rochester_ny | Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund

Emergency Financial Empowerment

Natural disasters, public health crises, and other localized emergencies can have serious financial ramifications for individuals and families, due to unexpected expenses, loss of income, and limited access to relief supports and programs. The Emergency Financial Empowerment (EFE) initiative partners local emergency management leadership with government and other community financial empowerment resources, better to ensure that emergency response protocols incorporate critical personal finance preparedness and response.

To learn more about the CFE Fund’s new Emergency Financial Empowerment (EFE) initiative, contact Sol Vilera Ramos, Manager.

Financial Empowerment Cities

Financial empowerment efforts best achieve high-quality scale and impact when they are integrated into, and led by, local government. Across the country, city and county leaders have turned to financial empowerment strategies to build their residents’ financial stability, with a number of localities moving beyond a single program or policy to a dedicated Office of Financial Empowerment.

Across more than a decade of work and 100+ city and county partner experiences, the CFE Fund has seen the importance of dedicated leadership to catalyze other opportunities, like connecting financial empowerment to Mayoral priorities, fundraising opportunities, and policy efforts. With generous support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the CFE Fund is supporting cohort of local leaders to launch and lead a newly established local Office of Financial Empowerment through our Financial Empowerment Cities (FE Cities) initiative.

Through the FE Cities initiative, the CFE Fund supports cohorts of local leaders, trained in a two-year training program. Each OFE Leader will work with the CFE Fund to launch and lead a newly established local Office of Financial Empowerment, managing existing and launching new financial empowerment programs and initiatives. OFE Leaders will also serve as the local government’s internal financial empowerment consultant; bring a financial stability lens to a range of related issues; and leverage their leadership role to ensure financial empowerment is central to local anti-poverty efforts.

If you have any questions, please contact Kant Desai, Senior Principal.

Bank On Fellowship

The CFE Fund’s Bank On national initiative supports local coalitions with strategic and financial support, as well as liaising nationally with banking, regulatory, and nonprofit organization partners to expand banking access, including through the first-ever Bank On National Account Standards.

The CFE Fund’s Bank On Fellowship program, generously supported by Wells Fargo, provides funding and in-kind technical assistance to support a full-time Fellow to lead their coalition’s activities. The CFE Fund recently announced the fourth cohort of Bank On Fellows: Bank On Arizona (State of Arizona); Bank On CLE (Cleveland, OH); Bank On Inland SoCal (San Bernardino and Riverside County, CA); Kentucky Bank On Network (State of Kentucky); Bank On New Mexico (State of New Mexico); Bank On Northeast Louisiana (Northeast Louisiana).

CityStart

The CFE Fund’s CityStart initiative offers local governments a structured approach to identify financial empowerment goals, convene relevant stakeholders for sustainable success, develop actionable strategies, and ultimately craft a blueprint that is rooted in local insights and opportunities to consider and expand access to wealth.

This two-phase action engagement connects critical insights about the impact of financial instability on municipal governments with tangible, sustainable strategies to improve families’ financial lives. The first phase of the initiative is a learning phase, where the CFE Fund and municipal partners look to analyze the local landscape, including wealth extraction and accumulation impacting access to wealth; collect relevant data; and engage in intensive stakeholder roundtables to identify key challenges and opportunities. This also includes a resident engagement effort. Based on issues identified in the learning phase, as well as administration priorities, the CFE Fund works with local government partners on a design phase to craft a comprehensive, government-led financial empowerment blueprint.

The CityStart initiative stems from the CFE Fund’s extensive work with local government leaders, and connects critical on-the-ground insights about the impact of financial instability on families, communities, and municipal budgets with tangible, measurable, and sustainable municipal strategies to improve residents’ financial lives. CityStart cities have historically leveraged their engagement with the CFE Fund to further their commitment to this work.

If you have any questions about the CityStart initiative, contact Sol Vilera Ramos, Manager.

Financial Empowerment Center Replication Initiative

Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) clients receive free, one-on-one professional counseling assistance with money management, budgeting, reducing debt, establishing and improving credit, connecting to safe and affordable banking services, building savings, preparing for legacy planning and protecting their assets, and referrals to other services and organizations. In partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, and additional generous support from Principal Foundation and the Wells Fargo Foundation, the CFE Fund is promoting FEC replication through cohorts of local leaders who are developing, launching, and implementing financial counseling as a free public service, along with strategic research projects to enhance the success of financial counseling. Get in touch to join as a supportive funding partner.

