Work With a Mission: How to Make an Impact

Every employer has goals to work toward, but joining a company with a mission you believe in can reframe your perspective on the work you do.

Here’s how Fannie Mae came together as a company with a mission to improve access to homeownership and rental housing.

Removing barriers to homeownership.

As a leader in the housing finance industry, Fannie Mae’s mission is to reduce barriers and expand equitable access to housing across the country.  

Fannie Mae employees create solutions to help people get closer to homeownership and increase access to affordable, sustainable rental housing. Recently, cross-functional teams took on a challenge: millions of people in the U.S. have a limited credit history, which can be an obstacle to obtaining credit and qualifying for a mortgage to buy a home — one of the most common ways to build wealth. 

Rent payments are the largest recurring monthly expense that many households pay, but those on-time payments aren’t typically considered when applying for a mortgage. Leaders across Fannie Mae realized that if there were a way for rent payments to support an applicant’s creditworthiness, then a barrier to homeownership and other financing opportunities could be removed. 

So, teams across technology, data analytics, and business got to work developing a solution. Thanks to these teams’ hard work, Fannie Mae launched a broad initiative focused on helping borrowers unlock the power of their rent payments. Now, prospective homebuyers can use their rent payment history to qualify for a home loan, and residents of Fannie Mae-financed multifamily properties can have their rent payments reported directly to credit bureaus, which can improve their credit scores.

Collaboration makes the mission work.

Since there was no existing way to collect or document this rent payment data, it required significant new technological processes. Simran Batra, a data science senior associate at Fannie Mae, spent months using her technical analysis skills to create a system that can identify and extract the relevant rent payment data from bank statements.

“I know people are going from not qualifying for a mortgage to becoming homeowners, and that’s incredibly fulfilling,” she said of her work. “That’s one of the main reasons I joined Fannie Mae — to make an impact on people’s lives.”

The solution required a secure environment where the processes could run in the cloud. Sravanthi Davuluri, a technology director, led the team that set up the secure cloud environment.

“I am so proud of our work to support this initiative,” she said. “It’s technology with a purpose to solve a problem.”

Nearly a year after launching these programs, over 14,500 renters without credit scores were able to establish and start building credit. Among those who already had credit scores, the average score increased by 39 points.^*

“I’m very excited about this program,” said Nancy Atwell, Multifamily Chief Operating Officer at Fannie Mae. “It’s the latest in our ongoing efforts to bolster equitable access to credit and remove unnecessary obstacles in a consumer's housing journey, whether they choose to rent or aspire to own a home.”

Find a mission that moves you.

Working for a company with a clear and meaningful mission can increase your overall morale and engagement with the job, as teams work together with a unifying purpose. When there’s a driving mission that puts the work in context, your job doesn’t just make an impact on the people you serve — it makes an impact on you.

Consider the mission, as well as the paycheck, when choosing your next role — or just apply at Fannie Mae!

Fairygodboss is proud to partner with Fannie Mae. Find a job there today!