10th Annual Awards Will Be Presented on March 4 in Las Vegas

New York, NY – February 12, 2016 – Fundation was named a finalist in the Sales & Customer Service category in the 10th annual Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service, and will ultimately be a Gold, Silver or Bronze Stevie Award winner in the program.

The awards are presented by the Stevie Awards, which organizes several of the world’s leading business awards shows, including the prestigious International Business Awards and American Business Awards.

The final results will be announced during a gala banquet on Friday, March 4, at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Finalists from the U.S.A. and several other nations are expected to attend.

More than 2,100 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this year’s competition, an increase of 11% over 2015. Finalists were determined by the average scores of 115 professionals worldwide, acting as preliminary judges. Entries were considered in 59 categories for customer service and contact center achievements, including Contact Center of the Year, Award for Innovation in Customer Service, and Customer Service Department of the Year; 51 categories for sales and business development achievements, ranging from Senior Sales Executive of the Year to Business Development Achievement of the Year; and categories to recognize new products and services and solution providers.

Fundation was nominated for having pioneered the first integrated partnership between an online lender and a traditional bank, Regions Bank. The first of its kind, this agreement combines the strengths of one of the nation’s largest full-service banks with those of a leading online direct lender to provide small businesses with a fully integrated, digitally enabled experience for loan products.

More than 60 members of several specialized judging committees will determine the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements from among the finalists during final judging, to begin January 25.

“The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service continues to be the fastest-growing of our international awards programs,” said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards. “The sheer number of nominations is matched by the increasing quality of those nominations. We congratulate all of this year’s finalists and wish them well in the next phase of judging.”

“Fundation is honored to have been selected as a finalist in the Sales & Customer Service category,” said Barry Feierstein, Chief Operating Officer at Fundation. “Our partnership with Regions Bank is designed to provide the bank’s customers with the best possible digitally enabled experience when seeking a small business loan. We built the entire process around serving the customer, and it is terrific that our solution is being recognized as an award finalist in this category.”

Details about the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service and the list of finalists in all categories are available at www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

About Fundation
Fundation is one of the nation’s leading online direct lenders for loans to small and midsize businesses. Our innovative business model combines the benefits of a bank loan with the ease and efficiency of an online lender. Fundation is a direct lender: we originate loans with our own capital and keep loans on our balance sheet. Because we commit our own money to fund our customers’ business loans, our interests are aligned with those of our customers. We are successful when our customers’ businesses succeed and they are able to repay their loans back to us. As our customers’ long-term partner, we offer the highest level of personalized service and best-in-class products, which is why our customers come back to us when they need advice or additional capital.

About the Stevie Awards
The Stevie Awards are conferred in six programs: the American Business Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, and the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com, and follow the Stevie Awards on Twitter @TheStevieAwards.

Sponsors of the 10th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include Sales Partnerships and ValueSelling Associates.