CashCourse on Facebook

There's a great new CashCourse resource out - the CashCourse Facebook page!

You can use this page to:

• Share your ideas for promoting and using CashCourse
• See how other schools are using CashCourse on their campuses
• Learn about all the resources available to you through CashCourse

It's easy to become a fan on our page. If you already have a Facebook account, follow this link directly to the CashCourse page. Otherwise, you can create a free account at www.facebook.com, and then search for "CashCourse."

Once you log in, you can:

• Become a fan of CashCourse.
• Post your ideas and success stories on the CashCourse Wall. You can even post links to articles fellow CashCourse administrators would be interested in.
• Upload photos.
• Create or participate in a discussion about financial education efforts on campuses nationwide.
• Read our notes and other posted info.

Thanks for the Listserv Love!

When administrators talk about CashCourse on listservs, we've noticed enrollments for CashCourse skyrocket. Word of mouth actually is one of the most cited reasons schools sign up for the resource.

If you think CashCourse is a great tool for other schools to know about, please tell others either through listservs, passing along this newsletter, sending others a link to CashCourse, or any other means you'd like. The word of mouth effect is amazing! Thank you all for helping promote financial education for students through CashCourse!

Promoting Saving on Your Campus

You're probably thinking, "I don't know any students who can save money while they're in school, especially not in the economic crisis we're in." America Saves — a nationwide campaign to help individuals and families save money, reduce debt, and ideally over time, build wealth — thinks otherwise and has expanded its nationwide program to promote a culture of savings on campus.

The truth is that it's not important how much students can save during this expensive time of their life, but rather that they get in the habit of saving. And — with endorsements from Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, and FDIC Chair, Sheila Bair — America Saves believes now is actually a very good time for Americans to redevelop a saving routine.

A "Saver" receives information and support through short emails, the America Saves Newsletter, and annually through America Saves Week. During America Saves Week, the last week in February, thousands of organizations and institutions promote savings messages and opportunities for people to successfully save throughout the year.

The campaign recently began pilot efforts on several campuses to give students easy, hassle-free ways to save even very small amounts of money on a regular basis. If you think your school might be interested, please contact George Barany at gbarany@consumerfed.org.

Top Web Visits of the Month

Stanford University saw the most traffic to their CashCourse Web site for April & May. We asked them what they had done to gain so much interest from their students. Here is what Karen Cooper, the director of Financial Aid, had to say:

"We currently have the site linked from a couple of places on Stanford's web sites.

1) The Financial Aid Office: You'll notice both a news story on our front page that we're intending to leave in place through next month and a more permanent link under 'See Also' for financial literacy on the far right column that also appears on the next level down of the financial aid pages.

2) On the University's Parent Gateway under "Sites for Parents."

What I'm guessing is generating much of the traffic is that we publicized the site in our quarterly parent newsletter under News Briefs that went out recently. The newsletter goes out to parents via an e-mail from University Communications, not the Financial Aid Office. We're hoping they'll point their kids in that direction!"