The FINRA Foundation’s Financial Inclusion Framework—built on pillars of communications, education, and research—aims to create new understanding and relationships that lead to people in underserved communities fully and equitably participating in the financial mainstream.
The Framework embodies the Foundation’s values and beliefs. We define financial capability not only by knowledge and skill, but also by opportunity and access. We believe advancing financial capability requires a strong commitment to fostering an inclusive financial ecosystem. We recognize that investing is a key facilitator of building wealth, financial security and economic mobility, and that effective financial education and protection requires collaboration, innovation, expertise, and responsible commitment to consumer well-being.
Our Guiding Principles
- Learning by Doing - The wealth gap is a longstanding and intractable problem that will not be easily addressed. As a result, the Foundation embraces a "learn by doing" approach with this initiative that is flexible, experimental, and adaptive.
- Cultural Competency - We build relationships by building trust, which requires acknowledging the financial experiences of people without making judgements regarding means and methods, respecting cultural differences, and working in multiple languages.
- Collaboration - We recognize that capacity building requires a level of commitment and investment that exceeds what the Foundation can provide on its own. We therefore look for collaborative approaches to challenges that require collective action and resources.
- Long View - The Foundation’s commitment to improving financial capability in underserved communities is long-term. It follows that our programs and partnerships must also take the long view.
Fostering Financial Inclusion In Communities
Our Partners and Initiatives
The Foundation recognizes that meaningful financial capacity building requires trust and partnerships. The Foundation and its national community-based partners are committed to altering the trajectory of under resourced and underserved communities across the United States who desire to be investors.
Putting Youth on the Path to Building Financial Capability and Stability
The Foundation and Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) partner to provide financial education programming and digital resources to meet the needs of girls and their families in underserved communities. Together, GSUSA and the Foundation revamped the GSUSA Financial Empowerment Programming by developing a Financial Empowerment Toolkit designed to aid Girl Scouts in the development of council-run events leveraging GSUSA’s financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and cookie business badges to teach girls key financial concepts. In addition, GSUSA and the Foundation introduced the first set of bilingual (English/Spanish) Daisy badge requirements and are working this year to further expand this bilingual programming to Brownies – creating opportunities for bilingual families to experience Girl Scouts together.
Learning by Doing
The Foundation partners with select nonprofit partners to deliver Stock Market Game™ in high-need, low-income communities. The Stock Market Game is a project-based financial education program widely used in 4th − 12th grade classrooms nationwide to teach students the importance of saving and investing by building their financial acumen. Starting with a virtual cash account of $100,000, student teams strive to create the best performing portfolio. Through an integrated curriculum and online market simulation focusing on investing, the Stock Market Game teaches students cooperation, communication, and leadership as they relate long-term saving and investing knowledge to financial news and current events.
The Foundation partners with the Society for Financial Education and Professional Development (SFE&PD) Student Ambassador Program to address the financial education gaps at the collegiate level through peer-to-peer financial education. The program enhances financial capability among the next generation of investors and heightens students’ awareness of a range of career options in the securities industry.
Supporting the Next Generation of Financial Capability Researchers
In order to expand the pipeline of researchers from underrepresented backgrounds in the U.S. professoriate, the FINRA Foundation offers fellowships to advanced doctoral candidates pursuing dissertation research centrally concerning financial services and capital markets. Learn more >>