Can a mobile platform inspire youth to adopt positive financial behaviors?
Moneythink pairs college student mentors with high school student mentees to provide coaching on sound financial management. Since its founding in 2009, Moneythink has scaled to 30 universities across 17 states, reaching nearly 10,000 students.
Moneythink developed a new mobile app, MoneythinkMobile, to supplement its program and engage participating students beyond one-hour-per-week mentoring sessions. The app sets up a series of challenges students complete outside of the classroom – for example, logging moments in which they saved or decided not to spend money. The app’s social media elements also enable students and mentors to “like”, comment, and add emojis and hashtags when their peers make posts related to their challenges.
The project received funding from the Center for Financial Services Innovation’s Financial Capability Innovation Funds. A partnership with a collaborative of funders led by the Citi Foundation, the Funds provided support to innovative projects designed to help low-income and underserved consumers adopt positive financial behaviors.