IDAs and CAAs: A Natural Partnership

A Technical Assistance Document for Community Action Agencies Operating Individual Development Account Programs

6.	Ask the Experts - Lessons Learned from the Field
		Sharing Experiences
		Innovations
		Support Needed By The Field

Who are the real experts in the IDA field? They are the people who have been running programs and who have dealt with all the day-to-day issues that come with operating an IDA program. We asked several open-ended questions in our survey to get suggestions and advice from these experts. In this Chapter we give you their answers.

Sharing Experiences

We asked the question: "Based on your experience as an IDA Program operator, what have you learned that would be helpful to other CAAs operating or thinking about starting an IDA program?" 83 agencies responded. Following are all responses, grouped into categories.

Before you start

• "Planning is key!"
• "Identify multiple recruitment methods."
• "Know what you want to measure before you define how the program and policies are written."
• "Plan for the program to be staff intensive, especially at the beginning."
• "Hire an excellent case manager who has great people skills."
• "Try to have a goal for fund raising and design your program on those projections."
• "Make sure your policies and procedures are very thorough."
• "Make sure that adequate staffing for the program is available…IDA Programs are labor intensive."
• "Using forms and paperwork that are accepted statewide can increase efficiency and decrease confusion."
• "This is not a stand alone program…it cannot be operated as such with the limited admin/program funds that are currently available."
• "Build partnerships before beginning."
• "You need a good consultant, solid policies and procedures and contact with on-going best practices sites."
• "Have your funding in place up front."
• "Pilot an area to launch your first program."
• "Be sure that there is a person you can contact at all times who will have answers for you."
• "Use strategic planning."
• "Get your policies written before opening any accounts."
• " A good program takes a lot of up-front work."
• "Know your IDA grant."
• "Operation and administration of the IDA Program requires more than part- time staff."
• "Set aside enough time for the IDA coordinator to learn about the program before it begins; provide quality management of the program."

Recruitment

• "Don't be discouraged…it is harder to find Participants with a good chance of success than one would think. Once your program is up and running, word of mouth will bring you more Participants than you can handle."
• "IDA programs are excellent incentives for Participants."
• "Screen applicants well!"
• "Develop a target group of individuals associated with your current activities and services (i.e., Head Start, Energy Assistance, Home Buyer Education, etc.)."

Program Operation

• "Carefully assess the needs/savings abilities of the target population."
• "Allow for input by the Account Holders so they invest themselves in the program."
• "Be aware that IDA Programs require a great deal of staff time; but grants usually do not provide a lot of administrative and programs support."
• "Integrate IDAs into your other programs…keep it simple."
• "Incorporate your IDA Program into your existing programs to utilize staff expertise."
• "Make IDAs an activity within an existing program."
• "Have constant, regular contact with Participants, in addition to the monthly workshops."
• "Work closely with your Participants on building their credit."
• "Accompany them to the bank to open their IDA, if necessary."
• "Circumstances beyond your control can affect your program…we were not prepared to lose a majority of our Participants due to jobs being lost in our service area."
• "Implement the data base to track accounts as soon as possible."
• "Research financing options for your Participants."
• "Use the tools that already exist for training materials, reporting, etc. You don't have to reinvent the wheel."
• "Have a Case Manager assigned to follow the Participant through all aspects of the program process."
• "Start your program off with a limited number of slots and expand slowly."
• Be aware that financial partnerships and account management can be complex, especially in new start-up programs. Keep communicating with your financial partners."
• "Discuss issues with existing IDA Programs so you can learn from them."
• "At least one full time staff person is needed to get the program started."
• "Allocate one FTE staff exclusively to the program independent of the number of accounts."
• "Get to know the database you will be using to track Participants and their savings."
• "IDA Programs are long-running programs; they require on-going awareness and commitment to offer services and assistance to low-income individuals in achieving self-sufficiency."
• "Use a shorter term for saving and start with smaller asset goals."
• "The IDA Program must be customer-friendly."
• "Yearly work plans and quarterly reports are a necessity and useful tools."
• "The program is labor intensive and does not run itself."
• "IDAs are programs, not just bank accounts."
• "Consistent Participant contact and follow-up is a must."
• " Hold each program/Savings Club meeting at the same time each month to ease account oversight issues."
• "During the second year of the program, offer extended educational options such as computer training that will help increase marketable skills."
• "The key to effective IDA Program operation is to have enough skilled staff to provide adequate case management services. Ongoing support and encouragement is the key component."

Financial Education

• "At the beginning set a 6-month budget with each Participant, so they can see what they are capable of saving over the first few months."
• "Request a credit report for clients as part of the application process."

