Backed by Research: Evaluation Shows Financial Education Delivers

Independent study shows SFEPD boosts participants’ financial knowledge, well-being, and wealth-building behaviors

Washington, D.C. metro area, September 17, 2025 – The Society for Financial Education & Professional Development (SFEPD) today released an evaluation by independent research firm ICF showing that its tailored financial education programs promote economic mobility for adult participants of all backgrounds. The study showed SFEPD participants significantly outperformed peers on financial knowledge, confidence, and well-being, and exhibited more wealth-building behaviors.

“These findings lend evidence to the growing body of research proving tailored financial education makes a tangible difference in people’s lives,” said Theodore Daniels, SFEPD Founder and President. “The study confirms that both SFEPD’s intensive, immersive experiences as well as shorter-term engagements empower college students and other adults to improve their financial confidence and well-being.”

Key Findings

The evaluation found SFEPD’s financial education achieves powerful results for its participants. SFEPD offers a variety of programming, from one-time workshops to an intensive Student Ambassador Program, where college students receive intensive training and teach financial literacy to their peers and communities. Notably, both approaches were shown to impact financial knowledge, confidence, behaviors, and well-being.

“SFEPD did a really great job at providing a sense of empowerment to the people that take their course…emphasizing that it’s not just about numbers, it’s about how you manage those numbers and in a way that’s going to be most beneficial for you,” said a SFEPD Student Ambassador during one of the study’s focus groups.

SFEPD Student Ambassadors scored significantly higher on an objective financial knowledge assessment, reported higher financial confidence and well-being when compared to peers matched by age, race, education, and income. They were:

• 7 times more likely to make student loan payments on time.
• 5 times more likely to maintain a rainy-day fund.
• 2.5 times more likely to have a plan for retirement.

While Student Ambassadors achieved the highest impact, participants attending fewer seminars also outperformed the comparison group on multiple measures, including a score of wealth-building financial behaviors.

“By carefully matching SFEPD participants to a comparison group, we were able to isolate SFEPD’s unique contribution to outcomes,” said Andrew MacDonald, ICF Study Director. “The results demonstrate that SFEPD helps students develop the financial knowledge, skills, and behaviors that will benefit them for a lifetime.”

Read the full report here. Ted Daniels and former and current Student Ambassadors are available for interviews.

About the Study

The evaluation used a questionnaire based on the newly released State-by-State and Investor Surveys of the 2024 National Financial Capability Study, conducted by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. Nearly 500 current and former SFEPD participants participated in the study.  ICF used these surveys to generate a comparison group; they used statistical techniques including propensity score matching and regression analysis to estimate the specific impact of SFEPD.

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About SEFPD Founded in 1998, SFEPD is a national leader in financial literacy education and professional development. The nonprofit is known for its culturally relevant and tailored programming. It has provided personal finance seminars to more than 500,000 individuals, including 400,000 students at 90 colleges and universities, many of them at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). SFEPD’s programs have been recognized by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Financial Education as meeting their standards for effective financial education.