Beam 2022 Impact Report

Introduction

Many of our cities, counties, and states have outdated benefits systems that hinder our most vulnerable neighbors from accessing the support they need. Beyond stripping individuals of their dignity, so many of these systems fundamentally fail to deliver critical resources when individuals and families face their toughest moments like the threat of eviction or discontinuation of utilities, which can quite literally result in life and death.

Put simply: the status quo of our public benefits infrastructure is exhausting, dehumanizing, and at its worst life-threatening. It robs our communities from realizing their full potential.

collaborative group of diverse workforce around computers

Beam’s mission is to fundamentally reshape this unacceptable state of affairs – to build the next generation of the social safety net to ensure Americans can access all of the resources to which they are entitled with the greatest dignity and least administration burden possible.

This includes partnering with governments to build better and smarter systems to make applications easier from start to finish, reduce the number of applications an individual needs to submit over time, and get money out in hours rather than months.

In doing so, we seek to bring dignity to the American social safety net and support millions of people in achieving the economic mobility that puts them on path to their best lives – and our country on path to the best version of itself.

2022 was a milestone year for Beam.

After a number of years dramatically improving postsecondary outcomes for hundreds of thousands of students through the distribution of over $100M in emergency aid, we expanded our impact mandate to begin directly serving all Americans through partnerships with government that saw us administer our first social safety net and economic development programs.

This expansion and our success in 2022 puts us on a fundamentally different trajectory than before– one that will allow us to grow far faster and, more importantly, scale our impact most meaningfully: with an opportunity to redefine the digital infrastructure of government and non-government alike.

Company Rebrand

In November, we announced that we are now known as Beam. Becoming Beam symbolized this shift – from working solely with postsecondary institutions to working with all cash and benefit programs across government and communities to get timely support to all in need.

Friction points identified as challenges for nearly all safety net programs

We recognized that mitigating friction points across program outreach, application, verification, decision, payments, and reporting is a challenge faced not solely by postsecondary administrators but also administrators of nearly all safety net programs.

Yet, few existing systems treat program administration holistically through this lens. Our technology has been designed to solve fragmentation across each of the below crucial steps – and we validated that these same problems that plague emergency aid administration also apply across government programs.

1

Application

2

Verification

3

Decision

4

Payment

5

Reporting
& Analytics

In validating this truth, 2022 represented a time of exciting expansion of partnerships with local government agencies and communities across the country to create the next generation of the critical programs that are the difference in keeping many people safely housed and with food on the table.

“Creating more equitable access to our most vital resource is a top priority for the City of Baltimore. Using Beam to power the Water4All program has allowed us to better execute on our goal to ensure that every resident has access to safe, clean water. In just five months, we have granted over 385 subsidies worth over $450,000. We’ve seen a real change in how quickly and effectively we’ve been able to serve our local community.”

Milton Cox
Baltimore City's Water4All Program

Government Partnerships

In 2022, Beam embarked on proving its ability to bring impact into government and take its first steps toward building the next generation of the social safety net. Entering the year, Beam had yet to launch its government-facing platform.

By the end of 2022, Beam had administered over $26 million and served 121,000 individuals on behalf of government specifically, had launched multiple government programs including tenant-based emergency rental assistance in New Hampshire and water utility subsidies programs in partnership with the City of Baltimore, signed its first state contract, and got dollars to constituents on behalf of government in as few as 3 minutes from application.

Southern New Hampshire Services:
Community Action Program

In 2022, Beam began administering $53 million in Emergency Rental Assistance 1 (ERAP1) and ERAP2 programs in partnership with the largest Community Action Program in the state (New Hampshire).

From the very beginning of the partnership, Beam engaged in equity-centered design that included embedding our team alongside case managers to understand how our platform could streamline existing processes across offices, from application intake to fiscal disbursement to compliance and reporting. This has resulted in getting applications processed in, on average, less than a week by the third month of the partnership.

Impact with Southern New Hampshire Services

7092

Applications submitted

1410

Applications processed

$25.6M

Dollars disbursed to NH households, landlords, and service providers

“Beam’s software was selected to help us for two reasons: (1) because they genuinely care about solving this problem for case managers and constituents and have been true partners to us in representing the right solution, and (2) they’ve helped us offer a equity-centered, nimble, and effective solution for managing multi-application, multi-payment cash assistance programs in a way that acknowledges the case manager experience and provides transparency around equitable distribution of funds.”

