2007 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. The second iteration of the Financial Planning Grants program received applications from more than 75 projects by the application deadline in March 2007.

On July 30, 2007, CFP Board announced that $456,063 in grant funding had been allocated to eight projects selected for funding through the 2007 Financial Planning Grants program. The eight projects receiving grant funds from CFP Board are listed below, and additional information about the projects will be posted as the funded activities progress.

$40,084 to California Lutheran University’s California Institute of Finance
The California Institute of Finance at California Lutheran University will develop an Information Center for Women, an online forum to provide underserved women with the basic financial advice, information and tools they need to help themselves and dramatically improve their lives. For participants whose needs require more comprehensive financial planning, financial planning services will be available, provided through the Internet by business students in financial planning programs at the university, under the supervision of experienced faculty who hold CFP® certification. This project will therefore benefit underserved women and help advance the financial planning experience of future CFP® professionals. The project is anticipated to take two years.

Read the October 2007 CFP Board Report profile of the California Institute of Finance's use of grant funding from CFP Board.

$109,069 to the Curators of the University of Missouri
This project will expand the Missouri Taxpayer Education Initiative (MoTax), which provides personal financial planning education to low-income families who take advantage of the MoTax free tax preparation services (part of the IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program). In addition to establishing additional MoTax sites in Missouri, evaluating the success of the expansion process, and developing strategies for making the expansion process more efficient and successful, this project involves development of a Taxpayer Assistance Financial Planning Toolkit that will contain best-practices resources and guides to help other organizations across the country replicate the program in their own communities through the set-up of VITA sites, which will serve as a gateway to financial education. The project is anticipated to take three years.

$12,850 to Economic Awareness Council

This project will develop a training program to encourage expansion of Economic Awareness Council’s “Get Real” program, an interactive, classroom-based program designed to help teens develop a number of components of an effective financial plan. This training materials and curriculum developed through this project will be designed for professionals who are already qualified to work with youth, so the financial planning information will likely increase the instructors’ own awareness of financial planning as they prepare to train their youth groups. The project is anticipated to take 16 months.

Read the January 2008 CFP Board Report profile of the Economic Awareness Council's use of grant funding from CFP Board.

$40,000 to Hope Pastoral Care & Counseling
This one-year project will create a financial planning educational program designed to meet the needs of military families based out of Camp Pendleton Marine Base. Participants in the education program will have opportunities to receive individual financial planning services at no cost. Materials developed for project, including the development of the www.FinancialBootCamp.org Web site, will be relevant to military populations across the U.S., allowing interested CFP® professionals and organizations in other locations to develop similar financial planning services for military families.

$60,000 to Mind’s Eye Resource Management

This project will provide financial planning education to the food and hospitality industry, a community that is the second largest working segment in the U.S. but which is not a population traditionally targeted by the financial planning community. The project includes presentation of a series of financial planning workshops at each of the four American Culinary Federation regional conferences and programs of study at the annual American Culinary Federation national conventions. This project is anticipated to take two years.

$80,000 to Sage Financial Solutions
This one-year project will develop a Financial Planning Incubator designed to serve the financial planning profession and underserved markets by creating a place for candidates for CFP® certification to provide planning services to underserved low-wealth individuals in the San Francisco Bay Area. The financial planners at the Financial Planning Incubator will also participate in professional development and business management activities conducted by mentors who hold CFP® certification, and they will be required to demonstrate progress toward completing the CFP® certification requirements.

Read the September 2007 CFP Board Report profile of Sage Financial Solutions' use of grant funding from CFP Board.

$40,000 to Skills for Living
This one-year project will allow Skills for Living to expand two of its successful financial education programs for a population of low-income families involved in the Habitat For Humanity and YES! Preparatory Academy programs in the Houston area. The first of those programs is the “20-20 Program” of workshops and one-on-one counseling for families that provides education on core financial concepts to enable them to set and achieve career, financial, and personal goals. The second program is the REAL LIFE curriculum that teaches high school students financial literacy and college and career planning through a 10-session course and an 8-hour simulated game event where the students can apply their understanding of the material through the game mechanics. This program is designed to introduce low-income students to the importance of financial planning as a life long pursuit.

