Category: Report

Boosting Sustainable Homeownership in Detroit: Adding Financial Counseling to Property Tax Relief Programs to Help Stabilize Low-Income Homeowners

Posted on by Katie Plat

Since it launched in 2020, the City of Detroit’s Financial Empowerment Center (FEC), as part of the CFE Fund’s national FEC Public initiative, has helped homeowners with low incomes avoid property tax foreclosure and stay in their homes. Working with the Wayne County Treasurer’s Office (WCTO) and the Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency (Wayne Metro), the City’s FEC joined a property tax relief ecosystem that is complex and constantly evolving, especially in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its ability to adapt to changing systems while remaining focused on client services enabled the FEC to help 485 homeowners reduce their overall debt by over $3 million to date.

To study the benefits of the relationship between Detroit’s property tax relief programs and the financial counseling services provided by the FEC, the CFE Fund partnered with the City of Detroit and MEF Associates, with generous support from the Wells Fargo Foundation. This study combines original qualitative research with a unique analysis of administrative data to explore sustainable homeownership outcomes experienced by clients participating in FEC financial counseling, the factors that influence those outcomes, and other questions to inform future programming and the broader field.

This report outlines the challenge of property tax foreclosure in Detroit, the opportunity to connect residents in danger of foreclosure with FEC financial counseling, and findings on how Detroit’s publicly-led financial counseling program supports low-income homeowners with property tax challenges.

Connecting Financial Capability and Small Business Supports: Findings from the Small Business Boost Pilot

Posted on by Katie Plat

The Small Business Boost pilot, with generous support from Principal Foundation, explored how FEC financial counseling can support the personal financial needs of small business owners and better position them to achieve their business goals. Five municipal FEC partners connected their professional, one-on-one financial counseling programs to their local small business  entrepreneurship ecosystems. As a part of the SBB pilot, national research organization the Urban Institute conducted a process and outcomes study that examined pilot implementation, take-up and retention, and the role of personal financial counseling in small business development.

This brief outlines key findings about the client experience and the integration itself; read the full report from the Urban Institute.

Intergenerational Wealth Transfer through FEC Counseling: A Multi-City Legacy Planning Pilot

Posted on by Katie Plat

The lack of intergenerational wealth transfer is a driving force preventing residents with low incomes from building wealth. Additionally, in many localities, because of both historic and current systemic racism and other barriers, Black residents and other residents of color experience more financial instability than White residents: as just one example, Black households have an average of one-fifth of the assets of White households. In response to this critical need, and with funding and partnership support from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative, the CFE Fund and four local governments partnered on a novel effort to build Black people’s ability to transfer wealth to future generations by integrating estate planning, or “legacy planning,” into existing FEC counseling services.

In this brief, the CFE Fund provides an overview of the findings from the pilot study showing the positive impact of integrating legacy planning into FEC financial counseling. The CFE Fund’s Legacy Planning pilot demonstrated that FECs can play a unique role in helping clients, including Black clients, engage in legacy planning – ensuring that clients can achieve their longer-term financial goals and have an opportunity to transfer wealth across generations. By adding legacy planning services to FEC financial counseling, FECs can play an important role in supporting racial wealth equity.

Meeting the Emergency Moment: Key Takeaways from Delivering Remote Municipal Financial Counseling Services

Posted on by Katie Plat

Local governments across the country are working to help their residents weather the health and financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In many cities and counties, that means deploying their Financial Empowerment Centers (FECs), which provide professional, one-on-one financial counseling as a public service. Local leaders were able to offer FEC financial counseling as a critical component of their emergency response infrastructure; the fact that this service already existed, and was embedded into the fabric of municipal anti-poverty efforts, meant that it could quickly pivot to meet new COVID-19 needs, including through offering remote financial counseling.

This brief describes how FEC partners identified the right technology; developed skills to deliver counseling remotely; messaged the availability of FEC services as part of their localities’ COVID-19 response; and shared lessons learned with their FEC counterparts around the country.

Navigating From a Good Idea to Public Financial Empowerment Commitments: An Outline of the CityStart Process

Posted on by Katie Plat

This brief, Navigating From a Good Idea to Public Financial Empowerment Commitments, outlines the experiences of the past two CityStart cohorts in moving from general interest in financial empowerment to concrete commitments to municipally-led efforts. The CFE Fund’s CityStart engagement supports local leaders in convening stakeholders, identifying local challenges and opportunities, aligning with Mayoral or municipal priorities, and then strategically planning for successful government programming. Using the experience of 17 cities who have participated already in CityStart, this Brief can provide city governments and key stakeholders interested in getting started with financial empowerment work with an understanding of how the CityStart engagement can facilitate the success of that process locally.

