Tiger Woods Advances Financial Literacy Among Children and Families

Tiger Woods, one of the most successful golfers of all time and one of the highest paid athletes in the world, is continuing his longtime funding and support of financial education. Financial literacy remains a central element of direct community investments he makes through the Tiger Woods Foundation’s grant-making program. The Foundation’s commitment to improving financial literacy has taken many forms since its inception, including grants that typically range between $2,500 and $25,000, as well as direct, hands-on financial education offered through the Foundation’s affiliates, such as the Tiger Woods Learning Center.

Similar to other local, national and global initiatives focused on offering youth innovative educational opportunities, the Tiger Woods Foundation believes that no education of young people is complete without a dedicated component of the curriculum concentrated on personal finance and money management. The philosophy of the Foundation includes not only the importance of funding third-party programs and services for youth, but also direct initiatives developed and launched by the Foundation itself. To that end, Woods created and rolled out the Tiger Woods Learning Center, a 35,000-square-foot education facility in Southern California offering young people from disadvantaged backgrounds tools and resources to enhance their financial literacy, among other programs and services.

Recognizing that poor financial literacy and other educational, social and financial challenges haunt youth in both developed and developing countries, Woods has moved more recently to expand the financial education and other youth services internationally. The Foundation invests in approximately ten organizations that provide financial education, youth development and leadership training in Thailand, China and Korea. It also has supported Ban Kha, a school serving 320 students, and eight girls from Ratchaburi Convent School, an orphanage for girls.

The Tiger Woods Learning Center also is expanding. The Center’s two campuses in Washington, D.C. have been lauded for their focus on motivating students with access to technology, innovative curricula, and other elements that are translating into documented success.

Tiger Woods also developed the Earl Woods Scholarship Program, which is a $5,000 scholarship that is renewable for up to four years so that students, who are matched with mentors and internships, can be best prepared to attend college. But again, true to form, Woods recognizes that no student can be sufficiently prepared for college without at least a basic level of financial literacy. For that reason, financial education remains a focus even for the scholarship winners.

The comprehensive approach to financial literacy support that Tiger Woods has taken for several years is exemplary for a host of reasons. Many contend that the combination of financial underwriting of third-party financial literacy programs and services and hands-on work with young people to boost their understanding of money management and overall personal financial affairs is a solid model for other athletes, celebrities and other individuals and organizations to follow in their mission to help take financial literacy to the next level in the years ahead.