How Financial Institutions can Connect With the Youth of Their Community

Young girl opening a bank savings account

Young people make up a large percentage of your community. If your financial institution doesn’t spend time building connections with them, you’ll lose out on a lot of opportunities and potential customers/members.

A Bankrate survey found that the average U.S. adult has held the same primary checking acount for over 14 years. And 21% of checking account holders said they’ve used the same account for 21–40 years. Imagine if your bank or credit union was the institution they stayed with for 40 years. That’s a long time!

If you want to attract customers/members and keep them, it’s a good idea to start when they’re young. Now, we’re not talking about unethical marketing messages or reeling them in on a hook, but there are lots of tactics you can use to engage with the youth of your community and help lead them to your financial institution.

Here are a few.

Educate young people on financial topics

Low financial literacy rates is a problem affecting the entire country. Many young people don’t have the opportunity to learn about financial topics in school, and they grow up not knowing the difference between a credit and debit card, how to budget, how to identify a good loan, and more. These skills are crucial to leading a successful life, and your bank or credit union can step in and teach these kids what they need to know.

When you teach kids about money, they’re more likely to see your institution as the go-to financial resource they need, which may impact their future banking choices.

A fun way to teach kids about money is by holding a Financial Bingo activity, whether during school hours or as a fun family night at the bank.

Instead of having numbers, the bingo cards could be full of financial lingo, like “savings,” “credit report,” “interest,” etc. After each word is drawn, you take a moment to define it and ask if anyone has any questions.

We’ve created some bingo cards you can use. As long as your group has 30 or fewer students, these cards would be a great way to engage with the youth in your community. You can download this bingo set here.

If you’d rather create your own bingo cards, check out this bingo card generator. And if you’re feeling creative, you can use Canva to customize your cards and really make them pop.

For more ideas, check out 14 Event Ideas: How Your Institution Can Help People of All Ages Become Financially Literate

Turn savings into a game

One of the best ways to engage with the youth of your community is by turning whatever you do into a game (like you’ve done with Financial Bingo). Games will give these kids fun memories, which will lead to them seeing your institution as a good resource down the road. And that’s exactly what you want.

For example, you could hold a financial treasure hunt or an annual Easter egg hunt. Treasure chests and eggs could hold cash or gift cards in addition to the customary candy and little toys. Kids will love this and will likely remember your institution fondly for years to come.

The Bank of Eastern Oregon loves to follow this principle. While visiting 30 different elementary classrooms, bank employees taught children to save by playing a game called “Is this a silly place to save your money?” Kids loved it and learned several ways to save and determine what’s worth saving up for. And when they start keeping their savings in a bank, hopefully the Bank of Eastern Oregon is the institution they turn to!

Incentivize them to open an account

Another way to engage the youth is by offering incentives when they open an account with your institution. For example, you could incentivize youth by holding a weekly drawing for new account owners or matching what they put into their new savings account.

Matching what they put into their savings account (up to a certain amount, of course) is a great way to engage with them and show them that your institution cares. Everyone loves getting free money, and when these young people see that your financial institution gives it to them, they may come back to you in the future.

And you can encourage youth to continue adding to their savings account by giving them a raffle ticket for every $25 they contribute. This is something Security Credit Union does, and the youth in their community love it.

Hold a fun contest

Speaking of incentives, another fun way to engage with the youth is by challenging them to a contest. Most people love a challenge, and kids can be especially competitive when they want to be. And when that contest has a neat prize, even better!

You could hold a writing contest, building contest, art contest, coloring contest, etc. Anything you can think of, really! Just remember to relate the contest or the prize to your institution in some way, whether that’s with a savings account incentive, cash prize, or something else banking related. This will help the participants see your institution as the place to be when it comes to money. And they’ll make some super fun memories, too!

Del Norte Credit Union has found a great way to combine fun contests with incentivizing kids to open an account. While running a LEGO® building contest, DNCU gave participants $15 vouchers to open a savings account. What a great idea!

Meet them where they are

You won’t be able to engage with the youth in your community unless you meet them where they are. This means you should go to schools, town fairs, kids clubs, after-school programs, and anywhere else children like to hang out and learn.

Visit an elementary school and play a fun game, set up a booth at the town fair and hand out candy bars wrapped in dollar bills, visit the boys and girls club. Just go anywhere you can to engage with the youth and teach them about finances.

And wherever you go, make sure to show these kids that your institution is fun, exciting, and can help them reach their financial goals (even if that goal is just to eat a candy bar).

Track your interactions

Ever feel like your institution is doing something in the community but you aren’t quite sure what that something is or how big of an impact you’re having? Many institutions struggle to track their impact and don’t know where they’ve volunteered, how many employees have logged volunteer hours, or what events their institution is planning.

When your goal is to engage with the youth of your community, it’s important to know exactly what you’re doing and how many kids you’ve helped. And tracking this info on a spreadsheet just doesn't cut it anymore.

Kadince makes it easy to track, manage, and report all your institution’s community involvement data. That means employee volunteer hours, events, nonprofit partners, and more. All available to you at the click of a button.

Schedule a demo to learn how Kadince helps you engage with the youth of your community and gets rid of those nasty spreadsheets for good.

None of Kadince, Inc., its affiliates, or its respective employees, directors, officers, and agents (collectively, “Kadince”) are responsible or liable for any content or information incorporated herein. Read full disclosure.