind, to be brave. And then again, when he was released to move on and to live a productive life and a meaningful life, that gave me an incredible opportunity that I'm so grateful for every day.
Carol Cone:
I mean, really putting it to positive impact, which is extraordinary. So okay, why don't we shift a bit to the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and it has big goals and one of the things that I want to address today is how you scale. Scale is really important to Mastercard. And so a little bit about the center first and about setting the goals. Let's start out there.
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
So I think an important point on scale is that the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth fits within Mastercard's broader business strategy. So Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth is fully an arm and branch of the business. And we see this, you mentioned it in your book, and we see how the ability to not just function as a grant making arm but act as a strategic driver of Mastercard's long-term priorities is so essential. So what's at that center and what is scale for us?
I think the center, the core business strategy for Mastercard really is this doing well by doing good mentality and it cuts across all of our business elements and entities and business units. We help advance really that dual purpose of a company that's in the global payments and in the commercial space that's simultaneously helping to drive sustainable economic and inclusive growth, financial inclusion around the world.
In practice, what that means is leveraging Mastercard's core assets. It's leveraging our data, it's leveraging our technology, our people, our capital, really to deliver impact and ensuring that it aligns with and strengthens our business and at the same time creating shared opportunities and as we look at emerging economies, as we look at under-capitalized communities. So I think that's our path to scale. And it's also how the center is fully integrated into the core business of Mastercard.
Carol Cone:
And you set a goal of, I guess investing 1 billion into the digital economy with various partnerships. And so do you want to talk a little bit about setting the goal and then I really want to jump into the Strive US program because it's for small business, I'm a small business and there's a lot of really interesting things happening there.
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
Yeah, absolutely. So the Center for Inclusive Growth, there's a number of elements to what that means for us. There's financial inclusion and financial security and financial health at the individual level. There's small business resilience and growth, which to your point, Strive is the bedrock of our efforts around how we build and strengthen small businesses and micro businesses around the world. And I think it's a statement of an indication of the power of an entity of this sort, but it's also an indication of the quality of the people behind it because fast-forward 10 years later, we are just about at 960 million as of 2024.
That is a remarkable, remarkable outcome. 960 million lives who have been brought into the formal financial economy. What does that mean? Financial inclusion means access, so it means individuals, it means businesses accessing affordable and appropriate financial services, bank accounts, payment tools, et cetera. And it also means when you think about outcomes, inclusive growth, because that distinction between financial inclusion and inclusive growth, the inclusive growth piece is the outcome and it's referring to that economic growth that's broad-based, that's equitable and sustainable and it's benefiting really all segments of society, whether it be education or tech and employment growth in that. And so that's why Mastercard really committed to bringing 1 billion people into the digital economy back in 2014 and why we are now at 960 million as of 2024, very confidently moving toward hitting our goal of 1 billion by the end of 2025. We also see that that journey has taken us from about 51% of individuals globally with a financial account to now 79% roughly worldwide according to World Bank's Index which was just released in July.
Carol Cone:
Let's talk about small business and Strive USA, which is for small business. Why did you focus on that here? And then I'd love to hear a little bit of its components and then a favorite story or two of the impact you've made.
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
Yeah. So Mastercard Strive was born out of recognizing that while that opportunity exists for small businesses, there are also some fundamental challenges when we think about small businesses. We think about the fact that nearly half of small businesses fail within the first five years. So it's a capital access is hugely challenging for small businesses. We know that skills and the ability to scale is a big challenge when we think about know-how and networks and that about 80% of small businesses still depend on word of mouth as their primary marketing channel.
So there are a couple areas around data access, around capital access, around networks, and know-how, where we saw a clear challenge around this sector of small businesses that are the engines of growth for economies to really boost up and to help support their resilience and growth. And so what have we done at the center and what does Shrive USA aim to do? It really gets to those core challenges. It's about going digital, it's about getting capital, it's about growing networks and know-how. So from a digital perspective, we're connecting community lenders to essential digital tools that are really eliminating bottlenecks and enable access to lending and investments at a greater scale where from a capital perspective, supporting financial institutions, local banks, minority depository institutions, credit unions, and we're making it easier for small businesses to get the funding they need. That's the real zoom out.
