Capital One Bank’s “Fiscal U” Delivers Financial Literacy for Student-Athletes

Capital One’s “Fiscal U” financial literacy initiative that was rolled out in partnership with the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), continues to make headlines as an effective financial education program for collegiate athletes.  Designed with the mutual goals of educating students on important personal finance topics and simultaneously being engaging and entertaining, Fiscal U has been a vital component of universities’ efforts to foster the growth and development of well-rounded students.

Fiscal U is an Internet based program that allows student-athletes to make a range of financial decisions that are representative of the types of personal finance choices that individuals and families must make during their lifetimes.  Participants learn from the choices they make with the help of a virtual financial coach, who provides important information.  In addition to the personal finance teaching that takes place as part of Fiscal U, the website also offers a broad range of tools, information and resources on such critical topics as saving, budgeting, student loans, understanding a paycheck, and the best ways to prepare financially for emergencies.

One of the latest institutions to embrace Fiscal U is Dixie State University, which just announced the launch of the program as a means of providing yet another means to develop well-rounded student-athletes, on the notion that increasing financial literacy results in an individual’s enhanced capabilities to take more control over their financial decision making regarding their budgets, savings, investing, and ability to handle debt in a responsible manner.  With today’s skyrocketing rates of student debt, this is essential for student-athletes who graduate with large debt loads and need an understanding of how to manage that.

From a different perspective, Fiscal U is a good case study of an effective financial education alliance among academic institutions, a large bank (Capital One), and a large association (NACDA) to leverage their complementary resources and constituencies in an effort to boost the levels of financial literacy to new heights, in this case among college athletes.  The fast-growing number of alliances being formed in this fashion should bode very well for the financial literacy movement as we move into 2014 and beyond.