Increase Your Program’s Impact, Reach, and Longevity Through Thoughtful Post-Programming Design
(Part 4 of 4)
In the first part of this series you learned how understanding the needs of the learners and organizations you serve lays the foundation for building a successful financial education program. In the second phase in this series, you prepared the program for launch. Then you learned how to implement a financial education program during the third training in the series.
The final phase of this training series focuses on the post-programming phase. Ensure that participants feel supported in the long-term and discover key elements that should be included in your final program report.
Discover how to report your results, recognize stakeholders, and provide continuing education to all the participants who attended.
3 Key Elements of Quality Post-Programming
Many financial education programs either end abruptly or quickly fizzle out. The result – the program is eventually forgotten and fails to prove any impact on participants’ financial behaviors.
The NFEC views post-programming as an excellent opportunity to acknowledge participants and give them ongoing, action-based financial education. Data-gathering and reporting are also critical elements of post-programming.
Attendee Ongoing Education
Do not forget about your participants after your program ends! Ensure that participants feel supported after the program concludes by including follow-up training and resources to help them retain what they learned and continue to grow their personal finance skill sets.
We suggest that you build an ongoing education series designed around your participants’ continuing education needs. This series might include educational reminders, new educational extensions, and timely reminders.
Ongoing education can be provided in numerous ways: newsletter content, quick tip information, online learning center, webinars, new classes, and mobile application delivery are just a few. Personal finance coaching is another option that can be made available at this stage to provide personalized support.
Participant Recognition
Recognizing participant accomplishments and program supporters helps build affinity toward your program, encourage continued involvement, and expand program reach.
Incorporating a recognition piece into your financial education program should be part of the initial design. Consider teasing the recognition benefits you design to help encourage participants to successfully accomplish the coursework. Another key benefit of recognizing key stakeholders is that such recognition may attract others to participate in the course or support program expansion.
Reporting & Relaunching
If you’re serious about getting the best results and helping others improve their financial capabilities – measurements, data gathering, and reporting are vital.
Based on the data gathered for the report, the NFEC goes back through the discover, define, and design process and makes data-driven suggestions that enhance results and user experience.
