Financial Education and Counseling Pilot Program 2010

The Financial Education and Counseling Pilot Program was authorized pursuant to Section 1132 of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (Pub. L. 110-289). Grants awarded through the FEC Pilot Program will have the ultimate goal of identifying successful methods of financial education and counseling services that result in positive behavioral change for financial empowerment, and establishing program models for organizations to deliver effective financial education and counseling services to prospective homebuyers. To achieve these purposes, the CDFI Fund will make awards to organizations that provide a range of financial education and counseling services to prospective homebuyers, with the goals of: 1) increasing the financial knowledge and decision-making capabilities of prospective homebuyers; 2) assisting prospective homebuyers to develop monthly budgets, build personal savings, finance or plan major purchases, reduce debt, improve financial stability, and set and reach financial goals; 3) helping prospective homebuyers improve credit scores by understanding the relationship between credit histories and credit scores; and 4) educating prospective homebuyers about the options available to build savings for short- and long-term goals. The FEC Pilot Program was appropriated $4.15 million in FY 2010, of which $3.15 million was set aside by Congress to be provided to an organization located in the state of Hawaii. For the FY 2010 funding round, the CDFI Fund will solicit new applications exclusively from organizations located in Hawaii to compete for the $3.15 million. With respect to the remaining $1 million in appropriated funds, the CDFI Fund will not be soliciting new applications due to the large number of highly qualified applications it received for the FY 2009 funding round of the FEC Pilot Program. The CDFI Fund received over 200 applications for the FY 2009 funding round in November of 2009, and many highly qualified applications were not able to be funded. As a result, the remaining $1 million of FY 2010 appropriated funds will be granted to up to five of the organizations that were finalists under the FY 2009 round but did not receive awards.