The FEC Movement

Financial Empowerment Centers offer professional, one-on-one financial counseling as a free public service to enable residents to address their financial  needs and plan for their futures. Nearly three dozen local governments across the country are already deploying more than 150 trained financial counselors to support clients’ banking, credit, debt, savings, and legacy planning goals.  

In partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and with additional support from Principal Foundation and the Wells Fargo Foundation, the CFE Fund supports local government leaders through FEC Academy to develop, launch, and sustain Financial Empowerment Center programs. The CFE Fund also leads strategic pilot and research initiatives to strengthen program effectiveness and advance the field of municipal financial counseling. 

The FEC Model

The Financial Empowerment Center model has operated municipal free services for fifteen years, and across more than three dozen operational FECs has worked with more than 211,000 clients, helping them reduce debt by more than $370 million, and increase savings by $77 million.

The core tenets of the FEC model are:

  • Financial counseling is provided as a no cost public service, with counseling delivered one-on-one to empower clients to address complex financial challenges.
  • Counselors are professionally trained according to the CFE Fund’s rigorous FEC Counselor Training Standards and a Code of Ethics and Professional Practices.
  • Counseling services are managed through rigorous data; the central FEC database collects over 200 client data points, and impact is measured against specific financial behavior change outcomes.
  • Because financial instability impacts the need for, and success of, other social services, strategic FEC partnerships with other services such as housing and foreclosure prevention, workforce development, prisoner reentry, and benefits access are critical.
  • Financial counseling serves a critical public need, and local government oversight provides credibility, accountability, scale, and program sustainability.
Financial counselors are highly trained professionals who work with clients to identify goals and create a customized action plan to build their finances. Counselors can work with clients on managing money, creating a budget, paying down debt, increasing savings, establishing and building credit, opening a safe and affordable bank or credit union account, preparing for legacy planning, and protecting r assets. Clients can meet with their financial counselor as many times as they’d like; counseling is available at no cost and is always confidential, regardless of income or immigration status.  

The FEC Counselor Training Standards

A core tenant of the Financial Empowerment Center model is its commitment to high-quality, professional financial counseling. All FEC financial counselors are trained in accordance with the CFE Fund’s FEC Counselor Training Standards. 

The Standards define the knowledge, skills, and professional competencies necessary to deliver effective financial counseling, including financial content expertise, counseling and coaching techniques, experiential learning requirements, ethical practices, and socio-economic and cultural context. Together, these standards help ensure that FEC clients receive high-quality, professional financial counseling across the FEC network. 

FEC Partner

FEC Partners

Planning Partners

By attending FEC Academy, local governments and their partners work toward launching a public financial counseling program using the FEC model.

  • Albuquerque, NM
  • Buffalo, NY
  • Clarksville, TN
  • Cuyahoga County, OH
  • Howard County, MD
  • Los Angeles, CA
  • Madison, WI
  • Nashua, NH
  • Norfolk, VA
  • Riverside County, CA
  • Salinas, CA
  • South San Francisco, CA
  • St. Louis, MO
  • Tempe, AZ
  • Tucson, AZ
  • Waco, TX

Implementation Partners

FEC Public Funders

Join the FEC Public Movement

The CFE Fund’s FEC Public partners are supporting the scaling and growth of this impactful, innovative public service.

Join us!