2006 Financial Planning Grants from CFP Board

One of CFP Board's important purposes is to help all Americans understand that they can benefit from financial planning. To further this mission, CFP Board announced in December 2005 its first major grants program and requested grant funding applications from individuals and organizations that had or were creating sustainable projects that reach non-traditional populations and encourage them to benefit from financial planning. CFP Board received more than 100 applications by the March 1, 2006, deadline.

On August 5, 2006, at its Annual Meeting, CFP Board's Board of Governors announced that $875,567 in grant funding had been allocated to 20 projects selected for funding. The 20 projects receiving grant funds from CFP Board are listed below, and additional information about the projects will be posted as the funded activities progress.

$74,938 to Bronx Community College, which will develop a financial planning overview to integrate into mandatory college freshman orientation courses and to coordinate programs with the school's Career Center counselors, Business Club and Alumni Association to enhance the visibility of financial planning information on campus and the nearby community.

Read the April 2007 CFP Board Report profile of Bronx Community College's use of grant funding from CFP Board.

$55,000 to ColoradoSaves, an affiliate of the nationwide America Saves program, which will create an educational and motivational video that will be presented in employer and community-based settings to consumers who earn less than 80% of the area median income. The video will be available to America Saves affiliates and for Internet publication.

Read the August 2007 CFP Board Report profile of ColoradoSaves' use of grant funding from CFP Board.

$40,000 to Dallas/Fort Worth Financial Planning Association Chapter, which will create a video program covering basic financial planning concepts for the Hispanic population. The videos will be made available to media outlets and to individuals for no charge, with distribution anticipated to begin in January 2007.

Read the August 2007 CFP Board Report profile of the Dallas/Fort Worth Financial Planning Association Chapter's use of grant funding from CFP Board.

$80,640 to Brett Danko, CFP®, who will develop a program of financial counseling, education and planning services to women served by non-profit domestic violence agencies in New Jersey. The project is anticipated to take three years.

Read the July 2007 CFP Board Report profile of Brett Danko's use of grant funding from CFP Board.

$25,104 to the Financial Planning for Women program at Utah State University, which will expand its free monthly financial planning education program, currently the only such program in the Northern Utah and Southeast Idaho region.

Read the March 2007 CFP Board Report profile of Financial Planning for Women.

$45,000 to Financial Solutions, the fee-only financial services division of Solutions CDC in Holyoke, Massachusetts, which will complete a Financial Planning Toolkit software program and planner training tools to help them provide affordable one-on-one financial planning services to moderate income families. The software and planner training tools will be made available to other community-based agencies. The project is anticipated to be complete in February 2007.

Read the February 2007 CFP Board Report profile of Financial Solutions.

$7,000 to Friends of the Finance Academy, which will develop a program to educate the low and middle-income community of the Pine Bush, New York area about the benefits of financial planning, with the program development process to involve Academy of Finance students.

Read the June 2007 CFP Board Report profile of Friends of the Finance Academy.

$79,285 to Indian Valley Housing Corporation, a non-profit organization assisting low-income, homeless and at-risk households in Southeastern Pennsylvania with housing needs, which will develop 3-year pilot program of financial education and one-on-one planning services for their clients.

Read the May 2007 CFP Board Report profile of Indian Valley Housing Corporation.

$30,000 to Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling, which will develop an outreach project to provide financial education support to loved ones of people with gambling problems and to provide preventative education to adults in their twenties. The materials developed for the project will be available to organizations across the country.

Read the December 2006 CFP Board Report profile of Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling.

$53,600 to New Mexico Project for Financial Literacy, which will establish a program to follow its existing "Women in Transition" workshops by developing monthly self-study groups of workshop attendees that will meet to extend their education in personal financial topics. Part of the grant funds will be used to set up a micro-lending operation.

Read the August 2006 CFP Board Report profile of New Mexico Project for Financial Literacy.

$5,000 to Nokomis Learning Center, which will develop quarterly financial planning workshops and conduct one-year follow-up sessions for the Native American community of the Greater Lansing, Michigan area. The program is anticipated to be completed in the fall of 2007.

Read the May 2007 CFP Board Report profile of Nokomis Learning Center.

$60,000 to Northwoods Saves, an affiliate of the national America Saves program in northern Wisconsin, which will expand its educational programs to include additional high schools and libraries in a four-county area and adult education in cooperation with a local college. Materials developed during the 3-year project will be available to other organizations.

Read the June 2007 CFP Board Report profile of Northwoods Saves.

$50,000 to Pacific Community Ventures, a non-profit community development venture capital organization that assists companies in low-income communities in California, will expand its existing personal finance and money management workshop series to workers at four additional companies.

Read the October 2006 CFP Board Report profile of Pacific Community Ventures.

$50,000 to Partners in Housing, a non-profit organization based in Colorado Springs, which will expand and improve its Financial Literacy and Planning Program, including hiring a full-time Financial Management Educator position to organize the volunteer support the program has in place. Materials developed during the program will be available for use by other organizations.

Read the September 2006 CFP Board Report profile of Partners in Housing.

$25,000 to Prosperity Life Planning, which will expand its educational workshops for families with special needs children in southern Florida, working with support organizations in the area and connecting participants to financial and legal professionals with the expertise to assist their specific needs.

Read the January 2007 CFP Board Report profile of Prosperity Life Planning.

$57,000 to Sage Financial Solutions, which will provide financial literacy training and comprehensive financial planning advice to individuals in the San Francisco Bay Area who operate local community based organizations. The employees who receive the training will learn about how financial planning can improve their own lives, and they will also be better able to direct their clients to financial planning resources when appropriate.

Read the November 2006 CFP Board Report profile of Sage Financial Solutions.

$44,000 to San Mateo Public Library, which will create a bilingual "Financial Planning in a Box" package of workshops, resource lists, and marketing materials designed for use by public libraries across the country.

Read the March 2007 CFP Board Report profile of Sam Mateo Public Library's "Financial Planning in a Box" project.

$22,000 to University of California, Irvine Distance Learning Center, which developed a "Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning" online course designed to provide a comprehensive but easily-understood overview of personal financial planning for the general public. The course is available free of charge.

Read the February 2007 CFP Board Report profile of the UC Irvine Distance Learning Center.

$60,000 to Wisconsin Women's Business Initiative Corporation, which will add financial planning elements to their existing programs for financially distressed communities in Wisconsin, including providing one-on-one financial planning to select clients who have taken steps to begin saving and investing.

Read the May 2007 CFP Board Report profile of Wisconsin Women's Business Initiative Corporation.

$12,000 to Women's Crisis and Family Outreach Center, a non-profit organization located in Castle Rock, Colorado, which will expand its existing Financial Education and Planning Program for victims of domestic violence to offer monthly educational seminars, provide one-on-one financial planning services to more individuals and to develop workbooks and promotional materials.

Read the July 2007 CFP Board Report profile of the Women's Crisis and Family Outreach Center's use of grant funding from CFP Board.

Questions regarding CFP Board's 2006 Financial Planning Grants program may be sent to CFP Board at grants@CFPBoard.org.