AFSA Education Foundation’s MoneySKILL®: Free, Flexible Financial Education for Everyone

Show Notes

• Guests: Rhonda Ashburn and Olivia DiBiase
• Host: Tara Alderete
• Publication Date: April 15, 2025

Highlights

• 3:04 | Rhonda talks about the history and mission of the AFSA Education Foundation.
• 6:12 | Olivia talks about MoneySKILL, the flagship program from the AFSA Education Foundation.
• 10:02 | Olivia discusses the many resources offered, including lesson plans and toolkits.
• 15:52 | Tara, Olivia, and Rhonda talk about ways to break down the stigma surrounding debt.

Episode Transcript

Note: Transcripts are machine-generated and may contain errors.

Tara: Hey, there, it is me, Tara from Long story short, today I am joined by Rhonda Ashburn and Olivia DiBiase from the AFSA Education Foundation.

I'm really excited to talk to them and learn more about their organization and this fabulous program they offer called MoneySKILL.

Here at Money Management International, we believe that financial challenges aren't meant to be faced alone, and financial wellness is a journey. On this podcast, we hear stories of people whose lives have been changed by MMI. And we also hear from the dedicated partners helping to make a difference. These stories are unique, personal, and inspiring. Stay tuned. We're sharing each guest's long story short.

Tara: So, ladies, welcome to the show.

Rhonda Ashburn: Thank you.

Olivia DiBiase: Thank you. We're happy to be here.

Tara: I'm happy to have you. Before we jump in and get started, could you tell us just a little bit about yourselves and what you do at the AFSPA Education Foundation?

Rhonda Ashburn: Sure. So, first, let me. Thank you. We're so pleased to have this opportunity and excited to share about one of our primary efforts. But let me just share a little bit about my background. So I actually grew up in Oklahoma and moved to the D.C. area after I graduated from college and had an opportunity to work on Capitol Hill for short stint and then moved to a career and technical student organization known as Family, Career and Community Leaders of America now. And that was a wonderful experience to help youth in the leadership development arena.

And we also had a financial fitness program. After many years there, I moved to the national foundation for credit Counseling. That's actually where I learned about MMI and many of the member agencies that are in this space. And then in the fall of 2016, I was blessed to become the Executive Director of the AFSA Education Foundation. So we're going to talk about where we spend most of our time with MoneySKILL, but it's just been a wonderful ride and, and it's so helpful to have people like Tara and others that help us get the word out. But I'll turn it over to Olivia to share about her background.

Olivia DiBiase: Thank you. Rhonda. I'm Olivia DiBiase. I'm the Director of Financial Education and Outreach at the AFSA Education Foundation. I've been in the role for about five years, and in my position, I'm really taking the lead on anything and everything related to our MoneySKILL program and the related services around that. I spend a lot of time going to educator conferences nationally and regionally sharing with teachers about what we have to offer in the personal finance education space. And interestingly, like Rhonda, I also started out before this role at the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. So I was able to work with MMI in that capacity too.

So I'm excited to share more about what we have to offer today.

Tara: Thank you so much. Again, very, very happy to have you on the show. I think this is going to be a fantastic episode. Rhonda, could you tell us a little bit more about the mission and history of the education foundation?

Rhonda Ashburn: Happy to do that. Actually, this year we're celebrating our 35th anniversary. The foundation started in 1990 and our mission is to educate consumers of all ages. But the part that I like the best about the mission is that it's teaching consumers that there is a what's in it for them piece so that if they are responsible with their money management skills, there's actually a benefit to that. We, of course, also are focused on the credit process. We want them to understand that. But we spend most of our time on our personal finance curriculum called MoneySKILL that we've mentioned. And it's a very fulfilling way to help make a difference.

And as you know, there's a tremendous need, as I'm sure you've addressed on previous episodes of the podcast. But we do this work every day and we're thankful to have the opportunity.

Tara: Yeah, you know, you're absolutely right. And I say it all the time. It, it feels like financial wellness or, you know, just finances in general is one of those things that we should be talking about from the time we're this big and we just don't. Right. And then it takes a conversation like this or maybe a life event to happen and then we start the conversation. So tell us a little bit more about why financial education is so important.

Rhonda Ashburn: Well, you know, for me personally, it's kind of, it's probably not the traditional path, but at an early age, actually in elementary school, to your point about the importance of getting it early, you can't stress that enough. I joined 4-H. One of the options for projects you check off on your enrollment card... I picked consumer education and that led to a plethora of opportunities and helped me see how being an educated consumer connects to so many different aspects of our lives and how those skills are so important and needed. And we see that, you know, it's not only through our own personal experiences, but there's survey after survey that shows those consumers having lower financial literacy levels are more likely to be over indebted, are more likely to, you know, be facing challenges in their day to day expenses, and sadly may not have an emergency savings account so that if there is a financial shock, as you mentioned earlier, that can be a deal breaker and that can happen to anybody. But thankfully, on the other side of the coin, there are also studies that show that an increased financial literacy skills, you're more likely to be knowledgeable, be more confident, make better decisions, more likely to save so that you can have those emergency savings in place. So we're thankful that through MoneySKILL we can help middle, high school, college and beyond have one more tool in the toolkit, get those foundational skills that they can build upon and ideally be on the path to where they're not going to experience some of those challenges that many Americans face across our country.