Donnalee lozeau, chief executive officer
Southern new hampshire services

Learn more about our program with SNHS

Water4All: Supporting Baltimore Residents with Water Assistance

Simultaneously, Baltimore City approached Beam to help address its struggles with aging water systems that disproportionately impact Black residents in terms of quality and cost. Water4All is the realization of the 2019 Water Accountability and Equity Act, a law that moves customers to an income-based water affordability program. Tenants are eligible if the household income is 200% or less of federal poverty guidelines. Applicants provide income verification and proof of their water expenses, and the subsidy is calculated based on their income, percentage of federal poverty level, and water expenses. Approved tenants receive a cash transfer through Beam, either directly to their bank accounts or via prepaid card. To date, recipients have received funds in as quickly as 3 minutes.

Within four months of Beam’s application opening, the Mayor’s Office of Children and Family Success has approved over $415K in Water4All subsidies for over 350 tenant households.

Learn more about the Water4All program with Baltimore

Our technology

Learnings from our first government projects have led to major feature enhancements in our product today. Today, our all-in-one configurable platform:

Conducts data-driven outreach and prioritization with subject matter experts to ensure funds reach the most vulnerable populations.

Provides real-time reports that enable partners to quickly gauge program performance, investigate and understand specific cases, and create custom impact reports and visualizations.

Offers features built to serve compliance required by both governments and philanthropies. By having case management and payments in the same system, all applicant actions are time stamped and reconciled, meaning no fragmentation in the case ID or number for reporting purposes.

Supports a wide range of payment methods, such as direct payments to applicants and third-party vendors, recurring payments, and more.

Solves for the absence of transparency in traditional financial assistance applications by allowing applicants to review the status of their application and see exactly where in the review process their application stands.

As a result of this transformative evolution, Beam is in discussion with more than 60 local and state governments across the country around programs as diverse as:

Food assistance

Housing Assistance

Child Care Subsidies

Farmer Subsidies

Utility Assistance

Water Assistance

Disaster relief

Workforce Stipends

Tax Credits

Guaranteed income

Emergency aid

Small Business Grants

By the end of 2023, we anticipate tripling our government partners to support a range of programs, including rental assistance, small business supports, food assistance, and guaranteed income style payments.

Education Partnerships

In 2022, Beam continued to support colleges and universities with student emergency aid administration, a part of Beam’s work that will always remain core to our mission and who we are. Within education, we expanded our focus to targeted initiatives geared toward specific underinvested populations, including student parents, transfer students, and K-12 students on the path to postsecondary.

CSU Dominguez Hills

We strongly believe that the application should not be a barrier. With our inclusive application, users can apply from phone, tablet, or laptop for themselves or on behalf of someone else. In addition, our application meets WCAG 2.0 accessibility standards, so users have the ability to navigate and apply using a screen reader and/or keyboard only.

California State University, Dominguez Hills is a public university in Carson, California.

In 2022, 258 students received $143,400 of funding

Top need categories were learning, transportation, food

Students who received the emergency aid persisted at a rate of 220% greater than students who did not receive the aid, demonstrating the tremendous impact Beam had on student enrollment persistence.

Read our case study on CSU Dominguez Hills

Focus on pathways to higher education

The OppNet Fellows program is an intensive six-year experience for students beginning the summer after 10th grade that cultivates their passions and skills to persist through college and launch the careers of their choice upon graduation.

In 2022, $350,000 in funding went to 113 OppNet fellows, who reported challenges in paying for learning expenses, transportation, food, and housing costs.

focus on alumni persistence support

DCPS Persists provides college-bound DC Public Schools graduates with a support network and resources needed to help them succeed in college.

Through the DC Public Ed Fund and Beam partnership, DC Persists launched emergency persistence grants for college students experiencing vulnerable situations.

DC Persists awarded $300 in emergency funding to all applicants, helping them avoid college dropouts thanks to the supplemental support.

On average, it took DCPS Persists applicants 4 minutes to complete the application and claimed funds within 5 hours of being approved. Beam processed 734 applications and helped award $213,300 in persistence grants between August 2020 - May 2022.

Learn more about our program with DCPS

2022 by the numbers

$122M

Overall funding

39,716

Overall applications submitted

43,554

Overall individuals supported

5 mins, 35 secs

Average speed of application completion

22 hours, 2 mins

Average speed from application to payment claim

16

Number of states

15.5%

Southern New Hampshire University

Students who received emergency aid persisted at a rate 15.5% higher than students who did not receive aid.

