Our Impact
CWCID and Neighborhood Trust measure program success as the achievement of financial stability and financial mobility for low-income families via access to affordable financial services, credit establishment, and asset accumulation. Since 2003, we have evaluated our impact based on our clients' change in financial status, as well as their behaviors and attitudes. And we have worked to quantify the social return on the grant dollars invested into our credit union and financial education programs based on our ability to impact individual families' income and savings, and opportunities to accumulate assets, establish credit and pursue long-term wealth creation goals.
Highlights of our program results to date are the following:
- 4,500 active members of Neighborhood Trust, including 2,500 previously unbanked individuals, contribute to our $7.5 million in assets and our financial self-sufficiency.
- 2,000 credit union members have borrowed $8 million to start businesses, support their children's education and more.
- 65% of our Financial Education Program graduates open their first-ever savings account by graduation day.
- An average 198 point credit score increase among clients reached two years post-graduation.
- 1,300 middle school students graduated from the School Banking Program opened their first savings account and together saved $63,000.
In 2007 CWCID retained two consulting firms, Global Learning Partners and New England Market Research, to help us launch a more rigorous financial education program with a longitudinal evaluation thoroughly built into the program delivery. We will test the following hypotheses:
- Our economy makes it hard for poor people to become financially secure, and easier for financially secure people to generate wealth. We can serve as the fulcrum on the "Financial Seesaw", tipping people into the positive wealth cycle. We will have different effect on different populations, best able to serve individuals with earned income.
- Individuals need financial education, individual counseling and support to work on personal financial goals, and these services are most effective when delivered in tandem with financial products and services. The "whole" of such a comprehensive package is greater than the sum of its parts.
- Our services are more effective when delivered within partnering, complementary programs, so individuals can address financial issues in the context of broader personal goals.
- Individuals make financial choices, and are open to financial services, largely based on relationships, culture, and general comfort level with the institution. Our work is successful largely due to the positive relationship we have with our clients; there is real value in "positive customer satisfaction" as it may help to change perceptions of mainstream financial services.
- The impact of our work is realized over the long-term, with an accelerated rate of impact after a 12 to 18 month period. Therefore, we must both work with and track our clients over the long-term.
We look forward to releasing the first results of this evaluation by early 2009.
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