Jonathan Mintz is Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE) Fund, a national non-profit organization that supports municipal efforts in over 100 cities and counties across the country to help low-income families and individuals achieve long-term financial stability. The CFE Fund leads national programs across partner cities including Bank On, Summer Jobs Connect, and Financial Empowerment Centers. He also founded and co-chaired the Cities for Financial Empowerment Coalition (CFE Coalition), which has brought together pioneering municipal governments from across the country to advance innovative financial empowerment initiatives on the municipal, state, and national level.
Jonathan was previously the longest-serving Commissioner in the history of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA), having been appointed to the role by former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. During this time, Mintz redefined the Department’s regulatory enforcement powers toward a focus on consumer financial stability, re-envisioning consumer rights in fields such as debt collection, process serving, employment, and finance. While there, he launched the country’s first Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE), which has been replicated by local governments across the nation to systematically advance programs in financial counseling and education, asset building, safe banking, and consumer financial protection.
Mintz pioneered the “Supervitamin Effect,” a growing body of programs, policies, and research that measures the positive impacts of integrating financial empowerment services into mainstream local government antipoverty programs such as workforce development, public housing, domestic violence, prisoner reentry, and more.