We have unlocked a level of capital that frankly is unprecedented I think in this space, 46 billion in the last three years, funding innovation in FinTechs, partnerships with CDFIs. And then in growing networks and know-how, we bring together local and national partnerships, connect small businesses with expert organizations so that when you're thinking about that example of small businesses being challenged to figure out what the right marketing channel is, it's getting them into the relationships and the networks to be able to scale that growth and to achieve the ambitions that they have in so many ways.
Carol Cone:
I'm curious about considering rural America is really getting hit hard. I saw you have one with Rural LISC, and so love to hear that story because trying to regenerate those economies so they don't just lose everything is I think, really important to the soul of the country.
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
Yeah, completely agree. We follow a business to business model, so we're finding those partners that are able to deliver impact at scale and delivering resources, data, networks, et cetera, to those aggregate partners that can reach the level of scale that I mentioned of unlocking, for example, 46 billion in capital for small businesses.
And so when you think about a rural small business, their access to capital is frequently very, very challenged. They don't have traditional pathways. They don't have large access networks in that. So how do we find the partners that are able to create alternative and unique and sources of capital for them, and Accion is one of them. Nest is another. We have partnerships where we're helping small business owners get online and access new digital tools and get into spaces where they otherwise haven't been at the moment.
I think about one story and it relates to this pathway to how you digitize. There was an entrepreneur in Atlanta. She'd been selling handmade hair care products out of her car and at pop-ups for years and years, loyal customer base, great product. Then you had the pandemic hit and so not surprisingly, her business stalled. She didn't have a website. She didn't accept any source of digital payments. She didn't know how to access capital. And so through Strive's USA program, Keisha got connected with a local nonprofit partner. She then received one-on-one coaching that helped launch an online store, training on digital tools, even a grant to help get started for that. And for the first time, she had both a digital footprint and a plan for growth.
And then you fast-forward six months later from that, she wasn't just back in business, she was now fulfilling orders nationwide. She'd landed a retail partnership with a local beauty store. So I think what Strive did was Strive helped her get access to capital, it helped her get access to digital skills, and that really changed everything. It's an example of how we think about inclusive growth working when you meet entrepreneurs where they are.
Carol Cone:
Yeah, that was a great story and I really wanted one like that. Now talk about these small businesses a bit because what size are they? Are they five people? Are they under a million? I mean, let's have a sense of this because I don't think you're saying you have to start out at 100,000 or a million dollars in revenue.
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
No, not at all. In the US Strive so far, just in a sense of scale and what we've reached, we've reached 1.8 million small businesses, as I mentioned. We've deployed about $45, $46 billion in loan capital now via our products and services, we've engaged 772 community lenders in business support organizations. But I think to your point, beyond the numbers, what's really interesting here is the human impact and the broader economic impact. So we hear stories from our grantees about individual business owners whose lives we've touched, and for example, we hear about business owners who've been supported through Mastercard's Strive Grant, whose child will be the first in their family to attend college, or we find that a beloved local business that has been in business for multiple generations of a family has now grown.
I think about examples like Accessity, it's a CDFI that was launched as a new AI-powered tool smart lend, and what they do is they make their lending model more efficient and strengthens their relationship with clients so that you're able to identify potential applicants for funding that otherwise larger financial and traditional financial institutions may just have to overlook. Accessity is not at all a large business. It's not a medium-sized business. It's a small business. It's an entity that's really focused on how you deliver impact from the ground up.
Carol Cone:
Let's talk about AI. Now you just had this AI innovation challenge. And I listened to that podcast, it was amazing. You had over 500 entries around the globe and your guests from Mastercard, were talking about, well, these are the trends we're seeing, these are the type of ideas we're seeing. Were you involved in that or is that a different group in the center? But it sounded fascinating.
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
Across the company, AI and particularly Agentic AI is really at the forefront of our minds.
Carol Cone:
No, explain Agentic AI because I always have to look it up to understand what it means.
