So, thank you all for joining us today for our webinar on Expanding the Financial Capability of Persons with Disabilities . My name is Michael Roush, and I am the manager for financial empowerment and innovation at the Disability Employment Initiative. Today, I am joined by Sean Foster, who is the senior vice president of global technology and operations, as well as the enterprise lead for theDisability Advocacy At work at Bank of America. We are also joined by Joshua Sledge, the manager of nonprofit investments at the center for financial services innovations.
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If during the webinar you experience any technical difficulties, please use the chat box to send a message to the host, Nakia Matthews, or you may also e-mail Katie Metx at . Great. So, earlier this month, President. Obama signed a proclamation designating April as national financial capability month. In this proclamation, he calls upon all Americans with programs and activities to improve their understanding of the financial principles and practices.
Today, our guests will help us understand the definition of financial capability. As our team has traveled across the country, often times, groups or individuals ask us, what does financial capability mean? What is the difference between financial capability and that of financial education, or financial literacy? Today, we will have those questions answered. Mike our objectives to the webinar today are two different financial capabilities. To understand and identify the framework that makes up financial capability.
We also are going to look at understanding the differences between financial education and financial capability, and really see if there is a difference. And then next, we are going to learn about innovative programs and a new tool to further expand the financial capability of persons with disabilities.
The programs that we will hear from our presenters today may not be disability specific tools, but they opened the door to innovation and inclusion for persons with disabilities.
Today's webinar is the first of a three-part series that we will be hosting at the national disability Institute, as we further explore financial capability and all that it includes. Our webinar remains -- in May will explore behavioral economics and help us understand how we change our behavior for a better economic future. And, our June webinar will look at integrated service delivery. And how do we put all of these pieces together to further expand and build a better economic future for persons with disabilities.
I would like to thank our sponsor of today's webinar, Bank of America, for their support. Work that they are doing to expand the financial capability of persons with disabilities.
I know some of you might be new to National Disability Institute, and before I turn it over to our presenters, I would like to share with you information on our organization. The National Disability Institute is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to building a better economic future for Americans with disabilities. We are the first national organization committed exclusively to championing economic empowerment, access development and financial stability for all persons across a full spectrum of disabilities. The national disability Institute affects change through public education, training, technical assistance and policy development, to help the one in three Americans with disabilities living in poverty take steps towards brighter financial futures. We are based in Washington DC, with staff members located across the country.
To learn more about the National Disability Institute, please visit our website at this time, I would like to turn over to our next center on the webinar, Sean Foster, who is the senior vice president of global technology and operations and the lead for that DisabilityAdvocacy Network at Bank of America. Sean? I will turn it over to you.
All right, thank you, Michael. And thank you for all of the attendees today in their attention on what we consider a very important topic. As Michael said, I work at Bank of America and have been there for almost 20 years. In the technology world, so you know, the pure financial literacy and financial capability is maybe not my core skill. However, the disability advocacy network is one of my passions within the company. We have been a longtime partner with the national disability Institute, and our other speaker today, Joshua, from the center of financial services innovations. And really, we have learned over the years, our captives may align well with the work of these two outstanding nonprofits. When we think about the disability service space, these two teams from our perspective of the financial aspect disability service our leaders, and that's about it.
You know, we believe that financial capabilities, in order to achieve it, it's got to be a long-term commitment and achievement, and a strong support network. We obviously think that in our partnership with NDI, and CSI, that they are part and partnership with you on the call, part of that strong support network for the disabled community.
Acid have already experienced, you experience this day today, the one-size-fits-all program does not really work. You need to have multiple paths to really achieve financial literacy and financial capability that I know that each of us want for ourselves, as well as for folks with disabilities. It is very personal, individual, and, you know, highly self paced in many cases.
You will see today, as you learn from, you know, the information that Joshua is going to share, and some of the other tools that Michael and I will talk about, that there are tools and things that you can use to adapt or, you know, share with your population of people that you serve and work with on a day-to-day basis. We think they are great tools, and we hope that you do as well. With that, I would like to start taking you through our presentation today.
