ACCION USA’s Financial Education Program Mid-Year Results
By Clare Scanlan
After weeks of planning and hundreds of calls made to recruit attendees for ACCION USA’s Show Me the Money financial panel on June 15, we had a great turn out. I originally thought that would be the most rewarding part of the event, but a few weeks later, when I saw Show Me the Money attendee Jerry Bonilla come into the ACCION USA conference room to discuss his $15,000 business loan, I saw the real impact of our financial literacy events—entrepreneurs using what they learned to grow their businesses.
Jerry’s company Nanghost, founded almost seven months ago, provides website development and design, hosting, maintenance, marketing and analysis to over 1000 small businesses. He is using his ACCION USA loan to buy a new server, which will allow him to serve an unlimited number of clients and streamline his systems.
Financial education classes are one of the ways that ACCION USA helps empower business owners with credit knowledge.
There were 12 ACCION USA clients like Jerry that received loans totaling $44,815 during the first half of 2010 as a direct result of our Financial Education Program. Other highlights of our progress from January to June 2010 include:
- 1544 individuals were educated by the AUSA Financial Education Program through 109 one-to-one counseling sessions, 50 workshops, 18 webinars, and 4 speed coaching events
- AUSA developed its online tools with new financial tip sheets, interactive recordkeeping worksheets for the online download center, and an interactive E-learning course on credit
- The 2010 Business Survival Strategies curriculum and presentation were developed, including accompanying articles and handouts
- Miami-based credit coaching sessions were launched, which provide in-depth one-on-one counseling with an AUSA credit coach for a one-time $20 fee
- AUSA’s first longitudinal impact survey was launched in June
Founded in 2001, AUSA’s Financial Education Program continues to grow as the need for financial literacy becomes more and more critical with the changing economic climate.
Clare Scanlan is serving as the Financial Education Intern for ACCION USA during Summer 2010. She is a rising junior at Georgetown University studying Economics and Spanish.
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:58 am
great post! Its terrific that you had a chance to see your work come to fruition. Good luck to Jerry!