Steps for Creating Financial Literacy Events that Work

Are you looking for information and tools that will help you plan financial literacy events with true impact? You’ll be pleased to know that your search has borne fruit! On this page, we dive into the most effective pathway for designing and planning financial literacy program events that raise participant knowledge and community goodwill alike.

Effective Planning Requires a Practical Approach

To illuminate the best actions toward planning successful financial literacy events, we’d like to present the following case study as an example for you to peruse and follow:

Perry manages a local warehouse for an online shopping distribution center, where he is responsible to coordinate 15 employees who locate, package, and ship merchandise. The employees come from a variety of backgrounds and demographics, but Perry discovered that they shared a need for basic financial management knowledge. He decided to find out more about financial literacy event ideas that have proven successful in the past. Perry knew his employees quite well and had a decent foundation in money management himself, but also realized that he couldn’t undertake planning an event on his own.

A straw poll of his employees to assess their basic knowledge levels told Perry that, on average, they were essentially in need of training from ground zero.

Financial Literacy Event Ideas Start with Goal-setting

With preliminary data in hand, Perry understood his near-term objective: to give his employees a basic foundation in money management that would contribute to their quality of life. Since these people worked tight schedules that constrained their availability, he recognized that he would need to limit the personal finance course timing – to maybe 2 hours at the outset. Under those parameters Perry was fine with staging financial literacy events to present information in an abbreviated form that would be easy for the attendees to grasp.

Within this framework, Perry set a goal for his employees to achieve the “Comprehension” level on Bloom’s Taxonomy of Higher-order Thinking.

Successful Delivery Methods for Financial Literacy Events

Perry had set his goals, and now needed to choose from among financial literacy event ideas with different modes of delivery. Since the employees’ scheduling demands were so diverse, Perry perceived that using a digital platform to deliver the programming would suit their needs best. He found some ideas on the Veterans Affairs website.

Homing in on the Details

Tuning into the details of the topics on which to focus was Perry’s next task. He had learned that most of his team were carrying at least some level of debt, so he chose to home in on the topics of building a strong credit profile and creating a debt payoff plan.

Educational Expertise – An Essential Component

What was next? Perry needed to consult with a skilled instructor to present his material, someone with knowledge, charisma, and experience with financial literacy events. He found exactly what he was looking for in an NFEC-Certified Financial Education Instructor.

Identifying a Structure

Now Perry faced choices regarding how to structure financial literacy events that met the scheduling demands of his employees, but remained true to the quality of the resources. That’s why he selected a financial literacy training program package that was designed in modules, so the participants could pick and choose the learning that served their needs and could be completed on their schedules.

Reporting Success

Out of Perry’s full group, 13 were able to join the financial literacy events he planned and complete all the activities. The average improvement in their knowledge scores was 14% for this initial program, which encouraged Perry to create a visually appealing report to share their positive outcomes.

Future Planning – Ongoing Support and Education Ticklers

Perry fully understood that his team would need additional support to keep what they learned in his financial literacy events in their top-of-mind awareness. First he commended them for their participation by presenting them with certificates of completion. Then he put a follow-up educational plan in place, using personal finance lesson plans whereby they would receive tickler education on a just-in-time basis when they needed a little nudge to review their financial habits.

The National Financial Educators Council provides financial education events for participants of all ages. From hands-on workshops to high-profile celebrity financial literacy events, NFEC productions are sure to educate and provide a positive experience for participants.

The NFEC hosts and/or supplies turnkey event solutions for organizations. The various event options are designed to instill positive personal finance habits in their audiences while remaining fun and engaging. (For those seeking personal finance speakers, presenters and keynotes click here.)

Our financial literacy events are designed to engage the audience and instill positive personal finance habits. All events are customized to the needs of our clients and audiences to ensure that their goals are met. Here are some of our most popular events:

Adult Educational Events

 

Unlike younger age groups, adults have unique needs. To address the variety of adults’ socioeconomic situations and specific needs, the NFEC produces custom financial literacy events designed around their goals. Speakers and topics are selected that align with the needs of the audience.

Although each event is customized to your audience and time constraints, here are some of the more popular events:

Introduction to Retirement Planning

Our most popular workplace event

Building Your Financial Foundation

Great for those starting to live independently

Road to Retirement Workshop

Advanced workshop for retirement planning

Financial Recovery Workshop

Designed for people recovering from past financial setbacks

Loan Qualification Workshop

Helps people plan to evaluate, qualify and pay off loans

Investment Basics 101

Covers investment planning and basic investment principles

*All NFEC speakers have met standards set by the Framework for Teaching Personal Finance and are graduates of the Certified Financial Education Instructor course. You can select the presenter who meets your needs. Nothing is ever marketed or sold to your participants.

High School & College Level Events

Money XLive – Celebrity Community Outreach

Money XLive makes financial literacy education exciting by enlisting the help of celebrity supporters, sports stars, live entertainment, and personal finance experts. This immersive educational experience provides real-world financial knowledge that prepares people to make everyday money management decisions.

Money XLive – Full Production Celebrity Education Event

Money XLive has revolutionized teaching teens and young adults about money. The event has a big leap away from traditional instruction to connect with today’s youth, leaving them inspired to take positive action. MXL is more than a concert. It is a true learning experience designed around national curriculum standards, putting a practical twist on theory-based education. In 3 hours, financial educators are mixed with celebrities & entertainers to reinforce lessons learned. MXL delivers real-world knowledge that young people will use every day of their lives!

