Money Management International Financial Education Foundation (MMI Foundation) continues to fulfill its mission of educating persons on sound financial skills by partnering with Arizona Saves in its goal to help Arizonians build wealth not debt through its savings promotion program.
                
The MMI Foundation recently presented a grant to benefit Arizona Saves, whose mission is to empower Arizonians to build sustainable self-sufficiency by advancing healthy money management through education, saving, debt reduction and asset building.

“Without a financial base to fall back on, many in our community cannot meet emergencies, afford a home, pay for their own or their children’s education, start a business and support themselves in retirement,” said Arizona Saves Executive Director Patrick Jordan. “Arizona Saves is addressing the cycle of poverty and financial distress among our most financially vulnerable residents and promotes education, saving and asset development as a solution.”

The Arizona Saves Program offers motivational “Building Sustainable Savings” workshops to help Arizonians become savers. Partnering with 19 financial institutions to offer access to no-fee, low minimum deposit savings accounts, the program boasts 3,311 new savers, 65 percent of whom are Hispanic, African American or American Indian. Individual financial coaching from Arizona Saves volunteers assists new savers in identifying financial goals and developing a plan to meet those goals.

Arizona Saves also offers the Arizona Kids Save Program to educate and influence the financial behaviors of children and teens, particularly any poor financial habits learned from family, friends or the media. More than 1,100 kids have participated in the Arizona Kids Saves Program to date.

Funded as an extension to the education and counseling Money Management International (www.moneymanagement.org)  provides, the MMI Financial Education Foundation exists to educate the general public on building sound personal financial skills by supporting programs that teach those skills and principles.  For more information, visit www.mmifoundation.org.