Family Saves: An Experiment in Reaching Efficiencies of Scale in Individual Development Account Policy and Programming

Abstract

Asset building is an effective poverty reduction tool, evident through thirty years of research and programming in the field throughout the United States. Individual Development Account programming targets individuals experiencing living on a low income, a state of transition and/or at-risk of homelessness/homeless and provides money management education and monetary incentives in the form of matched funds to encourage savings patterns and asset accumulation. Individual Development Account programs have proven to move people out of poverty and into financial stability through using an asset building approach. Though effective and outcome driven, Individual Development Account programs are costly and require large investments in human and financial resources in-order to operate successfully. This paper determines best practices and strategies in reaching efficiencies in Individual Development Account programs from the field of asset building and merges academic research in behavioural economics to produce an experiment in scaling the Fair Gains Individual Development Account Program at Momentum Community Economic Development.