The CFE Fund is supporting cohorts of new cities or counties interested in launching a Financial Empowerment Center through FEC Academy, an expanded entry point to the FECPublic movement. The CFE Fund’s FEC Academy guides government partners through each step of planning to launch the FEC model of professional, one-on-one financial counseling as a local public service. FEC Academy includes significant CFE Fund technical assistance, access to planning resources and information, and participation in a robust learning community. Upon completion of the FEC Academy, partners will be equipped to mobilize the building blocks to launch the Financial Empowerment Center initiative in their community, including through leveraging public funding streams.

The Financial Empowerment Center Model

Professionally trained counselors support their clients in navigating complex financial challenges and choices, helping them identify and meet present challenges and future ambitions. Local governments offer FEC financial counseling as a free stand-alone public service, but also via integration into other social services including housing and foreclosure prevention services, workforce development, prisoner reentry, benefits access, domestic violence prevention, and more. Learn more at www.fecpublic.org.

Financial Empowerment Center Evaluation Findings

In 2013, the CFE Fund awarded its first grants to replicate the model in five cities through a $16.2 million, 3-year investment by Bloomberg Philanthropies. An Evaluation of Financial Empowerment Centers: Building People’s Financial Stability As a Public Service, demonstrates the success of the 5-city implementation, drawing on data from 22,000 clients who participated in 57,000 counseling sessions across the first 5 city replication partners.

The CFE Fund continues to enhance the FEC model; for example, we recently announced the addition of legacy planning (read the press release here) as a core FEC service area.

Summer Jobs Connect

Summer Jobs Connect (SJC) is a national initiative led by the CFE Fund with seed support from the Citi Foundation. Grounded in the belief that banking access is foundational to financial stability, SJC helps young people connect to safe and appropriate banking accounts through their first jobs. By integrating banking access to public payment streams, particularly municipal Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEPs), local governments across the country have turned seasonal jobs into opportunities for long-term financial empowerment. Over the past decade, the CFE Fund has worked with 47 local governments and their youth workforce program partners to support low-income youth ages 14 to 24 with establishing a connection to appropriate bank and credit union accounts and meaningful financial education.

The CFE Fund supports cohorts of new cities or counties interested in learning how to integrate banking access and financial education into their youth workforce programs through Summer Jobs Connect Academy. Summer Jobs Connect (SJC) Academy participants receive robust free technical assistance to learn how to integrate banking access into their programs, build partnerships with financial institutions, deliver financial education, and leverage data to improve program performance. Academy participants will join the national Summer Jobs Connect learning community of dozens of other municipal program leaders. They will also receive in-kind support to attend an in-person convening, access to our robust resource library, and more. Historically, SJC has only been available to summer youth employment programs; however, we are excited to expand eligibility to any youth program that provides a paid workforce opportunity to youth ages 14-24 and has a local government connection.

Through the CFE Fund’s leadership, our local government partners’ efforts, and the Citi Foundation’s seed support of almost $40 million, Summer Jobs Connect has provided over 16,500 young people with work experience and connected financial empowerment services. Other supportive funders include The Skillman Foundation and the PNC Foundation. Beyond a seasonal paycheck, Summer Jobs Connect positions early job experiences as entry points for lifelong success in the financial mainstream.

Please reach out to Matt Trombley, Senior Associate, at [email protected] with any questions about Summer Jobs Connect.

Bank On

Bank On coalitions are locally-led partnerships between local public officials; city, state, and federal government agencies; financial institutions; and community organizations that work together to help improve the financial stability of unbanked and underbanked individuals and families in their communities. In addition to connecting people to safe and affordable accounts, Bank On coalitions also work to raise public awareness, target outreach to the unbanked, and expand access to financial education.

The CFE Fund’s Bank On national initiative builds on this grassroots movement, supporting local coalitions with strategic and financial support, as well as by liaising nationally with banking, regulatory, and nonprofit organization partners to expand banking access, including through the first-ever Bank On National Account Standards, updated for 2025 – 2026. The CFE Fund announced an online Bank On account validation and certification process; banks and credit unions across the country, at no cost, can submit for validation products they believe meet the national Standards. The list of financial institutions offering such products continues to expand across the country.