COVID-19 Resources

Posted on by Katie Plat

The CFE Fund has a number of supportive resources related to COVID-19!

This page lists all safe and affordable accounts certified as meeting the Bank On National Account Standards that can be opened online.

Municipal financial empowerment is a fundamental aspect of help and recovery. As city governments and others help residents navigate the financial impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, the following resources sheets can provide guidance on safe financial measures during this tumultuous time. The CFE Fund will continue to develop resources and add them to this page.

  • Banking Messaging Toolkit: We hope you will customize the components within this Banking Messaging Toolkit for your own communications efforts, and also share the toolkit with any other organizations whose clients might benefit from safe banking during this time. Contact us for access to the toolkit!
    This toolkit includes an array of resources that can be used and customize locally including:

    • Talking points;
    • Template social media language;
    • Social media graphics;
    • A template press release for coalitions, local governments, or other partners to use in announcing their efforts; and
    • Examples of ways that local governments, Bank On coalitions, and others already are highlighting the importance of banking access to receive payments and guiding residents to certified Bank On accounts.
  • Importance of Banking Access During COVID-19: It has never been more important to have a banking account. This tip sheet outlines the importance of a safe and affordable mainstream bank or credit union account for managing your money remotely, including to receive wages and government benefits securely through direct deposit and make payments remotely.
  • Engaging Unbanked People About Safe Banking Accounts, Particularly During This National Crisis: This tip sheet draws on findings from recent CFE Fund focus group and survey research on how to communicate the value of banking accounts to unbanked people, which are especially important during this crisis moment. The CFE Fund also produced a more in-depth version of this information as a Bank On Playbook chapter.
  • Safe Financial Measures to Take During COVID-19: This tip sheet lists the top ways to manage your finances if you have been financially affected by COVID-19.

Have ideas for resources that would be helpful in providing guidance on meeting the financial challenges of COVID-19? Get in touch!

Making the Case for Banking Access: Talking to Unbanked People about Bank Accounts

Posted on by Katie Plat

This report, Making the Case for Banking Access: Talking to Unbanked People About Bank Accounts, explores effective messages for communicating with those who are unbanked about the value of safe accounts. The CFE Fund commissioned strategic communications firm RALLY and polling research firm PSB to field a multi-city series of focus groups and surveys to uncover what types of messaging would most effectively move unbanked people to open accounts; a subset of the research focused on the financial attitudes, habits, and goals of unbanked people, as well as on Spanish-speaking unbanked people and how messages might best engage them to open accounts.

CFE Coalition City Expert Topic: Leveraging Tax Time to Build Financial Stability

Posted on by Katie Plat

Tax season is a critical financial empowerment moment for millions of families and individuals across the country. Each year, the tax season is a moment where filers are thinking about their finances; for filers with low and moderate incomes, tax season usually also means receiving a large lump sum in the form of a tax refund, often bolstered by the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). In addition, EITC-eligible filers can access free Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) from trained professionals. This brief details why city leaders are investing in tax time initiatives, provides details on how these programs operate, and highlights how cities have gotten started doing this critical work.

Overview: Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) Counselor Training Standards

Posted on by Katie Plat

This overview summarizes the Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) model’s Counselor Training Standards. The Standards delineate the breadth and depth of the financial content areas, counseling and coaching skills, practice and experiential learning, and socio-economic and cultural context setting necessary to serve the diverse needs and backgrounds of FEC clients. The Standards also include a Code of Ethics that promotes responsible, professional and ethical financial counseling, furthering the profession of one-on-one financial counseling.

All FEC partners are required to train their financial counselors in accordance with the requirements and competencies detailed in these Standards. To facilitate counselor trainings, the CFE Fund has approved national and regional training providers’ courses that align with the Standards; additionally, the CFE Fund encourages local training providers (partner organizations, training consultants, community colleges, or universities) to submit their trainings for CFE Fund evaluation and approval.

Click here to learn more about the FEC Counselor training process.

2017 Bank On Data Pilot: Accessing Local Data

Posted on by Katie Plat

This Bank On Coalition Playbook chapter, 2017 Bank On Data Pilot: Accessing Local Data, details the 2017 Bank On Data Pilot and includes instructions for accessing the local Bank On data at the city and zip code level. In 2017, the CFE Fund partnered with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRBSTL) to collect centralized metrics through a national reporting platform for financial institution partners with a Bank On certified account. Already, data from the first year of Bank On data reporting shows just how strong the demand is for safe, affordable, and functional Bank On accounts. Click here to learn more or to access the local data tool.

Read or download the full Bank On Coalition Playbook here.