Synchrony to Promote Personal Finance Education With Investments and Employee-Led Effort

Consumer financing company Synchrony aims to promote personal finance education for K-12 students with a $1 million investment in nonprofit organizations and with an employee-led effort to share financial literacy expertise.

Both efforts will focus on preparing teachers and others to teach financial literacy, the company said in a Friday (Sept. 19) press release.

Synchrony’s $1 million investment over two years will go to nonprofit organizations that help K-12 public educators teach personal finance classes in the United States, according to the release.

The money will support the Council for Economic Education’s teacher training initiatives, DonorsChoose’s financial literacy resources, Jobs for America’s Graduates’ specialists who teach financial literacy and other classes, Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy’s teacher training initiatives and financial education programs, and Operation HOPE’s Financial Literacy for All initiative, per the release.

Synchrony’s new employee-led effort, called the Financial Literacy Service Corps, will allow employees to volunteer to share financial literacy expertise within local communities, according to the release. In this train-the-trainer model, the employees will prepare others to teach personal finance topics to students, community leaders and business partners.

The Financial Literacy Service Corps will launch early next year, per the release.

“By equipping K-12 public school teachers with the tools, resources and confidence to teach a personal finance course, we’re creating opportunities for students to gain knowledge that will help them achieve financial security, economic mobility and opportunity throughout their lives,” Denise Yap, president of the Synchrony Foundation, said in the release.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “The New Challenges Facing Finance: Algorithms, Finfluencers and the Quest for Reliability” found that there is a need for credible and reliable financial guidance.

The report found that 79% of millennials and members of Generation Z turn to social media for financial advice and that critics warn that the appeal of “finfluencers,” or digital personalities offering financial insights, can lead to the propagation of financial myths and scams.

It was reported in June 2024 that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said that nearly 1 in 5 students in wealthy nations “did not achieve baseline proficiency levels in financial literacy.”