History, Milestones, & Media

The Beginning: Leading Financial Wellness Programs

The NFEC did not start as a Council – our beginnings were boots on the ground, delivering financial education and coaching services in local communities. Our vision from day 1 was focused on helping people with their finances so they can live more rewarding, secure lives.

During our initial few years, we identified major problems with the financial wellness industry: low-quality educational materials, underperforming educators & coaches, lack of mainstream awareness, and business models that could not scale.

Transition to Serving the Financial Wellness Industry

We started tackling these issues to improve our programs. This process involved producing our own materials, defining processes that supported learners, improving our team’s ability to deliver financial wellness programming, and creating replicable systems that were easy to track and measure.

As we grew and other groups saw our materials and results, people began coming to us asking for support. That was the moment when our model changed – from presenting and producing financial education programs and offering financial coaching services, to helping others with a passion for financial wellness develop and build campaigns in their areas.

Today the National Financial Educators Council is the leading provider of independent financial wellness resources that empowers a global team of financial wellness champions with the resources and training they need to effectively support others in their communities to work toward greater financial security.

Financial Literacy Scholarship Application

Consistent Values

Although our model has changed since 2006, our goal has remained consistent: to help people with their finances so they can live better lives. Today we accomplish this goal through empowering our global team of financial wellness professionals and supplying them with the training, resources, and support they need to help their community members.

Independence

All our material has always been created independently and free from bias or promotions. The primary objective of everything we produce focuses on helping people improve their financial outlooks.

Leadership

We operate a lean, responsive business model that allows us to lead the industry with quick action toward filling areas of need to progress financial wellness forward. We lead by promoting advocacy, creating standards, and spearheading campaigns.

Empowerment

Our focus on empowerment grew in scope since our inception. We shifted from empowering those who want to improve their financial situations to empowering others who share financial wisdom with their communities.

NFEC History Timeline

Founded as the “National Youth Financial Educators Council” (name changed to National Financial Educators Council in 2009 as we expanded to support adults), our initial objective was focused on teaching high school and college-age youth about personal finance. The organization offered speaking services and financial coaching, and conducted informative events.

During this time, the organization produced Money XLive events that brought more than 50 celebrities out to fully-produced financial education events, each serving over 1,000 participants. We worked with more than 100 sponsors, from Wells Fargo and US Bank to Mesa County and State Farm Insurance. We also extended our educational programs to include parents, who received financial guidance and coaching.

2006

First volunteer event with Orange County Juvenile Hall.

Started to formalize business plans and social impact goals.

Worked with past financial service clients and transferred to financial coaching relationship.

2007

First paid events with local libraries and nonprofits.

Started production of financial education presentation & online learning materials.

Conducted first financial coaching program at the organizational level.

2008

Company formally organized under the name National Youth Financial Educators Council.

First paid events outside local area for Bascom Properties in Dallas, Texas.

Founded Curriculum Advisory Board comprised of 37 Subject Matter Experts.

2009

First Money XLive event – over 1,000 attendees, mobilizing 10 nonprofit beneficiary partners & 20 celebrity supporters (8 spoke live at the event).

Started training financial educators on how to teach youth financial literacy to fulfill speaking requests.

Online learning center updated and expanded.

2010

MoneyXLive tour in Seattle, WA & Grand Junction, CO – thousands of attendees, 20 celebrities, 50+ sponsors.

First trained educators booked via the NFEC’s newly-founded speakers bureau. Expanded teacher training to a certification program – Certified Financial Education Instructor.

Youth curriculum we developed for NFEC was provided to outside organizations to build their program.

The momentum we built from the larger-scale events had the organization busier than was manageable, so we adapted the business model focus to creating programs that can scale along with program expansion. During this period, the NFEC increased its influential footprint from helping tens of thousands of people to over a half million by creating a fleet of impact-driven educators. During this time, the NFEC deployed large-scale financial education campaigns for Penn State University Behrend, Wake Technical College, SunTrust Foundation, and Oregon State University.

We also placed focus on building our team of financial educators. The Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI) training & certification program was developed to share what we found successful when teaching personal finance and taking programs to scale. To ensure top educational quality, our team of 40 industry experts developed the Framework for Teaching Personal Finance – the first and only set of standards to guide financial education instructors.

2011

Launched new hands-on financial education experience – Real Money Experience.

Built Penn State Berend financial education outreach – training over 120 educators statewide and teaching several thousand students at our live RMX event.

Led the data collection (supply- & demand-side stakeholders) and produced the education and business model for the World Bank sponsored program that reached over 500,000 people.

2012

Developed adult financial literacy curriculum for adults Salvation Army in Dallas Metro.

Educator training expanded into Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI) and first live trainings held at Arizona State University for their peer training group and Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union, MA.

