Make Your Path (MY Path™)June 7, 2013

Federation Annual Meeting

Delivered By:Margaret Libby, Executive Director

Mission SF Community Financial Center

Mission SF Community Financial Center: Overview

PRESENTATION OVERVIEW

1. Mission SF Introduction

2. Make Your Path (MY Path™) Design and Results

3. MY Path Lessons and Next Steps in 2013

Mission SF Community Financial Center

Mission SF Community Financial Center: Overview

• Mission SF positions low-income youth to take control of their personal finances by ensuring they have:

1. Access to quality financial products;2. A working knowledge of personal finance best practices;3. A social support system to develop and sustain sound

financial habits.

• When we do this, we promote upward economic mobility and cultivate a stronger, more sustainable economy.

Mission SF Purpose

• Reach people that are not being well-served

• Reach them through strategic partnerships where they are

• Bundle services to maximize client outcomes

• Evaluate process and impact outcomes on an ongoing basis

• Keep scale in mind

• Develop and share best practices and lessons with field

Mission SF Core Strategies

Municipal youth employment programs represent a powerful channel to reach millions of youth from underbanked and unbanked households.

• 34% of youth ages 16-19, and 55% of youth ages 16-24 are in the labor force (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012)

• 40+ million youth are ages 15-24 years (Census, 2010)

• No system in place to link them to accounts, financial capability and savings structures

The MY Path Opportunity

Financial Services Access In San Francisco

Bayview

Mission

Excelsior

Presidio

South of Market

Western Addition

Haight Ashbury

Presidio Heights

§̈¦280

§̈¦80

£¤101

£¤101UV280

UV280

UV280UV280

Silver

Euclid

Hill

Banks & Credit Unions

Check Cashers & Payday Lenders

FINANCIAL SERVICES

ACCESS

Saving and Economic Mobility

• Engage youth in the financial

mainstream the moment they receive their first paycheck

• Build financial capability through hands-on experience budgeting and saving their first income stream

• Shift youth aspirations as they set and meet personal savings goals

• Spur economic mobility through establishment of savings behaviors and college savings

MY Path Overview

MY Path: Behavioral Economics

Make It Automatic – Program enrollment

Make It Easy – Direct deposit and auto-deposit

Loss Aversion – MY Path savings matches

Power of the Pack – Peer influence and support

Pre-set Decisions – MY Path savings contract

Three Types of Outcomes

• Financial knowledge – JumpStart

• Financial behaviors – budgeting, tracking expenses, savings

• Youth development – future orientation, self-efficacy, control

MY Path: Data Driven Programming

MY Path Partners, 2011-13

• Ten Partner Sites 280 youth each year from ten community based organizations implementing the San Francisco Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program (MYEEP)

• Income Over half (58%) were from households receiving public assistance, 26% living in public housing, and 86% with annual incomes below half of San Francisco’s median income.

• Age 9th and 10th graders, average age of 15 years.

• Ethnicity 41% African American, 34% Asian/Pacific Islander, 18% Latino, and 7% declining to state

MY Path Participant Profile, 2011-13

MY Path Impact, 2011-13

• Over 500 MYEEP participants have opened accounts.

• Over $450,000 in savings, this year over $1,000 per youth!

• MY Path Savings, 2012-13 • Over Half (59%) met their 6-month goal.• Youth saved $238,000 in their MY Path Restricted Accounts, an

average of $500 per youth. • In “transactional” bank account, over $100,000 in additional,

“passive savings,” or $500 per youth!

Financial Practices and Behaviors

MY Path Impact, 2011-12

.0

.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

2.5

2.0

2.62.6

2.9

2.5

3.03.2

Pre Post

MY Path Lesson 1: Technology for Scale

Challenge: In-person content delivery with geographically disparate sites is time and resource intensive.

Solution: Develop online content delivery platform and implement a Train-the-Trainer model so that youth at each site can lead peer learning sessions.

MY Path Lesson 2: Incentivize Saving and Other Financial Behaviors

Challenge: Financial incentives for deposits effectively nudged participants to save, but did not promote other financial behaviors such as budgeting and tracking expenses.

Solution: Expand incentive structure to reward not only savings, but also other sound financial behaviors.

Challenge: Some youth participants have their own bank accounts and agencies want flexibility in financial product offerings.

Solution: In close partnership with Community Trust, offer restricted MY Path savings accounts to all, and regular savings accounts with ATMs to those who want them.

MY Path Lesson 3: Flexible Savings Products

Typical Youth Paycheck

MY Path 2013-14: Up to 600 More Youth!

• 20 new San Francisco youth employment site partners.

• MY Path restricted account at Community Trust for their savings, and a second account for paycheck balance

• Up to $160 per youth to incentivize key financial behaviors.

• Online interactive financial education platform alongside in-person engagement at program sites, facilitated by site staff and MY Path Youth Coaches.

MY Path™ 2013-14 Project Design

Accounts Direct Deposit

Savings Default

Savings Goal Rewards

Online Financial Education

In-person Reflection

High Touch X X X X X X

Low Touch X X X X X

Accounts + Savings Default

X X X X

Hear Directly From MY Path Savers

IMANI City Hall, Supervisor Avalos

MY Path Goal: $480 just to saveEnd Total with Matches: $730

PEDRO Columbia Park Boys & Girls Club

Goal: $470 for collegeEnd Total with Matches : $720

Margaret Libby, Executive Directormlibby@mission.coop

Vishnu Sridharan, MY Path Director415-206-0846 x18www.mission.coop

MY Path Working Paper available at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s website: Increasing Financial Capability among Economically Vulnerable Youth: MY Path.