Event ideas
To make sure Financial Capability Week spreads across the country we need your help to organise events during the week of the 14 to 20 of November 2016.
The aim of these self-organised events is to showcase the work of organisations involved in financial capability initiatives already or to highlight the issue of low financial capability and explore solutions available. We welcome your own ideas for events; below are a few ideas to get you started.
If you would like us to provide support for your event, for example by exploring whether we can arrange for an external speaker to attend or by highlighting the event on social media, just contact us via
Universities
Event title:Budgeting – how can students make their money last the month?
Event details: We suggest that universities could participate in Financial Capability Week by organising debates which engage students around subjects like:
How do students currently manage their money?
Could budgeting tips help students to make their money go further?
How many students regularly rely on credit (like overdrafts)?
These events could be organised through student societies or clubs. To inform the debate, you could survey students at your university to assess their financial capability. To do this, we recommend using a selection of the sample questions included in annex 1. Here is an example of questions you could use:
Do you set a personal budget of how much you can spend?
To what extent do you feel that keeping up with your bills and credit commitments is a burden?
You can use the free survey resources available online such as google forms and survey monkey.
We would recommend inviting external speakers to the events so they can provide another perspective and perhaps expert advice on the subject. If you would like us to explore whether one of our partners could be
Charities
Event title:Financial Capability Week Experiment: Turning the Tables
Event pre-requirements: identify an audience you would not usually engage with, but one you know would benefit from your support.
Event details: Third-sector organisations could participate in Financial Capability Week by engaging with a different kind of audience. For example, if your charity usually works with children or young people, you could organise an event with students or parents, delivering the same knowledge. You could also get the two groups together and share their experiences of managing money.
You could contact universities or organisations who are involved in Financial Capability Week to involve them in your event. We can share details where possible, so please contact.
Employers / Trade bodies
Event title:Lunch and Learn for Financial Capability Week
Event pre-requirements: a survey of your members’ or employees’ financial capability (depending on whether you are a membership organisation or employer). For example, you could survey your members on whether they have a policy for supporting staff to save more for their retirement. Similarly, employers could survey their employees’ savings habits. These questions could be based on survey questions used in the 2015 Financial Capability Survey, which can be found in annex 1.
Event details:We suggest that membership bodies or employers could participate in Financial Capability Week by engaging their members or employees in a discussion about financial capability. These events could take place during lunch time (we suggest a ‘Lunch and Learn’ event) or a ‘Coffee and Cake’ style event (which could attract employees who might not necessarily be attracted to the event in a first instance).
Using the survey of members or employee’s financial capability, you could base the event on a question which comes out of the data, for example:
The Savings Challenge: how can we encourage employees to save for a rainy day?
The Savings Challenge: how can employers encourage better employee savings habits?
You will need to start gathering survey data few weeks prior to the event. This could be done through an internal or members’ newsletter. Here is an example of questions you could use:
Do you currently save some money each month?
Do you encourage employees to calculate their ideal retirement income?
You can use the free survey resources available online such as google forms and survey monkey.