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
How you think about deploying AI as a force multiplier for your work. And so how are you creating a tool that is able to take what you're doing and then for you to walk away and make dinner while that project and process continue? That's a game changer in so many ways. It's a game changer. In Mastercard Center, we've been in AI for a long time. This is core to our work. I mentioned 5,000 transactions a second. We're making decisions on those transactions in hyperspeed and AI and tech is so foundational to that. So we have the data, we have the expertise to use it to help modernize global payments and to integrate digital assets into global commerce while protecting customers and partners really. So that's so foundational to our leveraging of AI and it also extends to the center. And so we have programs in Strive that are leveraging AI and also finding ways to bring AI to scale at a larger level.
For example, how do you connect small businesses with the support they need? So where are the platforms to bring together organizations with partnerships that are most beneficial to their growth and resilience, and how do you of course help small businesses streamline their operations? I think about one organization, one of our great partners in LA, ThinkWatts is building AI powered tools. And we've been a funder and a partner of ThinkWatts and their CEO and their founder Stix, who's this incredible individual who's bringing a level of opportunity to Watts, one of the most challenged and statistically dangerous locations in the world, really identifying that pain but also identifying opportunities to opportunity and growth.
We're helping them build AI-powered tools to help small businesses manage cash flow, create monthly budgets, enabling them to cut waste and just really double down on aspects of their business that are working, pull back from those that aren't. So it's identifying where there are opportunities and how to get to that opportunity for growth in a context like Watts, in a partner like ThinkWatts. And Stix is such a foundational partner and foundation to that growth in that community.
Carol Cone:
That's lovely. Unfortunately, we have to kind of close this, but I wanted to ask you the question of there are many early-stage careerists professionals who say, "Wow, Jonathan's had an amazing background. What a job he has now. I want that job someday." What advice do you give? Let's just talk about early-stage careerists who are very interested in the intersection of big business, global business, small business, technology. "I want Jonathan's job in 10 years."
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
It's a great question. I think when I zoom out, you started this conversation off with purpose and understanding how our family and our parents drive us. And so I think the first piece really starts with ourselves, right? You have to have a solid foundation in yourself to build anything, frankly. So that starts in a lot of ways with doing the personal work that allows you to then carry kindness, that allows you to be able to overcome fear and anger, to share credit. I love Colin Powell's words of perpetual optimism. You got to be able to work on yourself to be able to have the perpetual optimism that he spoke of. I think that's the first piece. You got to have that solid foundation in yourself, and that requires doing that personal work to get there.
I'd say the second is really around believing that it can get done, even if you can't yet see the path, setting those audacious visions that others can get behind and then getting uncomfortable and being wrong as you're carrying that out. So it's that belief almost that the impossible can be figured out. And then putting the wagons together once you have your destination set.
I'd say the third one is really about how you then do it, and that's building the habits and the relentless discipline, frankly, and in the execution of the smallest tasks that together amount to the big vision. And that's where I think about the question you asked about my parents, my mother, I think about going back to that, the smallest tasks that she took every day amounted to saving this person's life, and the impact of that is multiplied so many factors over. So it's that really, I think those three.
Carol Cone:
Pretty amazing. That's great advice. That's great advice. We have lots of fellows in our organization and I give speeches to young people and it's like they're in a rush. They're in a rush. And to your point, you got to build that internal, and then you have the small tasks and also the uncomfortable. And you may not get there, but keep trying. So that's beautiful, beautiful advice. I always give the last words to my guest. There's so much to discuss. Obviously we're going to have to do this again. In another 90 days, you'll be even more amazing. How would you like to leave it with our listeners?
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
Well, Carol, first of all, thank you so much for such a personally inspiring conversation and for all of the conversations that you've shared with us. I'm a fan and follower of your podcast. You may not know that, but I have been for a while now. And just find the conversation that you raised so meaningful and so helpful in a practical sense. We spoke about Strive, we spoke about small businesses, and it's so many ways a small business, as we mentioned, boils down to one person in so many cases, boils down to one family, boils down to dreams and hopes and fears. And it is the core of this concept of entrepreneurialism and that core concept of having a belief and diligently following through on it.
