Launching or Relaunching a Bank On Coalition

Chapter 8 of the Bank On Coalition Playbook, Launching or Relaunching a Coalition, provides guidance and a checklist of critical components for new or newly invigorated coalitions as they look to launch or relaunch their Bank On efforts.

This chapter looks at key moments Bank On coalitions experience during a launch or relaunch and includes detailed guidance for each step –laying the groundwork and planning for coalition success, developing communications and marketing efforts, building relationships with financial institutions, and sustaining momentum after the launch. View the full Playbook here.

Wells Fargo and CFE Fund Expand Access to Free Financial Counseling

This March 2018 press release announces a $1 million investment from Wells Fargo in the CFE Fund’s replication of its proven Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) model in 12 cities under the FEC Public platform. These funds will enable the CFE Fund and its municipal partners to reach more residents with high-quality, one-on-one financial counseling as a free public service. Since 2008, FEC counseling services have helped 80,000 clients reduce debt, improve credit, open safe bank accounts, and save for the future.

The CFE Fund selected twelve local governments as initial grantees of the expanded FEC program: Akron, OH; Detroit, MI; Greenville County, SC; Houston, TX; Miami, FL; New Haven, CT; Pittsburgh, PA; Sacramento, CA; San Francisco, CA; Memphis, TN; Shreveport, LA; and Syracuse, NY. The CFE Fund will select additional municipalities for future grant cohorts.

To learn more about FEC Public, visit www.fecpublic.org.

New Research: What Counts as Saving in Financial Counseling Approaches and Outcomes

This webinar discusses data results from a two-city pilot that looked at how Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) clients are saving, to ultimately inform new savings indicators for financial counseling success.

In 2017, financial counselors at Financial Empowerment Centers (FECs) in Nashville and Philadelphia tested an innovative approach to defining, discussing, and tracking their clients’ efforts to build savings, using new savings outcomes. The CFE Fund combined counselor and client experiences with academic and policy research to operationalize the field’s thinking about how people with low incomes save, to tell a more complete story about the impact of financial counseling on savings, and to learn whether changing a program’s data system affects the way financial counselors work and the results their clients achieve.

Watch the webinar here. View the presentation here.

Read the full report on this new research here.

A Much Closer Look: Enhancing Savings Counseling at Financial Empowerment Centers

This report, with generous support from Capital One, draws on data results from a two-city pilot to better understand how Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) clients are saving and ultimately inform new savings indicators for financial counseling success.

In 2017, financial counselors at Financial Empowerment Centers (FECs) in Nashville and Philadelphia tested an innovative approach to defining, discussing, and tracking their clients’ efforts to build savings, using new savings outcomes. The CFE Fund combined counselor and client experiences with academic and policy research to operationalize the field’s thinking about how people with low incomes save, to tell a more complete story about the impact of financial counseling on savings, and to learn whether changing a program’s data system affects the way financial counselors work and the results their clients achieve.

The CFE Fund hosted a webinar on this report. Watch the webinar here. View the presentation here.

Supervitamin Quarterly, Issue 12

This issue, Issue 12, includes details on a new Summer Jobs Connect funding opportunity; highlights the scaling of the Financial Empowerment Centers under the CFE Fund’s new FEC Public platform; and provides new Bank On resources and funding opportunities. It also includes local updates from the CFE Coalition, and a guest column from CFE Coalition co-chair City of Lansing’s Mayor Virgil Bernero.

Bank On Coalition Logic Model

Chapter 7 of the Bank On Coalition Playbook is the Bank On Coalition Logic Model, which provides a framework for Bank On coalition leaders to follow and organize their efforts for local success, providing a tool for planning and implementation as well as for fundraising and evaluation. The CFE Fund’s Bank On Coalition Playbook provides tools and resources that local coalitions can use to do their work more effectively.

Local Coalition Strategies for Navigating Financial Institution Partnerships and Account Certification

Chapter 6 of the Bank On Coalition Playbook, Local Coalition Strategies for Navigating Financial Institution Partnerships and Account Certification provides insight into a range of approaches local Bank On coalitions have used to engage with their financial institution partners.

The CFE Fund’s Bank On Coalition Playbook provides tools and resources that local coalitions can use to do their work more effectively. Additional components of the playbook include chapters on Guiding Principles for the Bank On movement, a template Statement of Principles for articulating partnership expectations between local Bank On Coalitions and financial institutions; information on the Bank On Account verification and certification process; a Bank On listserv; and a Bank On Coalition Logic Model.

Summer Jobs Connect: Where Strong Financial Futures Begin

This reportSummer Jobs Connect: Where Strong Financial Futures Begin details the Summer Jobs Connect (SJC) model and serves as a resource for local governments and their nonprofit partners who are looking to add financial empowerment strategies — banking access and financial education – into their Summer Youth Employment Programs.

Summer Jobs Connect is an ambitious initiative spearheaded by the Citi Foundation and the CFE Fund to support young adults seeking summer employment, enhancing these municipally-led programs by integrating structural linkages to safe and appropriate banking products, services, and education.

This report summarizes lessons learned from four years of SJC implementation with thirteen city partners, along with research on youth attitudes and beliefs about savings and banking.

 

Summer Jobs Connect: Youth Voices Video

This video highlights youth stories from the CFE Fund’s Summer Jobs Connect (SJC) initiative and #SummerJobsConnect Twitter campaign, in which SJC participants shared their stories about the program’s impact – opening a bank account, building savings, earning pay through direct deposit, and more.

Summer Jobs Connect is an ambitious initiative spearheaded by the Citi Foundation and the CFE Fund to support young adults seeking summer employment, enhancing these municipally-led programs by integrating structural linkages to safe and appropriate banking products, services, and education. During the initiative’s fourth year, the CFE Fund worked with 13 city governments and their local Summer Youth Employment Program partners to provide additional job positions to local residents of predominantly low incomes between the ages of 14 and 24, as well as connect them to appropriate bank and credit union products and meaningful financial education.

 

CFE Fund to Expand Free Financial Counseling to 50 Cities Through FEC Public Platform

This November 2017 press release announces th­­e first cohort of 12 local government partners selected to develop plans to replicate the proven Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) model under the CFE Fund’s new FEC Public platform.

Twelve local governments (Akron, OH; Detroit, MI; Greenville County, SC; Houston, TX; Miami, FL; New Haven, CT; Pittsburgh, PA; Sacramento, CA; San Francisco, CA; Memphis, TN; Shreveport, LA; and Syracuse, NY) were selected as initial grantees of the expanded program.

These municipalities will be the first 12 of up to 50 cities to work to with the CFE Fund to launch free, high-quality one-on-one financial counseling for low-income residents, thanks to generous support from Bloomberg Philanthropies as part of its American Cities Initiative. To learn more about FEC Public, visit www.fecpublic.org.