WHO IS MSFCP?
Our Funder
Our Fiscal Sponsor
Our Purpose
Funded by JPMorganChase, MSFCP.org is focused on improving student financial wellness for underrepresented, racially minoritized, low-income students. The program emphasizes changing student’s financial behavior, resulting in improved academic success, persistence, credential completion and lifelong financial health. Research shows that access to financial coaching can result in measurable gains for low- and moderate-income individuals in areas such as money management, financial health, and feelings of financial confidence and well-being. Thus, the Money Smart Financial Coaching Program™ model integrates peer-to-peer, group, and one-on-one financial coaching with financial education outcomes delivered in a credit or noncredit course. Ideally, students will learn how to understand the concept of cash flow, manage expenses, create a personal budget, apply strategies to save money, understand credit cards and credit card debt, reduce debt, establish and/or increase their credit score, and meet a financial goal. Developing financially capable students leads to healthy financial habits lasting into the future.
MSFCP PRACTICES
A foundational goal of the MSFCP™ is to help learners build financial wellness through behavior change.
- Hallmark feature is financial coaching
- Individualized coaching instills behavior change leading to life-long financial health
- Active learning strategies coupled with peer-to-peer and group coaching reinforce the concepts taught
- Coaching methodologies help learners meet their individual goals
The MSFCP™ has demonstrated that financial coaching supports persistence and retention for all types of learners.
- Data-driven methods to measure student outcomes across key metrics
- MSFCP practices improve student success in terms of persistence and retention
- Learners engaged in workforce education programs achieve a higher rate of credential completion
MSFCP™ helps colleges build capacity to deliver financial health education, now and in the future.
- Course-based model creates a more sustainable model for delivery
- Faculty teach a credit or noncredit course and are compensated by the employing college
- Course is supported through student tuition or fees making the model less reliant on grant funding and more likely to be adopted into the college’s culture
WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO
Concern about finances can dominate a student’s thoughts while in college, as substantiated by financial surveys of college students. For example, results of the 2024 Student Financial Wellness Survey of over 53,000 two- and four-year college students by the Trellis Company found that a large percentage of students suffer economic stress. For instance, 61% worry about having enough money to pay for college, 56% said they would have trouble getting $500 in an emergency situation, and 28% said they had run out of money 6 or more times in the past year. Additionally, a study of Collegiate Financial Wellness conducted by The Ohio State University (2023) found that 72.5% of students experience high levels of financial stress leading to negative academic outcomes, increased time to graduation, and lower academic performance.
The good news is that outcomes from the original MSFCP™ have demonstrated that supporting student financial health and wellness leads to increased college persistence, retention and student success.
MSFCP QUICK FACTS
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