Reaching the people programs were built for
Children's Savings Accounts and matched-savings programs can change a family's future — if people know the funds are there and how to claim them.
Children's Savings Accounts, Individual Development Accounts, and matched-savings programs are some of the most promising tools for building economic opportunity. But a program only works if people use it.
Too often, the people these programs were designed for never learn the funds exist, or find the process of claiming them confusing. State agencies and sponsors spend years trying to reach them.
Trust travels through relationships
The people best positioned to close that gap are often already in the room: the case managers, youth workers, and coaches at community organizations who have earned trust. When a trusted worker explains a savings match, the message lands differently than a mailer ever could.
Connecting public programs to that nonprofit delivery channel — and showing sponsors the engagement and outcomes that result — is how more people actually claim what they're eligible for.