At Circle, every employee is striving toward one goal: to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of value.
This idea of innovation expanding access to opportunity motivates Mercina Tillemann Perez and her teammates to bring their best selves to work every day. As vice president of Circle Impact, the company’s impact and global access expansion group, she drives the formation of impactful initiatives, such as the company’s partnerships with United Nations agencies that use USD Coin, a regulated stablecoin issued by Circle, to deliver life-sustaining resources.
“We see that when value moves freely and transparently, people and communities build stronger, more resilient futures,” she said.
Moov Financial’s employees get to put a powerful mission into action in a similar way. According to CEO and Co-Founder Wade Arnold, the company’s mission, which is to make moving money as easy as it is necessary for everyone, comes to life through fintech_devcon, an annual event that enables fintech builders to share knowledge that helps others build better, faster and with fewer mistakes.
“We measure success not by profit but by the caliber of speakers who volunteer to participate, the growing global audience and the stories we hear from developers who’ve built something better because of what they learned there,” he said.
A strong mission puts people first, and at Crexi, a company dedicated to helping real estate professionals more effectively market, analyze and trade commercial property, this focus on others has given way to the creation of impactful solutions. This includes the newly launched Crexi Vault, a secure, centralized platform that enables the company’s customers to get the full value out of private documents.
Chief Technical Officer Oded Noy believes that the company’s customer-first approach to product development empowers every employee to drive its mission forward by building solutions that fully address the needs of its customers.
“This customer-first mindset is embedded in everything we do, showing employees that our mission to simplify, modernize and improve commercial real estate isn’t just words; it’s how we operate every day,” he said.
Below, Perez, Arnold, Noy and three other leaders describe how their companies enable employees to pursue mission-driven work.
Circle’s platform connects traditional finance and digital assets in an effort to make global money movement as seamless as sending an email.
In one sentence, why does the mission matter to your team — and what decision did it guide recently?
Our mission, which is to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of value, matters because it reminds us that innovation is worth pursuing when it expands access and opportunity for everyone. In my role leading Circle’s impact and global access expansion work, that principle guides decisions every day. It has led us to prioritize partnerships with United Nations agencies that use USDC to deliver life-sustaining resources — from payments to frontline healthcare workers and housing support for internally displaced people in conflict zones to programs that help economically displaced women entrepreneurs rebuild stability. These initiatives are complex; they’re resource-intensive. And we support them because at Circle, purpose and performance are inextricably entwined. We see that when value moves freely and transparently, people and communities build stronger, more resilient futures.
Which community or customer initiative best demonstrates your mission — and how is it measured?
Our impact and access expansion initiatives best demonstrate our mission in action. Through collaborations with global partners, we’ve helped economically displaced women in the Middle East rebuild stability and supported innovators across Southeast Asia and Latin America as they restore livelihoods and rejoin the global economy. At the end of 2023, we also launched the Unlocking Impact pitch competition series — we just hosted our sixth iteration — which spotlights and funds builders from the Global South harnessing Circle’s technology to address seemingly intractable challenges. We measure success not only through speed, transparency, and cost savings but through what we’re enabling: those once excluded from traditional finance participating more fully, innovating more freely and prospering more sustainably.
“We measure success not only through speed, transparency, and cost savings but through what we’re enabling: those once excluded from traditional finance participating more fully, innovating more freely and prospering more sustainably.”
Do employees believe the mission is real? Share a moment or ritual that proves it.
Absolutely. One of the most energizing parts of my work is sharing “mission in action” stories across the company, real examples of how our technology supports families, entrepreneurs and communities in crisis. When teams hear how USDC helped a nurse in Venezuela obtain life-sustaining essentials or a Ukrainian mother secure rent after displacement, the mission becomes tangible. That sense of purpose is also embedded in our structure: Before our IPO, Circle pledged 1 percent of its equity to a foundation dedicated to advancing our mission and ideals, ensuring that impact remains hardwired into our long-term success. Together, these commitments reinforce a simple truth: Prosperity is most powerful when it’s shared.
Achieve is dedicated to helping consumers build a better financial future for themselves by enabling them to find the solution to meet their needs, such as a personal loan, a home equity loan or debt relief.
In one sentence, why does the mission matter to your team — and what decision did it guide recently?
At Achieve, our mission to empower everyday people toward a better financial future keeps us focused on our customers’ needs in every decision we make. Recently, it guided us to invest in developing and using advanced technology and AI tools to create more personalized member experiences and give our employees the support they need to help our customers succeed.
Which community or customer initiative best demonstrates your mission — and how is it measured?