220%

CSU Dominguez Hills

Students who received emergency aid persisted at a rate of 220% greater than students who did not receive aid.

"The benefit helped my family and me in our time of need. The process was very effortless, and the response was so unexpectedly quick. In other words, it was just in time. Thank you, this program does make a difference."

Purdue university global student

"This program is a big help with cost of living, increasing food prices, bills etc. I was able to get caught up on my bill and not have to worry about my water being disconnected. It was a relief and now could concentrate on other things like my kids. Thank you Baltimore city and employees."

Water4all program beneficiary

"I am currently living in a domestic violence transitional home with my two children. My oldest is 1-year old and my youngest is 9 months. I have full-custody of both of my children due to the domestic violence. By receiving this emergency funding, not only will [it] help out my family and I but it will also allow me to buy the supplies I need to further my education."

East Los Angeles college student

"I am a homeless single mother who has been homeless for over 5 years, had to quit my job 3 years ago due to lack of childcare while worked, decided to take school seriously despite my financial struggles because I know one day it will pay off, but it is hard at times to stay motivated when am living below poverty level."

Los Angeles southwest college lasc student

The beam team

In 2022, corresponding to our growth and expansion, we took an organization-wide scan to reassess and refine our company values. Embedded in each and every value is our commitment to being anti-racist in our build products and every behavior we engage in, inside and outside the company. The below represent our co-architected values, with input from each and every team member.

It is vital—given nuanced issues related to class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, and geography that are so intersectional to our work—that we serve as an embodiment of the clear force for good we aim to be in the world, so that this identity not be muddied.

These values are easy to champion but difficult to practice. They include:

Lead with empathy

Intentions matter,
impact matters more

solution for A better future

practice stewardship

advocate with expertise

Commitment to our values

At Beam, we are committed to living out our values—not only in what we release as a company, but internally with our team. We strive to equitably value and care for people of all different backgrounds and identities, including our staff and the individuals we support. This means being intentional with the work we do. Constantly evaluating justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in our work, behavior, surroundings, and workplace. Within this commitment, Beam continuously aims to build and support a diverse and equitable team, and employees have the opportunity to self-identify their backgrounds to help Beam track our efforts.

Below are Beam's current demographic reports as of December 31, 2022:

Gender

Female - 48.48%

Male - 45.45%

Non-binary - 3%

Other - Not Listed - 3%

Race/Ethnicity

White - 39.39%

Asian - 18.18%

Black - 12.12%

Latinx - 12.12%

Other or Not Listed - 9.09%

Two or more races- 9.09%

2023 Outlook

As we look to the year ahead, a movement is growing among governments, institutions, and philanthropy to urgently pursue the implementation of new digital infrastructure that performs for our most vulnerable neighbors—not just today but for decades to come. We must seize this movement and also ensure that equity, access, speed, and dignity are prioritized in how we build the next generation of the social safety net.

On a mission to do more to improve outcomes

While we’re excited about our ability to greatly improve administration of programs and constituent experience through what we’ve built, to achieve this mission, we’ll need to do far more to improve outcomes. As Beam enters 2023, we are excited to engage in different and wide ranging work streams that increase the nuance and sophistication of our approach that include:

While Beam's approach transforms the safety net, more can still be done.

1

ensuring the most vulnerable applicants are applying to programs

2

ensuring the most vulnerable applicants are prioritized first and as quickly as possible once they’ve applied

3

reducing year over year churn of benefits enrollees

4

ensuring applicants experience a no-wrong-door-approach to accessing the benefits to which they may be eligible

In the government space, this may look like community outreach initiatives, prioritization frameworks that center equity and impact, and interoperability across programs. In the education arena, this may look like creating digital one-stops and comprehensive onboarding applications to ensure students can access various programs, including emergency aid, without needing to apply to different applications across disparate departments.

As we take on this work and continue to scale, we inch closer to realizing our vision of redefining the next generation of the social safety net. In alignment with our values, we are most energized in this work by working with organizations and leaders of communities focused on eliminating the racial wealth gap and reducing disparities.

If you’re a government, educational institution, community based organization, or foundation who shares our mission, please don’t hesitate to reach out in 2023.

Interested in learning more? Please fill out the Contact Us Form We look forward to speaking with you.