THE COMPASSIONATE COLLECTOR

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins built PROMISE into a $520 million powerhouse by helping municipalities collect unpaid bills with text messages and zero-interest plans.

- AMY FELDMAN

APRIL BINGHAM, DIRECTOR OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA'S DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC UTILITIES, WAS WORRIED.

During the pandemic, as consumers struggled to pay their utility bills, the city's unpaid accounts had soared to $41 million by November 2022, up nearly threefold from roughly $15 million in February 2020. The steep increase raised questions about how the city would fix its aging infrastructure, including maintaining a century-old water main. Collecting on those unpaid bills was vital: They added up to 13% of the city-owned utility's annual billing.

In February 2023, Richmond turned to Promise, a software startup based in Fairfield, California, that manages payment plans for state and local governments and that had already helped the city distribute federal aid. The result: While bills 90 days past due have continued to rise, 11,000 people have signed up for a payment plan, and 93% are making payments on time, thanks to Promise's consumer-friendly app, zero-interest plans and ability to pay by credit card, Venmo or just about any other method.

"When we had in-house payment plans, [customers] would make one payment to stop the disconnection and then break the payment plan and start the cycle over again," Bingham says. "Promise allowed people to feel human again, to take control of their finances and to be secure in making a decision about what they can and cannot afford."