Tara: Yeah, I love it. So Olivia, without further ado, tell us more about MoneySKILL.

Olivia DiBiase: Yeah, absolutely. So MoneySKILL it is the AFSA Education Foundation. It's our flagship program. So it was developed in 2002 as one of the first personal finance courses available online and we make it free to educators and this includes, you know, everyone from teachers to nonprofit educators to even parents. So if there's anyone listening who has kids or adult children who might benefit from financial education. MoneySKILL it's certainly a resource that goes beyond just the classroom and can be used for educating in a variety of different formats. It consists of 37 different modules available in English and Spanish and the topics really focus on a wide variety of different personal finance topic. So you know, it covers everything from the basics like budgeting and money management, accessing credit, understanding the pitfalls of having too much debt, and it covers more in depth topics too.

So what I always think of as more niche subjects but I think we're really important so you know, protecting yourself against identity theft, planning for retirement, understanding insurance. So I won't list all 37, but they really cover the spectrum of different household economic situations. And we, we've really made a big effort within MoneySKILL to cover a variety of different financial situations and experiences and offer folks information also on where to go if they need additional financial assistance or support. You know, the course is really designed to be customizable so educators can build their own classes based on the needs of their students. And for parents or grandparents who may be using it, you know, they can also craft a course that's going to be relevant to their needs and what their kids are interested in. So it's a very flexible tool and we're excited to be able to offer it most importantly for free. So it's a great resource.

Tara: Oh, how great is that. I heard you say educators, grandparents, and it sounds like it's a bit of a train the trainer program. So who exactly uses MoneySKILL? How do you access it? What are the benefits?

Olivia DiBiase: Most of our outreach is really directly to educators, to those parents, teachers, professors who are going to be delivering the content. But the end user is of course the learner. And so the course is adaptable for different audiences. We have students as young as middle school that are using MoneySKILL. We have a subset of modules that are pretty foundational. They don't require as much heavy math skills. But we have high school students, college students, and even adult learners that are using MoneySKILL and different capacities. We have partner organizations that make this available to their customers as a resource just for them to go through on their own for personal finance education.

And it's all web based, there's no downloads or apps required and it is truly free to use. So it's ad free as well. So there's no pop up ads or any hidden costs. And it's really well suited to be done at home in virtual learning environments. Or we have plenty of teachers that are using it actually inside the classroom as well. And you know, I've talked a lot about parents being able to use it. There's no, you know, specialized teacher training. So, you know, you don't need to be a personal finance expert yourself to set up a MoneySKILL class for somebody else or for your students.

And we designed it that way on purpose. There's, you know, not all teachers or parents are confident in delivering, you know, a personal finance lesson. And so we've really made it so that it's plug and play, ready to go out of the box and something that can be used easily.

Tara: So what are some of the other resources or maybe additional resources that are available through the program?

Olivia DiBiase: At the AFSA Education Foundation, we have a number of other resources, I should say free resources that both support and are in addition to MoneySKILL. So for teachers, we have a teaching guide with over 300 different resources. They're all free, they're all vetted, and they're all aligned with the existing MoneySKILL modules. So if teachers need other calculators, classroom activities, games, articles, just name it to support MoneySKILL, we have that available to them. We have other worksheets and flyers that are available to the general public on our website. It's MoneySKILL.org, I think is the easiest way to remember it. I will also note we're very excited as well about publishing some classroom based lesson plans that are going to be supplementing our existing MoneySKILL modules on vehicle financing and ownership. As I mentioned, MoneySKILL, it's a web based course.

And so we hope that by offering these lesson plans, we're giving teachers just one more resource in a different format that they can use in the classroom to support MoneySKILL and personal finance education. And then for anybody who's listening, who's not an educator and who maybe doesn't have a need for lesson plans or classroom based activities, we have what is called a MoneySKILL Ambassador toolkit. And so for anybody who's interested in looking to find ways to bring personal finance education to their community, their different networks, this toolkit has email social media templates that can help support you in doing outreach to promote financial education. So we have other resources like that as well and we hope that there's some that folks will find interesting.

Tara: So fantastic tools and resources and availability. And it sounds like this is really a program that can get out to the masses when and where they need it. So Rhonda, how do you know that this curriculum is working?

