Helping Unbanked Angelenos Join the Financial System and Save Money

Income inequality

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

Approximately 25% of Californians are estimated to be unbanked or underbanked, resulting in significant financial and opportunity costs. BIPOC communities are disproportionately likely to be unbanked or underbanked—nearly 50% of Latinx and Black households—which helps perpetuate and widen racial wealth gaps. Not having a bank account, or having one with very high fees or restrictions, is very detrimental to building long-term financial stability. By opening a free or low-cost bank account, people can:
●Save hundreds of dollars on fees
●Have assurance that their money is safe and secure in a FDIC-insured bank and less likely to be stolen or lost
●Create or improve their credit scores, which opens up access to lower-cost loans
●Have quicker access to their paychecks, tax refunds and other electronic payments through direct deposit
●Have easier access to their money through ATM networks and mobile banking
●Have access to tools and products that facilitate longer-term financial planning

Golden State Opportunity (GSO) will work with BankOn Los Angeles, a program of the LA County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs’ Center for Financial Empowerment, to train outreach staff at GSO and Black Women for Wellness (BWW) on how to help people get banked—increasing the money they have, improving their credit scores, and offering opportunities for long-term financial planning. GSO and BWW will then launch education and outreach campaigns to reach unbanked or underbanked Angelenos, share information about the importance of becoming banked, and help them take the first steps in the process. Outreach efforts will include:
●Creating collateral materials and distributing them at events, during canvassing, through newsletters, and via social media platforms. ●Sharing information about BankOn and speaking with thousands of people people about opening free or low-cost bank accounts at in-person events hosted or attended by GSO and/or BWW. This includes GSO’s “Tacos and Taxes” events, where people receive free tax preparation assistance; BWW’s community programs like Sisters in Motion; resource fairs and community gatherings; and during door-to-door canvassing
●Implementing a direct texting campaign to share information about getting banked with tens of thousands of low-income Angelenos
●Conducting multi-faceted paid and social media campaigns to promote free and low-cost bank accounts, raising awareness more broadly.

Being unbanked or underbanked hurts the financial well-being of low-income Angelenos and presents another barrier in people’s efforts to become financially stable and thrive. This has a detrimental impact on their lives and on the larger community. Through this pilot project, GSO and BWW intend to test if a relatively modest pilot project can move the needle, helping more people get banked and positioning them for greater financial success in the long-term. Through the combined efforts of GSO and BWW—leveraging GSO’s proven multi-channel outreach and education model and BWW’s direct and ongoing engagement with the communities they serve—we will reach hundreds of thousands of low-income Los Angeles residents with this critical information. If the pilot proves successful, we have a great opportunity to expand the program and partner with more members of our network of dozens of LA County nonprofits who serve diverse communities and populations—scaling the project’s reach and impact.

GSO and BWW will track our impact in a number of ways to monitor activity, assess what strategies are working, and where improvements can be made. A major focus will be tracking engagement metrics to understand how many people our banking campaign reaches. These include:
●Number of attendees at in-person events where we share information about the benefits of being banked
●The number of doors knocked on and conversations had
●How many collateral materials are distributed through in-person and online channels ●The number of texts sent with information about getting banked
●How many people we reach through online efforts, such as via our newsletters, social media profiles, etc.
●Number of impressions generated through paid media campaigns, such as radio ads, print media ads, etc. In addition to our reach and engagement metrics, we will also track the number of people we help open a bank account. We will collect this data through surveying people we had previously reached.

Black Women for Wellness has been serving the Los Angeles region for over 25 years and is committed to the health and well-being of Black women and girls. They have deep relationships with people their programs engage and serve and are trusted by their community. BWW is therefore very well-placed to act as GSO’s partner in this pilot, conducting a significant portion of the in-person engagement and outreach efforts, primarily through canvassing and at their events. BWW will also promote banking through their other communication channels, including via their newsletter and social media presence. BWW will also conduct some surveying of the people they engage to help assess the pilot’s impact. GSO and BWW partner on multiple projects and have an effective collaborative working relationship.