About Thrive Wisely
Our Mission
TKI Foundation, operating as Thrive Wisely, delivers uncompromised comprehensive financial education—training for economic liberation—to young adults and young parents ages 16-36 in underserved communities.
Our Vision
A generation of young adults equipped with financial systems literacy, practical wealth-building strategies, and collective economic power—free from the extraction and manipulation that predatory financial systems perpetuate.
Thrive Wisely is the financial education initiative of TKI Foundation, delivering uncompromised financial literacy and financial education to young adults and young parents ages 16-36.
Based in Cleveland, Ohio, Thrive Wisely serves organizations throughout Northeast Ohio and through strategic national partnerships. Our programs are designed for colleges, workforce systems, community-based organizations, and after-school providers seeking credible financial education that addresses systemic barriers—not just individual behavior.
Most financial literacy programs teach people how to function within financial systems without explaining how those systems extract wealth or constrain opportunity. Bank-sponsored programs cannot critique banking practices. Academic institutions often avoid controversy. Government agencies must remain politically neutral.
Thrive Wisely operates independently, allowing us to name predatory lending, explain systemic wealth extraction, and teach participants how financial systems are designed to extract rather than build wealth. This is what makes our financial education uncompromised—truth-telling that compromised programs cannot deliver.
Founder & Executive Leadership
Thrive Wisely was founded by TK Kinlow, who brings 26 years as a Fortune 500 Chief Financial Officer at companies including GE and Yum Brands, 9 years as an entrepreneur building businesses from the ground up, an MBA from Florida A&M University, and certification as a Chartered Management Accountant (CMA).
TK's background spans corporate finance, strategic planning, operational leadership, and business ownership—providing rare insider knowledge of how financial systems operate at scale. This curriculum combines executive-level financial expertise with entrepreneurial resilience and authentic understanding of systemic barriers facing underserved communities—creating what we call "vulnerable authority."
This work is informed by TK's forthcoming manuscript No One Is Coming To Save Us, which explores systems literacy, economic extraction, and community-centered financial strategies.
Our Approach: The 5Cs Framework
All Thrive Wisely financial literacy programs are built on our proprietary 5Cs Framework, which connects individual financial decisions to broader economic systems and pathways to stability and ownership:
Cash — Understanding and controlling money flow
Credit — Using credit strategically rather than defensively
Compassion — Removing shame as a barrier to learning and financial decision-making
Community — Leveraging collective economic power
Creating Companies — Ownership as a pathway to stability and wealth
This framework ensures consistent, comprehensive financial education across all program formats—whether serving college students, young parents in workforce programs, or youth in after-school settings.
Built for Institutional Partnership and National Scale
Based in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Thrive Wisely serves as the proving ground for programs designed for replication and scale. Our Cleveland roots ground our work in communities where historic disinvestment has made the need for honest financial education unmistakable—but our programs are built for national implementation.
We partner with colleges and universities, workforce development programs, after-school and youth-serving organizations, and community-based institutions throughout Ohio and nationwide. Our institutional partnership model allows organizations to deliver high-quality, uncompromised financial education to their communities while maintaining the curriculum integrity and outcomes measurement that funders and institutional leaders expect.
Organizations partner with Thrive Wisely when they need:
Credible financial literacy curriculum developed by a former Fortune 500 CFO
Systems-focused education that addresses barriers, not just individual behavior
Implementation-ready programs with facilitator support, materials, and assessment tools
Outcomes measurement that meets institutional reporting and funder requirements
Independence from bank sponsorship that allows truth-telling about predatory practices
Whether you're in Cleveland, California, or anywhere in between, Thrive Wisely brings proven financial education programs to your institution or community.
Partner With Thrive Wisely
If your institution or organization is seeking credible, deliverable financial literacy programming—whether you're in Cleveland, Ohio or anywhere nationwide—Thrive Wisely is ready to partner.
Questions? Email info@tkifoundation.org