Publication Date
January 2019Author(s)
Carly Hoffmann, Mathieu Despard, Sonia GarrisonClient/Funder
MetLife FoundationThrough a comparison study of several online financial coaching platforms, the CCC worked to identify gaps and redundancies in the current array of financial coaching tools and resources available for both practitioners and clients, providing new and actionable insights related to current coaching services and ongoing development and funding of new coaching programs.
Financial coaching and counseling are widely recognized as important services to offer to promote household financial wellness and economic stability. Information technology, management information systems, and evaluation are critical aspects of nonprofit organizational capacity related to evidence-informed practice (Despard, 2016). As such, nonprofit organizations increasingly rely on a variety of digital platforms and tools to help deliver, monitor, and evaluate financial coaching and counseling services.
In this report, we examine how a sample of these platforms and tools are strengthening organizations’ capacity to deliver high quality financial coaching and counseling services in the following ways:
1. Guide service delivery by helping coaches organize sessions and providing training materials for coaches and resources for coaches and clients
2. Enhance and supplement one-on-one services by offering digital tools clients can use to learn about and take action steps to achieve their financial goals.
3. Integrate financial coaching services with other efforts such as financial services, affordable housing, workplace benefits, and workforce development.
4. Monitor and evaluate individual clients’ progress in achieving their financial goals and assess outcomes for the program as a whole.
Goals of this report are to 1) raise awareness concerning the use of digital platforms and tools to support financial counseling and/or coaching; 2) identify and describe challenges and benefits of using these platforms and tools; and 3) issue recommendations regarding how organizations providing financial counseling and/or coaching, funders, and other stakeholders can further leverage technological resources to improve financial coaching and counseling practice.