FINRA Foundation Partners With Girl Scouts of the USA to Launch New Financial Empowerment Programming

Playbook Can be Accessed by 1.7 Million Girls, Including 571,000 From Communities of Color

WASHINGTON—The FINRA Investor Education Foundation (FINRA Foundation) announced today that it has partnered with Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) to launch new financial education programming and resources to meet the needs of girls and their families in underserved communities.

The FINRA Foundation supported the revamp of GSUSA Financial Empowerment Programming. The FINRA Foundation worked with the GSUSA program design team to develop financial activities including the development of a Financial Empowerment Playbook designed to aid Girl Scouts in the development of council-run single or multi-day events leveraging Girl Scouts Financial Literacy, Entrepreneurship, and Cookie Business badges to teach girls key financial literacy concepts.

GSUSA has released the Financial Empowerment Playbook to 111 Girl Scout councils nationwide who serve 1.7 million girls, including 571,000 girls from communities of color.

“The FINRA Foundation is committed to making financial education more accessible to underserved communities because research shows that financial education works and that individuals who participate in 10 hours or more of financial education exhibit better financial behaviors. Our partnership with the GSUSA will help equip up to 1.7 million girls, many of whom are from communities of color, with the knowledge and skills to make informed financial choices,” said FINRA Foundation President Gerri Walsh.

The Financial Empowerment Playbook covers financial and entrepreneurship concepts, and offer goal setting, money management and business development experiences through the Girl Scout Cookie Program. It involves a new GSUSA financial literacy and entrepreneurship program portfolio based on five strategic principles:

1. Think like a girl
2. Make the volunteer experience easy
3. Build consistent program experiences
4. Approach projects with creative enthusiasm and innovation
5. Focus on data-driven decision making

The Financial Empowerment Playbook will make available in the first quarter of 2023, for the first time, materials in both English and Spanish for approximately 40,000 Latina/Hispanic Daisy grade level (kindergarten and first grade) girls, their parents, troop leaders and volunteers.

In addition, the FINRA Foundation and GSUSA will conduct in the coming months Financial Empowerment Events with Girl Scout councils in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Rockville/Washington, DC, and Southeast Florida (Boca Raton). The Girl Scout councils participating in the Financial Empowerment Events serve 271,000 girls, of whom 88,000 are girls of color.

Located near FINRA offices, the Girl Scout councils participating in the Financial Empowerment Events will provide FINRA employees with an opportunity to volunteer, in-person or virtually, as mentors or facilitators for financial education activities. The Financial Empowerment Events are a component of the FINRA Foundation’s Colleagues Contributing to Communities Initiative launched in March. Inspired by one of FINRA’s Racial Justice Task Force “seeds of change” to advance financial education with K-12 grade students in underserved communities, the Contributing to Communities Initiative marries the expressed desires of FINRA employees to volunteer and support financial education within underserved communities, with meeting the volunteer needs of the FINRA Foundation’s financial education community-based partners.

About the FINRA Investor Education Foundation

The FINRA Investor Education Foundation supports innovative research and educational projects that give underserved Americans the knowledge, skills and tools to make sound financial decisions throughout life. For more information about FINRA Foundation initiatives, visit www.finrafoundation.org.

About the Girl Scouts of the USA

Girl Scouts bring their dreams to life and work together to build a better world. Through programs from coast to coast, Girl Scouts of all backgrounds and abilities can be unapologetically themselves as they discover their strengths and rise to meet new challenges—whether they want to climb to the top of a tree or the top of their class, lace up their boots for a hike or advocate for climate justice, or make their first best friends. Backed by trusted adult volunteers, mentors, and millions of alums, Girl Scouts lead the way as they find their voices and make changes that affect the issues most important to them. To join GSUSA, volunteer, reconnect, or donate, visit www.girlscouts.org.

About FINRA

FINRA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to investor protection and market integrity. It regulates one critical part of the securities industry—brokerage firms doing business with the public in the United States. FINRA, overseen by the SEC, writes rules, examines for and enforces compliance with FINRA rules and federal securities laws, registers broker-dealer personnel and offers them education and training, and informs the investing public. In addition, FINRA provides surveillance and other regulatory services for equities and options markets, as well as trade reporting and other industry utilities. FINRA also administers a dispute resolution forum for investors and brokerage firms and their registered employees. For more information, visit www.finra.org.