Our mission comes to life through our deep commitment to listening to our members. We’ve built programs that actively gather and act on customer feedback, ensuring every improvement reflects their real needs and experiences. That focus on empathy and impact is reflected in the trust our members place in us, with a 4.8-star Trustpilot rating from more than 11,500 reviews, an A+ and 4.73-star rating from the Better Business Bureau, and a 4.8-star Google rating from over 750 reviews.
“Our mission comes to life through our deep commitment to listening to our members.”
Do employees believe the mission is real? Share a moment or ritual that proves it.
At milestone anniversaries, we ask employees to share a quote about their Achieve experience. One team member who recently celebrated their tenth anniversary said, “At Achieve, I feel valued for who I am as much as for what I bring to the organization. I spend my days working with kind, smart, committed professionals in a shared mission to help improve people’s lives. It doesn’t get better than that.”
Another said, “From day one, Achieve has been more than a workplace; it’s been home. Ten years later, I’m beyond thankful for the growth, support and the chance to help so many clients find their way out of debt.”
Crexi’s software is designed to help real estate professionals more effectively market, analyze and trade commercial property.
In one sentence, why does the mission matter to your team — and what decision did it guide recently?
At Crexi, our mission is to make commercial real estate more efficient, transparent and accessible for everyone involved in a transaction. Everything we build starts with our customers, understanding their pain points and creating solutions that make their work easier. Recently, we saw professionals struggling with siloed systems and outdated workflows for sharing deal materials, challenges that slowed deals and made collaboration harder. That inspired the recent creation of Crexi Vault, a secure, centralized platform that enables users to get the full value out of private documents, from extracting offering memorandums to building ones, empowering professionals to collaborate with confidence and keep transactions moving forward.
Which community or customer initiative best demonstrates your mission — and how is it measured?
Everything we build at Crexi is rooted in our customers’ needs, and together, our initiatives demonstrate our mission in action. Crexi Vault secures deal materials, Crexi Intelligence delivers actionable market insights, Crexi Pro streamlines end-to-end deal management, and Crexi Auction creates a competitive marketplace. Each product solves for different challenges, but all work in tandem to make transactions faster, more transparent and more efficient. Success is measured in faster deal cycles, higher engagement and smoother collaboration across the community.
“Each product solves for different challenges, but all work in tandem to make transactions faster, more transparent and more efficient.”
Do employees believe the mission is real? Share a moment or ritual that proves it.
Absolutely, our team sees the mission in action every day. One ritual that proves it is how we approach product development. Before building anything, we collaborate closely with customers, gathering feedback and observing how they work. This customer-first mindset is embedded in everything we do, showing employees that our mission to simplify, modernize and improve commercial real estate isn’t just words; it’s how we operate every day.
Moov Financial’s payments infrastructure platform is designed to make it easy for businesses to accept, store, send and spend money.
In one sentence, why does the mission matter to your team — and what decision did it guide recently?
We’re driven by our mission to make moving money as easy as it is necessary for everyone, and we know it matters because customers have been brought to tears by what our products enable them to do for the users they care deeply about. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t believe it if someone told me people get emotional over a product; it surprised us as well. For many, the ability to move money is what keeps their business running. That purpose guided our decision to focus on making in-person payments easier, leading us to become one of the few companies offering tap-to-pay functionality. Now, small and mid-sized businesses can accept payments directly through their phones, a simple and powerful proof of our mission in action.
“We’re driven by our mission to make moving money as easy as it is necessary for everyone, and we know it matters because customers have been brought to tears by what our products enable them to do for the users they care deeply about.”
Which community or customer initiative best demonstrates your mission — and how is it measured?
Our mission comes to life through one of our core values, Give First, which is giving without expecting anything in return. The clearest expression of that is fintech_devcon, an annual event we created for fintech builders to share knowledge that helps others build better, faster and with fewer mistakes. It’s entirely educational with no sales pitches, and we make all the session content freely available after the event, because we believe a rising tide lifts all ships. We measure success not by profit but by the caliber of speakers who volunteer to participate, the growing global audience and the stories we hear from developers who’ve built something better because of what they learned there. In 2025, we celebrated fintech_devcon’s fifth year, and it’s a true passion project making a lasting impact across the fintech community.
Do employees believe the mission is real? Share a moment or ritual that proves it.
One of the most powerful moments came during a recent industry event where our team was demoing a new product that helps banks and credit unions offer in-person payments to small and mid-sized businesses. For three straight 12-hour days, there was a line wrapped around our booth, and not one person on the team missed a beat. Every Moov employee, from sales and engineering to product and marketing, jumped in to answer questions, give demos, grab food for one another, and make sure every visitor felt cared for. Watching it all happen, I was emotional. It wasn’t me leading the charge; it was the mission. The team cared deeply about demonstrating how we make money movement easier for everyone, and despite their fatigue, their energy was palpable from the impact they were making. It was one of those moments where I thought, “This is it. This is why we’re here.”
