Grant Proposal

A financial literacy study conducted on 15-year olds by USA Today revealed the United States fell in at Number 9, 8 points behind the overall average of young adults who grasped the concept of finance. Questions ranged from simple — covering basic financial literacy skills, such as recognizing the purpose of an invoice or comparing price per unit — to complex. The complex questions included scenarios such as reviewing and choosing the better of two loan proposals (Krasselt, 2014). There is a need for information on: basic bank account balancing, the importance of understanding credit, and multiple in-depth informative sessions on budgeting and staying out of debt. The school systems do not require a financial class as requirement of graduation for the students in South Carolina. In order to meet this need, the educators of Bigger Than the Standard Nonprofit, LLC organization would like to propose a grant program to expand the financial knowledge of young adults around South Carolina.

Bigger Than the Standard, SC is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization. Our purpose is to equip young adults by expanding their minds to information that the school doesn’t require as apart of the standard to graduate but is included in the standard of life. By stressing the need for knowledge of finance beyond school, we look to achieve educating students in finding the purpose and importance of obtaining as much knowledge as we have to offer.

Our mission of Bigger than the Standard, SC is to partner with school districts, athletic departments, and communities across South Carolina to provide mentoring to students between the ages of 13-18 every other Saturday throughout the entire year/ We will work to provide the students with the life skill development of being able to budget and maintain their finances in order to decrease the amount of young adults in debt.

Our vision of Bigger than the Standard, SC is to create a world where all students leaving high school will have financial knowledge and be able to contribute to the members of society and be able to operate in life without government assistance.

For us to create and build authentic relationships with the community leaders and students BTTS will offer a free Financial Knowledge Camp to serve the students of the community. Beyond contributing to the development of the financial literacy the camp is designed for the students to come together and learn and build a relationship with other members of the community, ultimately building a stronger bond and a safety net for students. The Details of the community camp are below:

Time: 8:00am-12:00 pm

Date: June 8, 2019

Location: Richland County Public Library

Participation Ages: 10-18 years old

Details of Contract: In order for students to participate, in the Financial Literacy Camp they must have an updated completed signed waiver on file. If the student is under the age of 18 the parent or guardian will have to sign the form before they are eligible to participate in any activities. The waiver will disclosure any learning disabilities, food allergies, or special information about the student instructors will need to be informed on. Breakfast, snacks, and water will be provided on site for students to enjoy. The camp will be based on the following fundamentals and the following time frames.

Time 8:00am-8:30am- The time allocation will be designed for everyone to come together and learning some basics about one another. We will get together and do icebreakers and become familiar with names and financial informative backgrounds of each student in the camp while enjoying breakfast.

Time 8:30am-9:00am- This time will be allocated to breaking up into groups based on knowledge and ages. Groups will be broken down in ages from 10-12 years old, 13-15-year old’s and 16-18-year-olds with an exception of students who have financial knowledge who may move up or down to another group.

Time 9:00am-10:00am- First session of learning will consist of gaining knowledge on budgeting and savings. Each instructor of their specific groups will have age appropriate information and activities to inform their group of what those students should be aware of when looking to budget and save.

Time 10:00am-11:00am-This session will be based on credit information and the basics. Each group will learn the importance of credit, how it is calculated, what it is used for and how to work toward increasing the credit score.

Time 11:00am-12:00pm-This time will be used to inform students of assets they can be used to assist in financial goals. WE will end the session with an overview and activities that will be completed at the next session.

Groups Invited to the Community Forum:

Richland School District 1 faculty

Richland School District 2 faculty

Lexington School District 5 faculty

Pine Hurst Community Park

Meadow Lake Recreation Center

Richland County Public Library-St. Andrews

Richland County Public Library-Main

Burke & Burke Accounting Firm

John Thomas Financial Advisor

Seniors of Bachelorette Studies -Accounting/Finance Majors

References

Fritz, J. (2018). How to Write a Great Needs Statement for Your Grant Proposal. Retrieved from https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-to-write-a-need-statement-for-your-grant-proposal-2501959

Krasselt, K. (2014, July 09). In financial literacy, U.S. teens score below Latvia. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/07/09/united-states-financial-literacy/12404527/