Treasury Grant Program for Financial Education and Counseling.
Through a new Financial Education and Counseling Pilot Program, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund shall provide grants to Eligible Organizations to enable them to provide a range of financial education and counseling services to prospective homebuyers, with the goals of:
- increasing the financial knowledge and decision-making capabilities of prospective homebuyers;
- assisting prospective homebuyers to develop monthly budgets, build personal savings, finance or plan for major purchases, reduce their debt, improve their financial stability, and set and reach their financial goals;
- helping prospective homebuyers to improve their credit scores by understanding the relationship between their credit histories and their credit scores; and
- educating prospective homebuyers about the options available to build savings for short- and long-term goals.
The ultimate program goals of the FEC Pilot Program are to identify successful methods resulting in positive behavioral change for financial empowerment, and to establish program models for organizations to carry out effective financial education and counseling services to prospective homebuyers.
In order to be deemed an Eligible Organization, the Applicant entity must be a certified CDFI, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved Housing Counseling Agency, a Credit Union, a governmental entity (State government, Local government or Tribal government), or a collaborative effort of two or more such entities.
In addition, the Applicant entity must demonstrate that it meets certain minimum threshold requirements with respect to its experience and ability to provide Financial Education and Counseling Services resulting in documented Positive Behavioral Changes to Prospective Homebuyers. Specifically, the Applicant must certify that:
- it has provided Financial Education and Counseling Services for a period of at least three years immediately prior to the Application deadline;
- it has at least two full time equivalent position dedicated to the development and/or delivery of Financial Education and Counseling Services;
- it has provided Financial Education and Counseling Services to at least 100 Potential Homebuyers in the past year, or has served an average of at least 150 clients per year over the past three years, and subsequently tracked Positive Behavioral Change outcomes with respect to such services; and
- it has independent budget resources of at least $50,000 currently available for the provision of Financial Education and Counseling Services.
Guidance for Applicants that are Intermediaries or Collaborative Efforts.
The FEC Pilot Program application deadline is 5:00 PM Eastern Time on November 19, 2009.
Learn About Applying to the FEC Pilot Program
On Thursday, October 22, 2009 from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time, the CDFI Fund will conduct a conference call for organizations interested in applying to, or learning about, the FEC Pilot Program.
Public participation will be limited to 150 individual phone lines. Multiple staff from the same organization are asked to call as a group from one phone line to maximize participation.
To access the conference calls, participants need to call (800) 988-9565 and enter in the pin number FECPP. No prior registration is necessary.
Questions?
For more information on the FEC Pilot Program, please contact the CDFI Fund by e-mailing cdfihelp@cdfi.treas.gov or by calling (202) 622-6355.
For more information, visit: http://www.cdfifund.gov/what_we_do/programs_id.asp?programID=8
Last Updated:
November 10, 2009
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