Funding/Administration

• "Administrative funding in insufficient, so be sure time can be charged to other areas."
• Be sure you have ample administrative funding, operating funding and match funding before you start your program."
• "Development of potential funders can take a while…start early."
• "Forming a multi-agency collaborative can help with fund raising."
• "Obtain matching funds via partnerships."
• "Get a financial commitment from local banks."
• "Learn how to write grants and ALWAYS be looking for new money."
• "Make sure you have enough funding to hire a person specifically to organize the program."
  Marketing
• "Be creative with your marketing."
• "Keep talking about the program whenever and wherever you can. Share the experience and share the successes."
• " Get support from the media to promote your program; get testimonials from existing IDA Account Holders."
• "Do not oversell your program; concentrate on results."

Linkages/Community Partners

• "Build strong partnerships that can assist you and your customers in meeting their asset purchase goals."
• "Link programs to obtain the fullest benefits for your Participants."
• "Make presentations to other agencies in the community to ensure that
  information is out in the community about the program and what it has to offer."
• "Financial institution collaboration is critical to the success of your IDA Program."
• "A working coalition has been a great benefit to those operating programs and to our state, especially with marketing and administering the program."
• "Having strong partnerships make for easy referrals and numerous training opportunities."
• "Achieve enough quality local support to maintain a vested interest in your program."
• "Network closely with partners."
• "Become part of a regional or statewide coalition."

In General

• "Have patience !"
• "A statewide committee to exchange ideas and offer support is helpful."
• "Remember that low-income people can really save and that even those who exit the program without purchasing an asset have gained a starting point for managing their money. Even a small amount of financial education can go a long way."
• "We show them how they can achieve their dreams and remind them of their goals."
  

 top of page

---

Innovations

We asked the question: "How is your IDA Program unique and innovative? Please describe all initiatives that you believe have improved your program's ability to serve Account Holders and to further the field of asset building." Following are the key responses, grouped into categories.

Recruitment

• "We recruit at local colleges and universities. We are listed on their websites as non-traditional financial aid."
• "Our program draws heavily on our Head Start families for Participants. Many of these families are already familiar with the agency and the idea of planning for the future because of their participation in agency programs. This makes them ideal candidates."
• "Only those families in our Case Management/Family Development programs are eligible for IDAs."

Program Operation

• "Volunteers provide childcare for the Participants during class."
• "We have a high retention rate…we insist that all adults in the family attend classes ."
• "We provide study at home money management training along with classroom training and newsletters. This is a result of being located in a rural area with lack of public transportation, adequate child care and a long distance to travel to community centers for training."
• "We will be holding an entrepreneurial forum."
• "We arrange to provide information sessions with specialists when areas of concern materialize in peer groups."

Financial Education

• "Our financial literacy courses include one session at a bank branch where Participants meet one-on-one with bank representatives."
• "Many of our clients patronize check cashing stores. We get them started by telling them to save the cost of check cashing and put that amount into their IDA."
• "Education is done by mail correspondence and is tied to home buyer program counseling and education."

Linkages/Community Partners

• "We partner with the local neighborhood revitalization project to increase homeownership."
• "We plan and hold group social functions for the Account Holders and coalition members."
• "We work closely with a financial advisor to help plan the Participants' future and help them to qualify for mortgages."
• "Through developing and linking collaboratives we can make IDAs accessible to larger areas."
• "We link our Account Holders with other first time homebuyer programs to leverage additional funds for their asset purchase."
• "We have a representative from Equifax Credit Reporting come and make a presentation to the group."
• "We rely heavily on a partnership with our Housing Authority's Family Self-Sufficiency Program, as the IDA clients are all FSS clients or graduates."
• "We use volunteers from our State University's Social Work department to provide information to legislators and facilitate orientation meetings."
• "We partner with a large local corporation to offer IDAs to employees."
• "Our partnership includes 3 financial institutions, Habitat for Humanity, United Way, a micro loan program and a housing counseling agency all of which work directly with IDA Participants on credit, asset purchase, business plan issues, etc."
• "We collaborate with local CDCs to assist Participants with buying affordable homes."
• "We are planning a one-day Women's money conference in May '04 with a variety of local partners, to focus on low-income Participants."

 top of page

---

Support Needed By The Field

We asked our survey respondents, "What assistance/support would be helpful to you in operating your IDA Program?" 82 agencies responded. The item most often mentioned was increased funding—for match, operating, administrative expenses. Next often mentioned was training and/or technical assistance of some sort—training before the program starts, ongoing TA, more networking to facilitate sharing of best practices, clear Policies and Procedures manuals, national conferences, and train-the-trainer events. Other support Programs need include:

• Sample marketing and fund raising material
• New, improved IDA software system
• Additional resources in rural areas
• More assistance with financial education and asset-specific training
• A national financial education curriculum
• Partnerships with housing groups that guarantee mortgages/housing for IDA Program graduates
• More access to volunteers (e.g. VISTA, and Americorps)
• State support
• Help with program design
• Foreign language support
• The results of this survey
  

 top of page