Building Financial Literacy: Partnering With Communities to Improve Financial Outcomes

FOR OVER 20 YEARS, April has been celebrated as Financial Literacy Month in the US. For those unfamiliar with the term “financial literacy,” Webster’s dictionary defines it as the education and understanding of knowing how money is made, spent and saved, as well as the skills and ability to use financial resources to make decisions. 

For Equifax, Financial Literacy Month serves as another reminder of our company’s purpose: Helping people live their financial best. And we know that in order to do that, people must not only be able to access financial resources and credit, but they must also be equipped to understand and manage those resources. Through living our company purpose, we empower people to achieve their financial goals by providing financial education, by promoting greater access to credit and by championing financial inclusion (equality of access to financial services). 

While our data, technology and talent support this goal on a daily basis, the Equifax Foundation exists to help low-to-moderate income communities live their best through a focus on one core objective: to strengthen financial capability. Good credit ensures the start of a strong financial life and journey. Bad credit prevents individuals and families from attaining the dream of a home, the stability of a job, and the planning for a safe financial future; so we invest in partners, projects and initiatives to help people better understand how to effectively manage their financial resources by helping build their financial capability.

 

Purpose in Practice: The Equifax Foundation

The Equifax Foundation mission and vision is in direct alignment with the company’s purpose to help people live their financial best. Through supporting the financial wellbeing of the communities in which we live and work, and the philanthropic contributions of our team members, we are driving progress through financial capability by helping people have better access to financial resources and helping them better understand how to effectively manage those resources. Below are some of the community groups that the Equifax Foundation partners with in its goal to help consumers on their financial journey. 

On The Rise Community Development Center 

The On The Rise Community Development Center launched to build financial well-being for individuals, families, and small businesses within the greater Atlanta area. The Center is deeply connected to the community and works to provide a holistic approach to financial wellness through education, mentorship, and one-on-one financial coaching.

In fact, since its inception in 2017, the Center has seen hundreds of residents who attend financial education courses, individual coaching sessions, and many community-directed events. Within six months, residents saw drastic increases, including 72% seeing an increase in their credit scores and 67% reducing their overall consumer debt.

Equifax recently supported On The Rise in its merger with Greater Atlanta Builds Credit. Members of Equifax’s communications, marketing and brand teams lent a hand with On the Rise’s rebrand project, which involved three months of work sessions and reimagining the organization’s core values, mission and vision statements, and more. 

Mobility Capital Finance (MoCaFi) 

MoCaFi is a fintech company providing banking, credit building, and wealth coaching services for Americans living on the economic margins as unbanked or underbanked. The Equifax Foundation has been a partner of MoCaFi since shortly after the organization’s start. MoCaFi’s platform provides a mobile banking application, no-credit prepaid card account, financial literacy content, and a rent payment and credit reporting service. In addition, MoCaFi supports Equifax efforts in Atlanta and in St. Louis to help build credit in those communities. 

Kiddie Kredit 

Kiddie Kredit is a mobile app designed to educate children on the credit system by completing chores. The company was founded on the belief that the path to healthy credit should start early; however, the founders discovered that most financial education initiatives were targeted towards adults. Today, Kiddie Kredit works to educate about credit responsibly, especially to those who have limited access to capital all in the name of economic inclusion and equality.

Equifax is aligned with this vision of increasing financial inclusion and equity, and is partnering with Kiddie Kredit to further educate and engage children on the importance of credit history and their financial health. The Kiddle Kredit platform is designed to be an education platform so that kids can understand how credit scores can be affected based on their behavior - helping to plant the seeds for their future financial well-being. 

 

Measuring Financial Inclusion 

As a data, analytics and technology company, Equifax also strives to continually understand the trends and attitudes surrounding financial literacy. As such, the company conducts an annual survey of 1,000+ U.S. consumers to explore and understand their financial attitudes and behaviors around personal finance knowledge, outlook moving forward, general financial behaviors, as well as use and attitudes toward credit.

Results from the 2021 survey showed that respondents feel somewhat confident in their own basic financial literacy, with 40% of those surveyed giving themselves a “B” grade. At the same time, 85% of respondents stated that a finance course in high school should be a requirement for graduation. The study also found that more than half of respondents are living paycheck-to-paycheck and resorting to various methods of “making ends meet.” From these results, we can see that consumers crave greater financial literacy, but don’t feel they are equipped with the right educational resources.  

Results from this year’s survey will be published later in April. 

 

On-Demand Credit Education Resources 

Equifax provides multiple resources for consumers related to credit education through our online Knowledge Center. This content covers everything from what's on an Equifax credit report to the nuances of how credit scores can help better everyday life. In addition, consumers can create a free myEquifax account to access their Equifax credit reports, place or remove a credit freeze and start a dispute.