I have been a longtime supporter with National Disability Institute . Our teams, and really, we are made up of volunteers within our company, you know, that either work on issues for employees of Bank of America, but also connect to the community. And one of the things that we have done with National Disability Institute is we support them in the work for taxpayers and helping folks with disabilities, you know, get their taxes done and received the tax refunds.
We have also, as a company, build inclusive community practices around this asset building coalition across the country, many of you have probably heard of those. And also, have educated folks on economic empowerment strategies. We've got a great program that we use for students and adults with disabilities. To expand the financial knowledge. We worked with, it is called building economic strength together, or the BEST project. This is getting students with their family members, service professionals and veterans with disabilities to use community resources tools that they can use as a navigating the financial space.
So I can come a little bit of background on some of the things that we have done with National Disability Institute. That'll take me to the next slide. Within our company, it's a network of people that have interest in disability related issues. Our team that is geographically spread across our entire enterprise or company is focused really on anybody that is impacted by a disability. And, you know, we define that as someone, and I will take you to the next slide, sorry. To give you some more perspective. We define disability as, you know, our focus, I'm sorry, as impacted by disabilities. When we think about where our team goes internally and how we have try to advocate for people with disabilities, we really started out seven or eight years ago, as a small team of people with disabilities that were focused on traditional, you know, workplace disability issues. Whether it is access to buildings, or technology or, you know, those types of barriers.
But, what is interesting, and now that our current CEO, when he first came into our company during the merger, he wanted to be our sponsor. One of the things he challenged us on, is we really needed to expand what we think about serving the community. And so, we went back and tried to think back and said, yes, you are right. So, we changed one word in our mission. We served -- we went from serving people with disabilities to serving people impacted by disabilities which opened up a whole new world, on things that we can address and what we connect with.
In fact, we expanded our membership significantly within the company, merely by starting to focus on impacted by. To give you perspective, we think of the department of labor as people with disabilities, [ Indiscernible ] within the continental United States of having disabilities. Well, if they have a person may depend on or a person is dependent on them, well, you know, that is impact. Right? And received all the time in our company. We see it in employees and children with disabilities. That are struggling with issues, communities, schools and how we [ Indiscernible ] child with disabilities and transition them to be independent at all. Or, we may have employees that have caregivers or parents or other adults with disabilities within the homes.
So, it really opened up a great space for us in areas of work in ways that we can act, not only with our employees together to be a support network from my perspective, but also to support the community. And, out of that came our partnership with -- oh, sorry. Partnership with the National Disability Institute. So, we are excited today really to be part of this. I think the information you're going to get from Joshua and Michael and myself as a good to this presentation will give you some tools to take back to your community. We've got other information as we go through the slides on how to connect with us off-line after this call. We hope that you will want to continue to build a partnership.
As we start thinking about our next session with Joshua from the center for financial services innovation, they're also a partner of ours. We are pleased to introduce Joshua Sledge, who is a manager for the nonprofit investment at the center for financial services and innovation. [ Indiscernible ] is really the nation's leading authority for services [ Indiscernible ]. They believe in addressing the needs under -- [ Indiscernible - echo ] throughout the financial services landscape. Really by creating a mutual benefit for both the under banked and the companies they are serving in. They have spent a great deal of time on finding and connecting and exploring the idea of financial capability. Josh will help us understand the meaning of financial capability today and elements surrounding financial capability. So without, Josh, I'm going to turn it over to you and thank you for coming.
Yeah, thank you, Sean. I appreciate the introduction. And the remarks and great work that you have all done. With Bank of America. So, today, I'm going to talk of little bit about, as Michael mentioned earlier, what it really means to talk about financial capability. To kind of give a definition and talk about how it's maybe a little bit different from financial literacy and education efforts. I'm going to highlight some strategies for building programs with high potential for helping clients build financial capabilities. And, I will highlight a few examples of innovative programs from our financial capability innovation month, and after we do that, we will open things up for questions.
