Not just in April but throughout the year, we emphasize the value of credit unions funding financial education initiatives for their members and surrounding communities. However, successful financial literacy and healthcare initiatives require the commitment and resources of credit unions.
Measuring the program’s benefits and ROI is crucial to ensure it meets its objectives and provides benefits to your credit union, just like any other investment that requires money and time. But with financial education, that process often seems less clear-cut. Your credit union can easily make an impact and increase ROI by breaking down the seemingly confusing process of measuring financial education courses.
Creating impact
You must ensure your financial education program is designed to have a positive and lasting impact before you can assess or improve ROI. Not all financial training programs are created equal; those that simply provide definitions or one-size-fits-all rules devoid of context or engagement strategies will fail to have the desired impact.
Instead, educational programs that utilize cognitive psychology and learning science techniques can help students absorb and retain new information, aiding in increasing long-term financial literacy and overall well-being. Additionally, digitally optimized financial education is essential to significantly increase your reach, particularly among younger generations.
While designing effective financial education programs can be complex, you don’t have to do it alone. You will save time and money by working with fintech companies that specialize in curriculum development and financial literacy rather than creating it yourself.
Calculating results
Financial literacy can have a profound impact on people, but it can often seem difficult to measure accurately. Real-world assessments or pre- and post-tests alone do not accurately reflect the results of your financial education program, which is logical to measure changes in economic knowledge.
Measuring subjective indicators like learners’ levels of confidence, interests, and effects on their relationship with your credit union is also crucial. Surveys can help determine whether students have increased their financial literacy and economic confidence, essential components of a financial wellness recipe that enables members to make financial decisions with your credit union. It can also help determine which financial subjects they’re interested in or whether their commitment to your credit union has improved as a result of your educational offerings.
Maximizing ROI
Calculating the results of your financial education program isn’t just an essential part of understanding the efficacy of your program; it also yields meaningful data you can use to maximize ROI. This data can provide incredibly meaningful insights into your members and your wider community that you can use to better serve them and grow your credit union. Beyond financial education, this data can be used to increase product utilization, brand awareness, membership growth, and so much more. The return on investment you get from financial education programs applies to so much more than financial literacy; it can be used to bolster your credit union as a whole.