One of MFEC's main goals is to build the capacity of financial education programs through the dissemination of ideas and best practices. We try to accomplish this in part through collecting and sharing of our partners' projects. If you have a project you think will benefit our other partners, please contact us so that we can report on your success.

Please take a few minutes to read the following case studies from our partner projects.

Altana Federal Credit Union

The PBS show Biz Kid$ is used in Altana FCU’s financial education classes for middle-school students. Biz Kid$ teaches youth about money and business using the examples of young entrepreneurs. The show is broadcast for free; however, DVDs of past seasons cost $165 per season. Click here for the full story.

Arete Development Group

Arete Development Group provides Native communities in Montana with financial education and planning assistance. It also provides business consulting services to small businesses on and near reservations in Montana.

One of Arete’s initiatives is to use NaviPlan, a sophisticated financial planning software program, to help members of Native communities. Click here for the full story.

Community Action Partnership

CAP is in the early stages of developing a comprehensive education program for youth, including high-schoolers, to help guide them down the path to financial literacy. It is important that, by the time youth leave high school, they have adequate financial knowledge and are credit savvy. Click here for the full story.

Montana Credit Unions for Community Development

MCUCD supports the presence of consumer resource centers located at credit unions throughout Montana. Consumer resource centers are located in branch lobbies and provide credit union members with information to help them make sound financial decisions. The centers are located in 33 credit unions serving 42 counties in Montana. Click here for the full story.

Montana State Auditor’s Office

Laura McGee is the Financial Education Consultant for the State Auditor’s Office and an enrolled Blackfeet member. In her works, she facilitates financial education for Native students by connecting schools with programs which fit their needs, as well as leading classes and presentations. She assists schools on a case-by-case basis, providing them with the resources and instruction they request to address their particular needs. Click here for the full story.

Montana Women Vote

Montana women Vote is working to expand consumer education on payday loans to the demographics targeted by the marketing of the payday lenders. The education takes the form of simulative trainings where participants experience how customers can fall into a “debt trap” by taking out these loans, and directs them to alternative financial services and assistance.

For more information on Montana Women Vote, please visit http://montanawomenvote.org/.

NeighborWorks Montana – Individual Development Accounts

NeighborWorks’ is working to promote individual development accounts (IDA’s) for first-time home-buyers through presentations at home-buyers’ education classes. However, funds are needed to cover the cost of traveling to classes to make the presentations. Click here for the full story.

Rocky Mountain Credit Union

Karleen Hanson of Rocky Mountain Credit Union has created a Jeopardy-style game to educate participants about the full range of financial products and services available at credit unions. The content and format have been developed and tested both in internal trainings and in one community session—where Hanson says it got a very positive response. Click here for the full story.

Rural Dynamics, Inc. – Budgeting for the Developmentally Disabled

Steve Cape, Education Program Manager at RDI, has devised the concept for a budgeting class for developmentally-disabled individuals who live independently and need a simple budgeting system to manage their finances. Click here for the full story.

Rural Dynamics, Inc. – Credit Counseling and Financial Education

Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Montana (CCCS), an arm of RDI, requires a financial education course as part of its debt management plan (DMP). DMP is a voluntary repayment program designed to help individuals regain control of their financial situation. CCCS negotiates lower interest rates with creditors and facilitates payment of debt so that individuals can escape from debt. Click here for the full story.

Rural Dynamics, Inc. – Financial Education for Teenagers and Pre-Teens

Prosperity Club is a family-friendly financial education program. Education is provided to adults facing financial challenges, but the club does its best to accommodate their children as well. Kids of all ages accompany their parents or guardians to meetings at the Children’s Museum in Great Falls, where child care and dinner are provided. Click here for the full story.

Mini-Grant Projects

Through the generosity of our sponsors, in 2010 we were able to award $500 mini-grants to ten partner projects serving a broad range of groups in all regions of Montana. We could not be more pleased by the results:

• Altogether, these projects reached over 2,100 people with financial education. While the precise number cannot be determined, well over 400 additional people were reached as a result of mini-grants.
• All five projects launched with the help of mini-grants will continue
• Two projects will continue to be offered using re-usable materials purchased with mini-grant funds, reducing the costs of repeat instruction
• One project developed recommendations for improved VITA marketing, which may be used by the many Montana organizations providing this service

Big Sky Senior Services

Big Sky Senior Services was awarded a mini-grant to teach employees of financial institutions how to recognize and report incidents of financial abuse of the elderly. According to Executive Director Denise Armstrong, the project was motivated by demand on the part of these employees.

“There has been such a large increase in financial exploitation in the past four to five years,” says Armstrong. Click here for full story.

Browning Community Development Corporation

BCDC was awarded a mini-grant to provide general financial education classes. Classes were open to all residents of the Blackfeet Reservation, but the target population was students. The hope was to reach students on the cusp of taking responsibility for their finances, before they developed bad financial habits. Click here for the full story.

Career Training Institute

CTI was awarded a mini-grant to enable greater attendance at a series of financial education classes by covering expenses associated with attending the classes—including transportation, child care, and food. Click here for the full story.

District IV 4H Camp

A mini-grant was awarded to teach business skills and money management to campers and counselors at the District IV 4-H summer camp by tasking them with operating concession stands during snack time. Click here for the full story.

Junior Achievement of Montana

JAMT was awarded a mini-grant for its flagship program, where volunteers give classroom presentations to K-12 students in financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and work readiness. At the time of its application, the weak economy had left JAMT facing the prospect that it would only be able to reach half as many students as it hoped. Click here for the full story.

MSU – Missoula County Extension

Family and Consumer Science Agent Kathy Revello was awarded a mini-grant to purchase the “Small Steps to Health and Wealth” course for use in her work with the community. Revello has found it difficult in the past to recruit people for classes on personal finance, given that it is a subject people typically feel uncomfortable discussing.

“I’ve had low turnout for budgeting classes,” says Revello. Click here for the full story.

NeighborWorks Montana – Transitional Housing

NWMT was awarded a mini-grant for costs related to in-house financial fitness classes for residents of the Helena YWCA, a transitional living facility for women and children. There is a strong need for financial education among residents. Click here for the full story.

Salish and Kootenai Housing Authority

SKHA was awarded a mini-grant to provide basic financial education to residents of the Flathead Reservation using the “Small Steps to Health and Wealth” course, with the hope that they would gain the skills and confidence to enroll in SKHA’s homeownership program. Click here for the full story.

United Way of Yellowstone County

UWYC was awarded a mini-grant to assist with focus groups investigating two topics: how to improve marketing of VITA, and the financial best practices of successful low-to-moderate income households. Click here for the full story.

Western Sustainability Exchange

WSE was awarded a mini-grant to purchase “Biz in a Boxx” for its Young Entrepreneur Stewardship (YES) Initiative, a summer camp for youth aged six to fourteen in the Livingston area. Click here for the full story.