First private-labeled financial education curriculum and custom-branded online learning center sold.

2013

Changed name to National Financial Educators Council – removed ‘Youth’ from our name as we continued to expand into the adult market.

Developed multimethod approach to teaching personal finance – which debuted at Wake Technical College sponsored by SunTrust. Campaign had over 150 live events, personal coaching, online learning, and promotional campaign.

Trained our 500th Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI).

2014

Developed the first and only Standards for Financial Educators – Framework for Teaching Personal Finance.

Federal Reserve recognized our multimethod teaching approach.

Expanded our curriculum by adding kids’ materials – PK to 8th grade – for Aspen Academy.

Expanded our college financial literacy curriculum and rolled it out at Oregon State University, where students earned 3 credits for completion.

The Financial Educators Council focused on expanding its team of qualified educators and local financial education champions by developing tools that could support their efforts to deliver financial education programming. We concentrated on reducing the cost of delivery and empowering community champions to easily share their growing expertise.

During this phase, curriculum development took center stage. The NFEC development team included over 300 financial industry professionals, seasoned educators, behavioral psychologists, and personal finance experts to build live training coursework, learner financial education standards (Financial Literacy Framework & Standards), and the eVolve online learning platform. The coursework was recognized by the Federal Reserve Boston for its multimethod approach to financial education programming.

2015

Financial literacy tests served over 50,000 people in every state across the US.

Addressed the problems with learner standards developed by the industry (not aligned with cognitive abilities or developmental stages) and created the Financial Literacy Framework & Standards to guide educators and resource development.

Complimentary financial education resources provided to over 6,000 organizations.

2016

Developed Transamerica Financial Educators Academy which offered specialized CFEI training for financial services that Transamerica required to teach those with NFEC private-labeled resources.

Major overhaul and expansion of all educational resources and training for financial wellness professionals – doubled the size of our education library.

Expanded our commitment to promote those who represent best practices in the industry with awards for financial educators (Financial Educators Day & Financial Education Instructor of the Year).

2017

To date, creation of over 2,000 program models and execution plans for organizations providing financial education.

Developed turnkey system for delivering financial wellness programming – includes everything needed: training, resources, marketing, funding, and resources designed to reduce the cost, time, and personnel needs.

Started the expansion of all our resources with the onboarding of additional advisory team members and contractor team.

2018

Developed the first comprehensive set of guidelines based on research-based education principles and connected these standards with financial literacy pedagogical methods – Educational Methods of Personal Finance.

The 2,000th Certified Financial Education Instructor was enrolled in the training.

Expanded advocacy and awareness promotions to regular monthly promotions which received over a million impressions, highlighted by front-page coverage on USA Today.

With feedback from thousands of organizations and contributions from over 750 experts since inception, the NFEC redeveloped all its educational assets, developed new educational resources, and created standards that combine research-based education principles with financial education – the Financial Education Instruction Methodologies Report. The goal achieved was to provide financial education champions with access to the highest-quality financial education resources available. The NFEC now boasts one the largest collections of financial education resources in the world.

The redevelopment of materials was performed to align with the NFEC mission to give financial education champions access to resources that help them build scalable financial literacy and coaching programs. The NFEC is continuing to advance learning initiatives by systematically growing educational teams and resources, and conducting research to guide best practices.

2019

NFEC changed IRS designation to public Benefits Corporation to reaffirm commitment to creating a positive social impact.

Updated over 1,400 webpages on www.FinancialEducatorsCouncil.org and became a top-ranked financial education site – over 30,000 monthly visitors, 150+ pages with #1 rankings on Google and 400+ in the top 10.

Director team led the onboarding and assigned the deliverables produced by over 750 contractors, subject matter experts, volunteers, board members, and others.

Launched the most comprehensive guidelines for financial coaches and counselors – Financial Coaching Standards and Code of Conduct – to protect coaching professionals and their clients.

Earned IACET Accredited Provider status. The NFEC offers IACET CEUs for its learning events that comply with the ANSI/IACET Continuing Education and Training Standard.

2020

Completion of multi-year, $2M project to update and expand all educational materials totaling 5,600 pages of student resources, over 600 hours of presentation resources, and 100+ hours of online education.

NFEC provided over 25,000 individuals and organizations with access to complimentary financial education resources and training.

Reached our 4,000th client milestone.

2021

Received Certified B Corporation designation that highlights the NFEC meets the highest standards of social impact.

Built and promoted advocacy promotions for each month to raise awareness for the financial literacy movement and promote financial wellness.

Conducted the companies first Accredited workshops and issued recognized CEUs for those that completed financial education courses.

2022

Earned IACET Accredited Provider status. The NFEC offers IACET CEUs for its learning events that comply with the ANSI/IACET Continuing Education and Training Standard.