Making Financial Education Impactful

WorkSquare wants to identify how to make financial education most impactful. Providing educational opportunities for our employees is only valuable insofar as it is the right curriculum, delivered in a way that is convenient, practicable and engaging. For low-income workers, most balancing multiple jobs and family obligations, the immediate opportunity cost of spending hours in a training session is burdensome when the perceived benefits to any training are unclear or, at best, long-term.

So what are the best practices, promising pedagogies, and new innovations in financial education that can conveniently deliver real value for our clients? Well… we’re having trouble identifying them. Our initial search shows a lot more of the same, with web-based versions of the old touted as ‘innovation’. Nevertheless, here is our initial shortlist on orgs and methodologies that we think are pushing the envelope and getting it right.

Jumpstart Coalition
Network of 149 national orgs committed to youth financial education provides a clearinghouse of materials to assist educators on the subject. Yes, this is absolutely the time to reach people and this curriculum should be a requisite for high school graduation. But what can we do when we’re too late? How to effectively access an adult working population?

Financial Entertainment: Video Games
D2D Fund has released five video games in multiple languages to deliver financial literacy education in an entertaining and engaging way. Content is geared for young adults but accessible to all. Check it out here.

Community Games
This past August, Mayor Thomas Menino used the online game “Farm Blitz” to educate teenagers participating in Boston’s Summer Jobs Program on managing personal finances. Winners earned cash prizes, deposited directly into savings accounts. Nebraska Credit Unions sought to stimulate savings with the allure of lottery winnings with their “Save to Win” game offered at nine credit union branches. Depositors opened more than 11,000 accounts and deposited nearly $9 million in savings, often by people with no other savings, in hopes of winning a $25,000 grand prize or dozens of smaller monthly prizes.

Financial Coaching
I was fortunate to be invited to a training on financial coaching for low-income put on by United Way last year with the Santa Fe Community College. Coaching offers a framework in which the participant is empowered to set her own financial goals and make progress toward them, while the coach focus on holding clients accountable in a one-on-one setting and providing relevant educational information as needed. This is the most impactful pedagogy I have seen. Downside? Time- and cost-intensive for participants and providers. Check out “Financial Coaching: A new Approach for Asset Building?”, Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2007.

We are following RAND Corporation’s Financial Literacy Center and others to stay on top of what’s new. If you have other sources or ideas, please send. We have hundreds of low-wage workers in need of your good ideas!