In this brief, we articulate why collaboration between community foundations and CSA programs is in their mutual interest. We describe the variety of roles that community foundations can play in promoting the growth and success of CSA programs, and then identify the primary challenges encountered...

This guide is designed to be a resource for programs working with low income families to use when anticipating or implementing a new approach, such as coaching, to doing business. It helps you to systematically – and honestly – look at your foundational readiness for change, so that the...

The unemployment rate for young workers ages 16–24 jumped from 8.4% to 24.4% from spring 2019 to spring 2020 in the United States, representing four million youth. While unemployment for their counterparts ages 25 and older rose from 2.8% to 11.3% the Spring 2020 unemployment rates were even...

Using information from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation 2012 National Financial Capability Study, we examined financial capability among people with and without disabilities. Respondents noted as having disabilities throughout this report selected “permanently sick, disabled, or unable to...

During childhood and youth we build the foundations for financial well-being later in life, acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and personality traits that enable us to manage our finances as adults. This article reviews literature from consumer science, developmental psychology, and allied...

This case study is about the Omega Foundation’s SmartSAVER program. It has effectively elevated the Canada Learning Bond (a post-secondary education savings program for low income families) from a struggling idea to a fully-fledged and well-utilized national resource. In so doing, Omega and...

The Innovations in Financial Capability report is a collaborative report by National CAPACD and the Institute of Assets and Social Policy (IASP) at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management, in partnership with Hawaiian Community Assets (HCA), and the Council for Native...

This report provides a foundational set of benchmarks of the financial well-being of Hispanics ages 18 and older in the United States in 2018, as measured by the CFPB Financial Well-Being Scale, that practitioners and researchers can use in their work. The benchmarks were developed using data from...

This is the full Vital Signs Report for Toronto in 2016. The Foundation partners with many researchers to produce the Toronto’s Vital Signs® Report. The Report is compiled from current statistics and studies, identifying progress we should be proud of and challenges that need to be addressed. It...

This course is offered by the Canadian Foundation for Economic Education, a non-profit organization that works to improve economic, financial, and enterprising capability. This financial literacy course for general audiences covers a range of topics: money basics and the economy, setting goals and...

In 2009, the FINRA Investor Education Foundation commissioned the National Financial Capability Study—the first of its kind conducted in the United States—to assess and establish a baseline measure of the financial capability of American adults. The 2012 Study—which was developed in...

The Career Empowerment Curriculum was designed by Women Employed and The Allstate Foundation particularly for survivors of domestic violence. The curriculum helps them feel safe and confident throughout the process of getting a job, to help them elevate their thinking from “just getting a job”...

The Canadian Foundation for Economic Education (CFEE) works collaboratively with funding partners, departments of education, school boards, schools, educators, and teacher associations to develop and provide free, non-commercial programs and resources for teachers and students – developed and...

The Foundation partners with many researchers to produce the Toronto’s Vital Signs® Report. The Report is compiled from current statistics and studies, identifying progress we should be proud of and challenges that need to be addressed. It is a consolidated snapshot of the trends and issues...

This report will provide an overview of a range of programs serving reservation-based Native communities in the Northwest Area Foundation region. The report will start by presenting a conceptual framework for understanding financial capability in Native communities, and a review of the literature...

Short-term cushions are key to longer-term financial security and well-being.    This report shines a light on the central role that short-term financial stability plays in a person’s ability to reach broader financial security and upward economic mobility, a measurement of whether an...

This paper has been written to engage community-based financial literacy organizations in thinking about evaluation. It summarizes the findings of the FLEP process including: a case for why evaluation matters; the state of financial literacy evaluation in Canada; key elements of the effective...

This handbook provides a guide for actions to take when nurturing supporting relationships for people living with a...

Financial empowerment (FE) is an approach to poverty reduction that focuses on improving the financial security of people living on low income. Evidence shows that embedding FE interventions into municipal welfare, employment, housing, shelter and health services can significantly boost service...

The Omega Foundation commissioned this research to better assess the influence of education savings and the federal government’s savings incentive grants for saving on post-secondary access. Our hope was to clarify the facts which have until now been largely obscured. This information gap has...

The Common Foundations are a minimum standard for how to do impact measurement without prescribing a particular tool or approach. This can help to overcome a widespread challenge of grantmakers, donors, lenders and investors imposing impact measurement approaches on the social purpose organizations...

This study addresses these gaps in the literature through an evaluation of a nationwide credit counselling program called Sharpen Your Financial Focus, an initiative launched by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) in September of 2013.  The Sharpen initiative builds upon and...

This brief examines the findings of three studies—one from The Pew Charitable Trusts and two commissioned by Pew with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation—that looked at the effect of asset limits on family finances and state and program costs and...

This is a list of 27 indicators of effectiveness for backbone organizations, produced by FSG and Greater Cincinnati Foundation. This includes topics like strategy, alignment, shared measurement practices, and...

Where and when during childhood and adolescence do people acquire the foundations of financial capability? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) researched the childhood origins of financial capability and well-being to identify those roots and to find promising practices and...