Read the November 2007 CFP Board Report profile of Skills for Living's use of grant funding from CFP Board.

View a July 13, 2007 profile of the REAL LIFE program from Houston’s NBC affiliate, KPRC Local 2.

$74,060 to University of Central Arkansas College of Business Administration
This project will establish a Personal Finance Institute and introduce in spring 2008 a graduate-level training course for high school teachers in Arkansas to help them educate high school youth to create wealth, set financial goals and make informed financial choices. The project is designed to meet the criteria set forth in Arkansas Act 42, a piece of legislation that recommended adding a required financial education course to state high schools; that act was passed in 2004, but no funding was allocated to its support, and no training has yet been offered to the teachers asked to teach the course.

Read the December 2007 CFP Board Report profile of the Univeristy of Central Arkansas College of Business Administration's use of grant funding from CFP Board.

CFP Board's 2007 Financial Planning Grants Program

Important Note: The deadline for completed grant applications was March 15, 2007, and CFP Board is no longer accepting applications for the 2007 Financial Planning Grants program. The information below is provided for informational purposes only and may not reflect the parameters of any future grant programs CFP Board may make available.

CFP Board exists to help all Americans understand that they can benefit from financial planning. To further this mission, CFP Board offers grants to sustainable projects that reach non-traditional populations and encourage them to benefit from financial planning.

This particular grant program is not designed to fund studies, papers, or one-time events. CFP Board seeks to fund sustainable operations that will help people understand that they can benefit from financial planning. The operations can be already existing or be start-ups, but the grant money must fund something distinct that furthers CFP Board's mission.

CFP Board will not be involved in the operation of any grant-receiving body, but CFP Board will expect to receive reports that help it evaluate how effective the operation has been at achieving our mission. CFP Board expects that information received from grant-receiving bodies will help CFP Board refine its efforts to achieve its mission in the future.

Who Can Apply for a Grant from CFP Board?
Any individual or organization with a sustainable project that assists people in understanding the benefits of planning may apply for a grant from CFP Board, with the following restrictions:

1. CFP Board will not award grants to any individual or organization with an apparent or real conflict of interest, including any current CFP Board employees, any current CFP Board volunteers or any individuals who served as CFP Board volunteers or employees within the past twelve months;
2. CFP Board will not award grants to any relative of the individuals listed in restriction 1, above, or to any organizations directly or indirectly controlled by the individuals and organizations listed in restriction 1 above; and
3. CFP Board will not award grants to any for-profit entity unless the requested funds are used to further a charitable, 501(c)(3) purpose.

How Do I Apply for a Grant from CFP Board?
Grant applications must be submitted with a Proposal Narrative that includes at a minimum the following information:

• A description of the project and how it furthers CFP Board's mission
• A description of the population the project will serve
• An identification of the individuals and organizations that will be involved in the project, including their credentials
• The amount of funding requested
• An explanation of what the requested funds will be used for (it is the policy of CFP Board not to allocate any portion of grant funds to pay for indirect costs)
• A timeline for the project with projected milestones and a disbursal schedule for the requested funds (grant funds are typically disbursed in installments tied to specific performance milestones; grant funding will be available no earlier than July 2007)
• A description of the operations controls and effectiveness measures the project will utilize
• A description of how the project is or will become sustainable when any grant funding has been exhausted
• A description of the information the applicant expects to be able to supply CFP Board about the project's operations and effectiveness
• Any special requirements or limitations

Grant funding is available at the discretion of CFP Board, based on its evaluation of individual applications, determination of relative priorities and availability of funds. Information about projects receiving grant funding through the 2006 Financial Planning Grants program is available online. If you have questions regarding CFP Board's grant programs, please contact CFP Board at grants@CFPBoard.org.