So, before we dive in, Shawn did a pretty good job of giving you an overview of CFSI and gave you some detail for those that may not be familiar with the organization. Our nonprofit organization with a mission to transform the US financial services marketplace, hope underserved households achieve financial prosperity. And when we are taught not underserved, we are typically talk about the under banked or unbanked, [ Indiscernible - echo ] . But are still looking for alternative service providers like [ Indiscernible - echo ].
A few people who are not necessarily using the full [ Indiscernible - echo ]. By a bank or credit union. So, to support our mission, we conduct market and consumer research by inside an actual intelligence on the under banked market. We help build relationships, as Shaw mentioned, we work with banks like Bank of America as well as credit units, other nonprofits, technology leaders and really try to provide advice and Disability Employment Initiative groups are working to better serve the underserved.
We also provide funding and technical assistance through the innovative nonprofits that are creating the solutions. In particular, we provide about $4 million in grants to 60 nonprofits in 2004, and I will tell you a bit more about some of those grantees a little bit later.
Finally, we seems to inform the policy world on the needs of the under banked and the need to inform policymakers about the issues that may affect the under banked financial services marketplace. So, I always like to begin the conversation about financial capability by framing the problem that we are trying to solve. And that is, when we look at the current financial profile of American consumers, and this is really across the income spectrum, not just low-income households, we see that many struggle with managing finances. Some of the stats really pointing that fact. About half of households report having difficulty covering monthly expenses. I equate that to budgeting and being able to manage resources effectively. Over half don't use a budget guy to spend. About 40% of Americans have no nonretirement savings. So, in case of an emergency, no cushion to draw upon together.
About two thirds don't comparison shop when obtaining a credit card, and about half don't comparison shop on attaining an auto loan. And as you can see here, about 40% of people give them selves a great of C, D and F integrating their own financial knowledge. Overall, we are missing the mark on financial lives and this could have some implications, particularly for low or moderate income households, where exercising the sound financial management could be critical to gaining stability and weathering any unexpected financial shocks.
So, it's against that backdrop that we really need to think more about what we can do to help people improve their financial behaviors. So, it is this focus on behavior that is really the foundation of the financial capability framework. So, CFSI defines it as [ Indiscernible ] that Kami to tangible improvements in a person's financial health, such as savings or improve credit scores. There are multiple definitions, but these five behaviors that we have here are some that we have seen, may across definitions. Being able to cover monthly expenses within, again goes back to that idea of budgeting. Tracking spending. Having an accurate picture of where your money is going. Planning ahead and saving for the future speaks to 40% of people with out nonretirement savings at hand. Effective selection and use of financial products. We see this as being able to identify what products will work best for you in learning how to use them in a way that will avoid any unnecessary fees and really work that clients benefit.
Finally, exercising that financial knowledge that may have been gained. Being financially cable means adopting these behaviors in ways that lead consumers to greater financial stability. So, if we are thinking of it relative to the traditional financial education field, this represents a shift in our field. When we think about financial literacy and education, the emphasis is on what people know. Are they aware of what they should be doing or key concepts? Do they know where they could find products or know where products are available? But, thinking of a problem from the financial capability standpoint, the focus shifts to what you do. Are you saving? Are you budgeting? Are you able to effectively manage resources and products that you have on hand? So, this shift our financial capability is not about replacing financial education, but instead about expanding it. Now it is important. Obviously. But, we can find ways to reach pound the classroom and help people turn knowledge into action and make better decisions in their day-to-day lives. Help them translate that knowledge into something tangible. We are seeing a shift towards a larger capability framework and focus on behavior happening more and more across the field. We have seen a wave of nonprofits and think tanks who are starting to put more emphasis on behavior change than just knowledge gained in order to figure out how to have a bigger impact. Likewise, the consumer protection financial bureau and office of financial education has been shifting towards the financial capable network in its research and work.