Rhonda Ashburn: You know, we are so fortunate that we can prove through a study that we did actually that was published in 2023, we worked with Dr. Carly Urban out of Montana State University and she was able to show that there's been 65% of growth as far as looking at the pre and the post test of the students and 90% growth overall for all students. So that demonstrates the knowledge piece. But then also on the behavior front, just to give you one nugget, schools that do have MoneySKILL, about 50% of US counties is what her research showed. But schools that do have or are offering MoneySKILL or have had MoneySKILL users are more likely to have students complete the FAFSA application. So it's demonstrating their knowledge of low cost financing options. And you're welcome to check out more resources as far as that particular study, the full study is on our website at MoneySKILL.org or you can access a one pager that has some of the key knowledge and behavior highlights, if you will.

That's our proof. But, but you know Tara, I think it's important to acknowledge that we do an annual satisfaction survey and the teachers are very supportive. I mean they, they tend to use MoneySKILL over and over. Once they get it, they like it, they love it, they tell other people about it. In fact, that's actually one of the key ways that we get the word out is through buzz marketing, is current instructors using it because they're just, they speak so highly of it, and they have such positive experiences, and we're driven by what they tell us. So if educators have a need that's financially feasible for us, we try to meet that need so that they can be better in the classroom.

Tara: I love that term buzz marketing. I'm gonna steal it.

Rhonda Ashburn: I think it's a marketing term. Maybe it's just one I created! 

Tara: So beyond buzz marketing, my new term, if I'm a grandparent or a parent or an educator, a community member, and I want to get the word out, you know, a church person. How do I collaborate with the AFSA Education Foundation?

Rhonda Ashburn: Right. Well, Olivia mentioned one of my favorite tools, our ambassador toolkit. But another piece that we do that is really a good opportunity for other nonprofits, businesses. I mean, whether you're a small business or you're running a Fortune 500 company, it works for different types of organizations that care about their employees and or their customers having access to this content. So we collaborate, one of my favorite words on a joint MoneySKILL micro site that, you know, recognizes both the foundation and the particular entity. And then that organization gets to choose, like, do they want to offer all the modules? Do they want to offer it in English and Spanish? How would they like for it to look internally? And that's been a good way for us to get the word out to some new audiences in addition to the more traditional classroom environment situations. This is like a different type because it's giving the content straight to the user without that teacher being engaged.

You can reach us on our site. There's an info@MoneySKILL.org, where you can reach out if you're interested in that, or you can always look us up on the Internet, but we're happy to visit about that. We're firm believers about not reinventing the wheel. So if something exists and it's working, rather than us creating our own MoneySKILL version, that's just not the way we want to go. We want to leverage our resources more than that and in the most appropriate way, as any family would do with their budget. Right. You're so careful about how you spend those resources.

You've got to look at the needs first, etc.

Tara: Yes, definitely. So I got to ask you this question because on this podcast, we talk all about debt, right? And, you know, debt and financial wellness and budgeting and saving. I think about these like a puzzle. They all go together. I ask everybody this question, and so I'M going to ask you, Rhonda, here at MMI, we are working and through this show, we are working hard to break the stigma around debt. We all have it. We got to talk about it. So what are you guys at the AFSA Education Foundation doing to break this stigma as well?

Rhonda Ashburn: Well, kudos to you all because you're doing a great job. And we feel like through MoneySKILL we're putting the tools in the toolkit, if you will. So students that have got those foundational skills are less likely, you know, based upon the many surveys that we mentioned earlier, less likely to face debt. But we know that the education component is just one of the pieces. I mean, it's, to borrow a word from the National Endowment for Financial Education that they've kind of used to describe this overall picture. I mean, it's an ecosystem. So we think that those that are more well informed in this area are going to be more likely to change the conversation. So it doesn't have to be a shameful thing to have debt.

It can, you know, you can feel empowered through programs like MoneySKILL and many others that are out there and the great resources that National Foundation for Credit Counseling agencies like MMI and others offer. I always say it takes everybody working together. It was a challenging process to get in my role, several steps in that process. And at one point I was like, can I really make a difference? And then I started thinking, yes. There's so much we have to do in our society to help in this arena be a part of the solution. And we feel like through MoneySKILL we are giving learners a chance to, you know, pick up those valuable foundation skills that can help them long term and put them on a successful path to a bright financial future.

Tara: Wonderful. I have loved talking to you ladies so much and I'm so excited that there is a program out there specifically geared toward middle schoolers, high schoolers, college students, and really trusted guidance for teachers and parents and grandparents to be able to give them those resources. I'm excited about it. So I heard you mention info@MoneySKILL.org remind us of your website one more time.

Rhonda Ashburn: Sure. It's easy to remember. MoneySKILL.org or AFSAEF.org.

Tara: MoneySKILL.org or info@MoneySKILL.org so please, if you have younger folks in your life or you want to get the word out about financial wellness, visit them today. Again, thank you so much. This was such a great conversation.

Rhonda Ashburn: Thank you. We appreciate the opportunity.

Olivia DiBiase: Yes, thank you so much.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Long Story Short, brought to you by Money Management International. To learn more about our work and how we're helping people in all walks of life repay debt, balance their budget, and find lasting financial peace of mind, visit moneymanagement.org.

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