Monethink

Moneythink

Nominator

other

education , poverty reduction , youth

2008

http://moneythink.org/

Moneythink is an American educational non-profit organization that places college volunteers in high school classrooms to teach courses in financial literacy and entrepreneurship. The organization is self-described as the only movement of young people working to restore the economic health of America through financial education[1] Moneythink recruits college volunteers, typically majoring in business, finance, or economics, to teach courses in financially literacy and entrepreneurship at high schools in their communities. The Moneythink program consists of one year long curriculum called the Economic Opportunity Curriculum.[2] Over the course of the curriculum mentors teach weekly classes covering a wide range of basic financial practices and business strategies. The program also offers pre-professional activities for students to engage in, including business pitching competitions, job shadows, and visits to professional workplaces.

In fall of 2009, student-leaders at Washington University in St. Louis, USC, and other universities across the US began to work with the Chicago chapter and started identical clubs on their own campuses. Between the spring of 2010 and the fall of 2011 the concept spread to 24 campus communities nationwide. During this time the campuses aligned under the collective name Moneythink, took on hundreds of volunteer mentors, incubated at the Kauffman Foundation where Ted Gonder professionalized the organization, and gained official 501(c)(3) non-profit status. Moneythink programs operate at 30 universities across the United States. The organization consists of over 600 student mentors and has reached over 6000 students so far in the past four years.

In 2012, we declared our vision for a year 2030 in which every student enters adulthood equipped with the knowledge, skills, and tools to navigate the financial decisions of the real world. That gave us 18 yearsthe course of a generation. By mobilizing college volunteers to mentor high school students, Moneythink impacts two generations in the course of one.

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