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Big banks may have the deep pockets to subsidize financial literacy programs, but it's the smaller banks that may actually benefit the most from sponsoring such instruction.
April 25 -
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April 14
Apparently parents are less suspicious of a cast of Muppets than they are of a team of bankers.
Before PNC Financial Services Group announced its early childhood education initiative, Grow Up Great, the company ran a focus group, asking parents what they thought of a bank offering this type of program. They proved skeptical. The parents questioned why they should listen to a bank about raising their children and what the bank would gain from the program.
"We knew that we needed a partner for this," said Eva Blum, chairwoman and president of the PNC Foundation. "Sesame Street gives you instant credibility, with their iconic characters."
Armed with this knowledge, PNC began its partnership with Sesame Workshop in 2003 and then launched Grow Up Great a year later with a $100 million pledge over a decade for the program. On Wednesday, just eight years later, the bank announced it had earmarked another $250 million over 10 years.
PNC said it added funds because it has gotten bigger. In 2008, the bank acquired National City, and in June it agreed to purchase the Royal Bank of Canada's U.S. retail banking operations.
Grow Up Great has four parts — advocacy, grants, volunteerism and awareness. As part of raising awareness, Sesame advises the bank and develops kits for parents and educators. In their fourth generation, the latest kit — "For Me, for You, for Later" — prominently features lovable Sesame Street characters teaching financial literacy lessons such as Bert and Ernie taking on odd jobs to earn money for a new ball.
With the new funding, PNC's relationship with Sesame will continue to expand. Additional kits may be introduced, and the bank hopes to provide kits to more families. The partnership with PNC allows Sesame to fulfill its mission of reaching and preparing young children, especially the underserved, for school.
"We look at the research and see how we can do it even better and come up with new ways to reach the whole family," said Anita Stewart, senior vice president and managing director of global corporate partnerships for Sesame Workshop. "We look at how we can reach children in their everyday lives and ways to talk to parents and caregivers as they are the first teachers in their children's lives."
