April is a month with a lot of pressure. Everyone looks for it to finally shake away the cold weather and bring in some sunshine, but it still needs to rain enough for those showers to turn to flowers come May. The month plays host to a number of holidays, such as Easter and Passover, and a slew of observances, such as Earth Day and April Fool’s Day. On top of all that, April packs in a few month-long observances, the most exciting of which is Financial Literacy Month.

For 26 years now, schools, financial institutions, and organizations across the country have used this month as an opportunity to support financial literacy efforts in schools and communities. In honor of that, and all the work to come this month, let’s delve into the history of the event, why it’s more important now than ever, and how and why your credit union should not let it pass you by.

The history of the event

While Financial Literacy Month has turned into a nationwide event with great fanfare, its origins are much humbler. It started when, way back in the year 2000, the Jump$tart Coalition realized the deep need for better financial education in our school systems, and thus founded Youth Financial Literacy Day. Eventually, the day was expanded to be a month-long effort, and the focus was widened to include educating not just kids, but the general population on the importance of financial well-being. Then, in 2003, Congress requested that President George W. Bush declare April as Financial Literacy Month.

The Resolution written by Congress conveyed the overwhelming gaps in financial education, citing sources that found few adults were planning for retirement; high-school and college students were unaware of how credit worked; many families had a lack of savings; and 52 million people remained unbanked. They urged the President to “issue a proclamation calling on the Federal Government, States, localities, schools, nonprofit organizations, businesses, other entities, and the people of the United States to observe the month with appropriate programs and activities.”

Since its founding, the month has seen thousands work to provide financial literacy education to those in their communities through school programs, digital resources, games and apps, and more. Now celebrating the event for the 26th year, the importance of the month cannot be overstated.

Members are struggling

It should come as no shock to anyone when I say that we are currently in some particularly trying economic times, especially for middle to low-income families. Housing prices skyrocketed years ago and never came down, gas is at a premium, and grocery prices continue to rise. “Affordability” has become the new buzzword for Washington, because they know it’s what everyday Americans are struggling with most.

And while participating in Financial Literacy Month won’t magically make life more affordable for your members, a solid financial education can better equip members to manage their finances and make sound financial decisions, thus saving money to better manage the affordability crisis. In fact, the National Financial Educators Council found that “A lack of financial knowledge costs adults $948 annually on average and costs the nation billions of dollars each year.”

Furthermore, the “2025 Financial Literacy and Retirement Fluency in America” report found that lower financial literacy is generally associated with lower financial well-being. It states that “Adults with very low financial literacy are: twice as likely to be debt-constrained, three times more likely to be financially fragile, five times more likely to not have or be unsure whether they have one month of emergency savings, and over two times more likely to spend 10 hours or more per week on personal finance issues compared with those who have very high financial literacy.”

All this to say, financial literacy directly correlates with financial wellness, and helping members better their financial health is the name of the game in our industry.

Why your credit union should get involved

For credit unions, a deep involvement with financial wellness education and a commitment to supporting your members’ financial wellness journeys should be a non-negotiable. Not only is education one of our founding pillars, but a huge part of the credit union brand centers around being a trusted and reliable source for financial help—whether that be through a loan, a new card, or as a resource for financial knowledge.

According to findings from a 2024 Intuit Financial Literacy Survey, more than 50% of adults in the US want to improve their financial literacy, but they simply don’t know where to find the resources to do so. The survey also reported that “55% of women who want to improve in this area don’t know where to start [with financial literacy], compared to 49% of men.”

The takeaway here? Your members want help learning more about financial topics, but are at a loss on how to find what they’re looking for. With little to no direction on how to move forward, members end up leaning on the tools they use every day because they are familiar with them, namely social media and AI.

Last April, we talked about the rise of the social media app TikTok as a source for financial literacy content. In that article, I discussed how younger generations are turning to this on-hand technology for education because of its simplicity and ease of access. It also breaks concepts down into digestible, short-form videos.

AI, which has become a research tool on par with Google for many, fits those same qualifiers and, as such, has also become a huge financial literacy tool for members. Credit Karma reported just last year that 66% of Americans are turning to AI for financial advice, and even more when you look at younger generations such as Gen Z and Millennials, with those numbers reaching 82% for both. Why? Because it’s accessible and familiar.

By comparison, financial education resources buried under three menus in article format on your website are much harder to find and significantly less engaging, and therefore, less helpful. However, your credit union is a trustworthy and reliable source of financial education and advice, whereas social media and AI have been known to dispense unhelpful or false information, as there’s no qualification for who can dispense advice. Therefore, it’s critical that your credit union has an active and loud presence in the financial literacy sphere, to ensure your sound advice is reaching members above all the noise.

How to get involved

There’s really no limit to the ways your credit union can get involved in Financial Literacy Month. If you’re looking for an easy place to start, advertising and marketing the resources you already have is a great way to go. If you offer financial education materials on your site or meetings with financial counselors in your branches, make sure your members know it! Talk about it on social media, when chatting with members, and in a prominent place on your website.

If you don’t currently have a financial literacy program or you’re looking to take things to a new level, there are a number of programs that will work with your credit union to provide materials and content. We’ll talk about a few of those this month, but in past years, we’ve highlighted programs such as The Berenstain Bears Cub Club, Phroogal, and Financial Rebellion.

If you’d rather make your own content to help build your credit union’s brand, I’d recommend starting where your members are already going for advice: social media. The TikTok article I mentioned earlier covers why this platform is so popular for financial literacy and how credit unions can master the art of posting. You can also scroll through these apps yourself to see what kind of content is out there and what people are responding to.

Start today!

If this all seems overwhelming to you, not to worry! You still have a whole month (whole year, really, as it’s never a bad time to support financial literacy and financial wellness) to get something started. Your members don’t need extravagant and flashy content this month; they need to know about your financial counseling appointments, your educational resources, and your seminars, so do not wait to get the word out!

As is tradition, we at CUSO Magazine will be reporting on the topic all month long, sharing ways for credit unions to meet the needs of their members and understand the concerns facing them as of late, as well as how credit unions can become more financially literate themselves. We cover how credit unions can create financial literacy content in accessible and digestible ways for current generations, and we will tackle topics credit unions should be up to date on, such as stablecoin, so don’t miss out!