First Entertainment Credit Union offers financial services to individuals and organizations in the entertainment industry.
In one sentence, why does the mission matter to your team — and what decision did it guide recently?
Our mission matters because it keeps us focused on being a trusted financial partner to creators, and it recently guided our decision to reimagine our Hollywood headquarters as a community hub where members can find panels, workshops and resources that nurture both their financial well-being and their creative growth.
Which community or customer initiative best demonstrates your mission — and how is it measured?
Over the past year, the community room at our Hollywood headquarters has become more than just a workplace; it has evolved into a welcoming space where creators come together to connect. Freelancers, filmmakers and entertainment professionals come together here for panels, resource fairs and networking workshops. These events give our members and often non-members as well direct access to experts who share insights on real challenges. They learn about everything from funding an independent film to navigating the ups and downs of freelance life.
“Over the past year, the community room at our Hollywood headquarters has become more than just a workplace; it has evolved into a welcoming space where creators come together to connect.”
What makes these moments meaningful is the collaboration behind them. It is not only our business development team driving the work. Colleagues from across the credit union share their time and expertise, which makes each event richer and more impactful. The results are measured in the most important way — through the voices of our members. When a new or long-time member shares that a workshop helped them open a door to opportunity, strengthen their credit, reduce financial stress, advance their career, or simply feel more supported on their creative journey, it affirms that every employee has a meaningful role in making a difference.
Do employees believe the mission is real? Share a moment or ritual that proves it.
The most rewarding moments often happen after an event. Seeing panelists stay to answer questions one on one, or witnessing professionals volunteer their time and talent to guide members reminds us why we do this work. “My Story Matters” and “You Belong Here” are more than taglines. They are the heart of what drives us. Every creative path is unique, and every story deserves support, resources, and connection. At First Entertainment, being a financial partner to creatives is not just what we do. It is who we are. It is all about you.
A part of the Central bank of the United States, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston strives to promote sound growth and financial stability in New England and the nation by conducting economic research, participating in monetary policy-making, supervising certain financial institutions and more.
In one sentence, why does the mission matter to your team — and what decision did it guide recently?
The mission of the FedNow Service is to make instant payments ubiquitous and accessible to every American citizen and business. This gives them the power to pay — and get paid — instantly. If you’re one of the many Americans living paycheck to paycheck, that can be life-changing. Enabled by additional safety features added to the service, we recently decided to increase our maximum transaction limit a second time, bringing it to $10 million. Your average citizen isn’t sending $10 million payments, but this change enables financial institutions for a new set of use cases, like funding real estate transactions and loans. That brings more banks and credit unions onto the FedNow Service, putting the power of instant payments in the hands of more Americans every week. As our network grows — we now have more than 1,500 participating financial institutions — more Americans can do more things with their money instantly.
“As our network grows — we now have more than 1,500 participating financial institutions — more Americans can do more things with their money instantly.”
Which community or customer initiative best demonstrates your mission — and how is it measured?
I was drawn to the FedNow Service because of the ability to improve lives, to help our most vulnerable avoid the cost of alternative financial services, like payday loans and check cashing services — services that cost nearly $200 billion every year. That’s a real, tangible positive impact on people’s lives. Recently, we started processing federal disaster relief payments over FedNow. When you talk about impacting lives, that’s getting financial relief to folks in what is likely the worst moment of their lives. That’s the power of instant payments in action — to have a meaningful impact on the world. How do I measure that? In a sense you don’t need to; every one of those payments is a citizen to whom we helped get support. How do you measure that kind of impact on someone’s life?
Do employees believe the mission is real? Share a moment or ritual that proves it.
Short answer: Yes. Longer answer: Also, yes. The mission gives us a purpose that’s bigger than ourselves, and in many cases, it connects to personal experience. I remember when I was just out of college, I kept cash in stashed envelopes to make sure I could pay what I needed to. One of the biggest challenges was managing when my rent was due versus when my pay actually hit my bank account. Being able to get paid and pay my bills in real time would have been game-changing. Some of my team members have shared similar stories. We regularly talk about our mission. When our first payment to a veteran was processed shortly after launch, we shared it and celebrated. When our first emergency payment was processed, we shared it and celebrated. When we processed a record number of those payments, we shared and celebrated. The need for those payments is very real, and the ability to help those folks, albeit indirectly, well that’s a rare privilege for a technologist.
