Children's Savings Initiatives

The field of children’s savings is growing quickly. Many new initiatives are currently in development to significantly expand the number of children and youth participating in savings programs. This emergent marketplace has been largely built on the lessons learned during the first national demonstration of Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs) – the SEED Initiative.

These new efforts seek to encourage the positive, lifelong behavior of saving and investing for generations of children, address economic inequality, and break the cycle of poverty. They also aim to increase aspirations, achievement and graduation rates of low-income and minority students. They combine the practical application of promising ideas through on-the-ground programs with public policy advocacy efforts that increase the support for and visibility of CSAs at the local, state and federal levels. Our strategies include:

• Developing scalable CSA programs in new and/or large-impact settings, including states, localities, and schools.
• Promoting college persistence for low-income students and students of color through a powerful combination of financial education and savings, scholarships and academic preparation, supported by new philanthropic partnerships. The most fully realized of these initiatives is a collaboration between CFED, UNCF (United Negro College Fund) and the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) charter schools.
• Building the marketplace for CSAs by expanding the reach of local matched savings and asset-building programs; enabling financial institutions and corporations to enter this market; and establishing a national marketplace for matched savings and economic opportunity.
• Promoting adoption of policies that expand savings and asset-building opportunities – and remove barriers to saving – for low-income families.