Financial Inclusion Initiative of the Year

Description

This award is open to financial education programmes and activities that are developed with the aim of expanding learning about finance, enhancing access to financial information, and addressing specific gaps in information or awareness in any age group.  The focus may be on improving understanding of how finance can prevent or deliver sustainable outcomes, and/or how to manage finances, thus improving outcomes for individuals.  The initiative should have been active and operational between 2022 and 24, with significant progress during this time.  A long-running financial education initiative is also eligible, provided that the application focuses on the progress made in the 2022-24 timeframe.

Judges do not expect perfection in all aspects of the activities of the organisation that has developed this financial education initiative: they know that embedding sustainability across all activities is a challenging process! But the initiative cannot be an isolated example of sustainability within the activities of the organisation: the judges expect a company to also show evidence that it takes appropriate account of social and environmental issues in wider aspects of its business.

The programme should demonstrate creativity and innovation and deliver clear benefits to society, the environment or disadvantaged individuals.

The judges will specifically be looking for evidence of quantified results from the learning; its quality and effectiveness; innovation and creativity; effective awareness raising among the target audience resulting in high levels of engagement; and future plans to build on it, and where possible scale it up.

Criteria

Judges will be looking for evidence of progress on the following points (weighting percentages in brackets):

  • How the programme was designed to address a specific need for financial education in the targeted group (15%)

  • How it was scoped and developed to set new standards for innovation and creativity (15%)

  • Quality and effectiveness of materials (15%)

  • Evidence of collaborations / partnerships to boost its reach and effectiveness (10%)

  • Quantified results of learning (35%)

  • The extent to which it demonstrates a long-term commitment with an integrated legacy element to ensure ongoing benefits (10%)

Any confidential data will be treated as such and only shared with the judging panel, all of whom will have signed NDAs.