Mercedes Garcia, Vice President Community Relations at Mastercard, knows just how quickly time flies when you find your passion. She’s been with Mastercard for 30 years now, serving for 10 of those years as Mastercard’s liaison to NAWBO and the nation’s women business owners.
After a 12-year career in advertising, Mercedes joined Mastercard in 1994 to open their Venezuela office. In 1998, she moved to work in their New York headquarters in product development, management and implementation. Then, 14 years ago, the global technology company in the payments industry was developing a reloadable prepaid card for underserved communities and asked Mercedes to be their spokesperson.
Mercedes was working with more affluent card users at the time, but had a passion for underserved communities. “I knew the importance of helping them learn how to manage their money and leverage technology,” she says. “They were using check cashing centers and pawn shops and paying high fees thinking that they wouldn’t be eligible for a payment card, but you don’t need a bank account or credit history to get one.”
Mercedes aimed to educate and empower underserved communities. During the day, she focused on getting affluent customers to spend more. In her remaining time, she spoke at conferences and workshops for underserved community members. Twelve years ago, Mastercard launched Master Your Card, a program for financial inclusion in these communities.
“I went to the head of the public policy team and said, ‘If you want to grow the program, you have to hire me,’” she says. Mercedes was brought on to manage the program in the area of community relations on the public policy team.
In this role, Mercedes began working with agencies in Washington, DC and it was recommended that she look into national associations like NAWBO. “We realized that a lot of small business owners wanted only cash and thought accepting electronic payments was too expensive and complicated,” she says. “We needed to educate them on accepting electronic payments and integrating technology because they’ll never grow if they’re just a cash business.”
Mercedes manages Mastercard’s relationships with organizations like NAWBO, the Association of Women’s Business Centers (AWBC), the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and other local chambers and the Latino Coalition. With NAWBO, she hit it off with CEO Jen Earle and joined NAWBO leaders and members for an FCEM event in Cancun, Mexico. She went as part of the U.S. delegation to represent how corporate partners align with women business owners.
Over the past decade, Mercedes has also enjoyed getting to know international women business owners who are part of AMEXME and delivering workshops and having exhibit space at NAWBO’s national conferences. She’s attended NAWBO New York City events and met with NAWBO Indianapolis and South Florida chapter leaders to see how they could bring financial education programming there.
“My background is very different, but I admire people who have the drive and strength to have their own business,” says Mercedes, who is now based in Miami, Florida. “Meeting all these amazing ladies over the years has been a big learning experience for me. I’ve had the opportunity to learn from them and share my experience in turn.”
So what’s Mercedes’ hope for the next decade of this partnership, especially as NAWBO embarks on its next 50 years? “First, I want to see NAWBO continue its amazing growth and advocacy, ensuring that whatever changes come, it will always be protecting women business owners and women in general,” she says.
“Also, I want to ensure that NAWBO benefits from any support, resources and tools Mastercard develops by making sure that NAWBO is at the top of the list to benefit from those,” she continues. “We believe in what NAWBO does and that’s why we support it.”
Mastercard’s Rural Area and Latina Small Business Initiatives
Last year, Mastercard traveled to nine rural towns in eight states to host roundtables for small business owners. They partnered with local chambers to identify the business owners (half were always women) and coordinated with NAWBO to invite established women business owners to join and share about their experiences. Mastercard sponsored several complimentary one-year NAWBO memberships for certain attendees, and will continue to do this as they host additional roundtables in new rural towns. Mastercard is also focused on Latino individuals and small business owners throughout the U.S. The Small Business Team has been hosting educational webinars and exploring how NAWBO can be incorporated into these events.
Mastercard’s Free Resources and Tools For Small Businesses
Mastercard is a technology company that is always developing new resources and tools to support small businesses. Check out several free ones below:
• Trust Center to assess your risks and protect your business against cyberattacks.
• Digital Doors to explore new ways to get digital, grow and protect your business.
• Master Your Card to access a Resource Center and Toolkit for small businesses.
• Master Your Card YouTube Channel to increase your financial literacy.
Also, the Small Business AI Chatbot pilot was introduced in January to help small and mid-sized businesses to harness the power of artificial intelligence.