I'd use this opportunity to tell people to go out and support their dreamer, their small business in their communities, remember how special these small businesses are and the role that they play in our community and in our economies globally. I grew up in LA and I've lived in six or seven cities probably in my life, and I know the significance of small businesses, whether it's a restaurant in LA, Ledo's Pizza or restaurants in DC like Teaism and the role that they play in shaping our community. So I'll encourage us to all remember that that small business is grounded in a dream and an individual and a family. And as much as we can support them in every way we can, we should and we must. And also just say that we will be sharing more about our work and our efforts with small businesses and everything we're doing at Mastercard for Strive at an upcoming conference that we're hosting this year.
You mentioned gigs. We're going to be doing a similar one in a global context in Malaysia, so we'll be putting that on our website, and we'll also be hosting our Inclusive Growth Summit in Washington, DC again this coming April. So we'd love for folks to visit us and to be part of our conversations and to get on our website at mastercardcenter.org to learn more. Stay in touch, reach out to me if I can be of any help.
Carol Cone:
That's great. That's great. It's funny. I mean, it's not funny when you talk about entrepreneur and I have been a four-year entrepreneur and to me, it's just the way I am. But then I look back to my grandfather came from Latvia, had nothing, and he sold rags on the street of Atlanta, and he eventually became, he owned cotton yarn factories. I mean, to go from selling rags with nothing to that. And then my mother owned the first off Broadway theater in New York. So she started all of that. And then just the work that I do in social impact and such. And it's wonderful to have this pause to say, "Hey, it's not just doing it because it's what I do," but pausing to say "All of those other entrepreneurs and those small businesses and what a Mastercard is doing to contribute to their dreams, one small action at a time through networks."
And so I want to thank you. It gave me a pause to think about my heritage and to think about the road that I continue to travel. I think it's a great match for you and your new position. So I hope that your colleagues, I will tell you that with our podcasts, the greatest listenership that we usually get with large organizations are their employees because their employees hear this conversation, which is, it's a little more informal, it's a little more personal.
And I think that today in the world that is so fast and so crazy and so digitized and AI, it's about people and their ambitions and their dreams. And so Jonathan, you have been great. I love it. I hope you're one of my newest friends. Thank you for listening to the podcast, and I would be delighted to come to your summit and to really do interviews with the entrepreneurs and perhaps some other partners because I think that we did that with One Young World and it was phenomenal. So I love to meet the people that you are advancing, and also I hope that you do more for rural America because rural America needs all of us to help it with its challenges.
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
I couldn't agree more. Yeah, we're making a big, big push into that, and I hope that I made that clear enough. But our partnerships, one is with Heartland Forward, but across the board we're going to be hosting events in the region. We're also trying to double down on how we figure out how to put capital resources into the region, and it's a big, big part of our heart and our push right now, so it's heard loud and clear. Also, I'll just say thanks for sharing the story of your parents, and that's beautiful, and they sound like remarkable people. Remarkable people. So I am really grateful to you for sharing that. I hope over a drink and a meal at some point I can learn more.
Carol Cone:
That would be great. Okay, we're on for it. Okay. Thanks so much, Jonathan Fantini-Porter, you have a wonderful position with Mastercard and I know that it's going to continue to thrive and grow further, so thank you.
Jonathan Fantini-Porter:
Thank you, Carol. Thanks so much for your time. Thank you.
Carol Cone:
This podcast was brought to you by some amazing people, and I'd love to thank them. Anne Hundertmark and Kristin Kenny at Carol Cone on Purpose. Pete Wright and Andy Nelson, our crack production team at TruStory FM. And you, our listener. Please rate and rank us because we really want to be as high as possible as one of the top business podcasts available so that we can continue exploring together the importance and the activation of authentic purpose. Thanks so much for listening.
This transcript was exported on Aug 06, 2025 - view latest version here.
p360_207 RAW no intro (Completed 08/06/25)
Transcript by Rev.com
Page 1 of 2