Money XLive – Celebrity Community Outreach

The Money XLive Community Outreach Program delivers a smaller scale event where celebrities and sports stars visit schools, nonprofit organizations, and communities to inspire attendees to take positive financial action. Recently Yahoo Sports’ “Outside the Game” featured a video on the MXL financial literacy tour. The NFEC formed collaborative partnerships with Yahoo Sports, NFL All-Pro Brandon Lloyd, Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union, Waterhouse Sports & Entertainment, and Lowell High School to teach financial lessons and raise awareness for the financial literacy movement.

Real Money Experience

The Real Money Experience (RMX) delivers practical financial literacy lessons that engage students through live interaction with volunteers in 12 skills booths. The RMX event delivers practical financial literacy lessons that engage students through live interaction with volunteers. This experiential learning event gives participants the opportunity to practice real-world financial decisions in a safe environment.

Financial Literacy Events for Kids

Sammy Rabbit

Have Sammy Rabbit out for a fulfilling event filled with singing, dancing, and financial education lessons. The Sammy Rabbit character gets kids engaged and delivers lessons designed to help mold positive financial behaviors. *Warning – the songs will be stuck in your head.

Jana Stoughton, College Student

The National Financial Educators Councils’ financial literacy events give participants a memorable learning experience while sharing practical personal finance lessons. These experiential events increase retention rates and motivate students to take positive action.

From full production promotions (concert venues, celebrities, live entertainment) to smaller community courses – the NFECs’ events have participants talking about what they have learned long after the show is over.

There are a variety of programs to fit your financial education program goals. Classes (ranging from an hour to semester long), camps (half day to five days), workshops, virtual training and live events all are available. To accommodate a variety of budgets the NFEC has broken down their financial literacy workshops into three general categories.

The NFEC supports anyone out in the community spreading the message of financial literacy. However, many speakers on the topic lack the training to deliver this effectively. All NFEC speakers are certified and will give your event the professional touch.

With any option you choose, the NFECs’ financial literacy workshops also include an activation package. This includes: pre- & post-tests, marketing material, coursework, press releases, community outreach package, media services, training, follow-up educational material, grant guides, sponsorship forms and more. You receive a turnkey package to ensure your financial literacy workshop is a success.

The most common problem with many financial literacy workshops is that they focus solely on the educational aspects, and forget about the entertainment factor needed to truly connect with the audience. Teaching money is different than any other subject because there are so many emotions, preset beliefs and aspirations associated with this topic. It is critical that this material be delivered in a way that connects with participants and addresses those issues in a fun, engaging way.

As you see from the videos, the NFEC events create an experience that gets students in the proper mindset to pick up money skills. Teaching personal finance in a way that gets participants get motivated to pick up this needed knowledge and most importantly, they provide follow-up training material so students can take action on their new found inspiration to learn about money.

This is How You Lead Winning Financial Literacy Events

Are you in search of a winning method of organizing successful financial literacy events? Congratulations! You have arrived in just the right place. We’ve expertly crafted a breakdown of the journey you’ll need to take to achieve your goal, explaining everything step by step.

Success Story: In the Real World

Below, in the example that follows, you will read all about how a professional sought help and succeeded in organizing financial literacy events:

Ana Rosa works at a community center as its Head Coordinator, where she is in charge of supervising about 26 team members – who come from all walks of life. After multiple employees asked her some questions about basic personal finance issues, she opted to begin planning some financial literacy month events to help everyone out. Everyone in this group was already quite familiar with her, as was the topic at hand. She was still missing some critical pieces, however.

After completing an informal sample survey with some members of the group, she quickly understood that most of them lacked even a basic grasp of the topic at hand.

Objectives for your Financial Literacy Event Ideas

Ana Rosa had already decided on her short-term goal: provide this group with a solid level of understanding on the topic so that they could apply it to their own finances. Thanks to the limited availability and tight schedules of this group, she could understand that everyone would – at the most – be able to participate for two hours weekly. For that reason, she was totally OK with exploring financial literacy event ideas that focused on just the core fundamentals of the topic.

As the events eventually came to end, however, her end goal was that this group would rise to the “Applying” phase of knowledge for this topic.

Rubber Hitting the Road

Ana Rosa had her objectives set, so she then needed to move on to figuring out the delivery of the material. This particular group of people had wildly varying schedules, so she knew that finding financial literacy month events that were based on the internet would be best.

Zeroing in on a Focus

Ana Rosa then had to narrow down the primary focus of the financial literacy event ideas she was designing. This group was made up of young, energetic learners, so she opted to focus the program on savings and the importance of healthy credit.

Reaching Out to Ask for Support

Ana Rosa, at that point in the financial literacy events, needed to reach out to a qualified educator who could assist her in presenting this material. She hoped to find a presenter that was skilled at teaching this age group, as well as one that had a verifiable track record.

The presenter she chose was a Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI).

Financial Literacy Month Events: Define a Format

Ana Rosa would need financial literacy month events that would still work within scheduling constraints without sacrificing quality. For that very reason, she chose to build a flexible solution that’s divided into smaller units that can be completed at the participants’ convenience.

How to Show the Impact

Out of the 26 team members who ended up taking part in the financial literacy events, 24 completed them successfully – collectively achieving an average improvement rate of 13%. Ana Rosa’s next move was to collect the resulting data and produce a summary that she could show to her supervisor and demonstrate the progress she made with her efforts.

Motivation for the Future

Ana Rosa knew, as the financial literacy events came to an end, that this collection of people would be best helped if she could keep providing them with continued learning support. As the events finally came to an end, she sent out individualized messages congratulating all who had participated and taken advantage of the financial literacy event ideas she conveyed.

She ended up choosing to keep providing follow-up lessons, once per month, so that they had a better chance of retaining what they were already taught.