Did you know that February is Financial Aid Awareness month? During the month of February, according to NASFAA, the higher education community provides essential information to students and families about all things financial aid. If your institution is looking for ways to push financial literacy this month, below are a few ideas to consider:
- Share information and fun facts online. This doesn’t take much planning to complete, all you need is an online platform (think: social media) and some fun facts and information that will benefit students and families. Most schools and/or financial aid offices are on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Offices can use one or all of these to push the information, depending on the content. Once the platform is decided, take some time to decide on what you want to promote, ideas include:
- Scholarship information: Provide students and families information about institutional or outside scholarships that are available. If the institution has a list of outside scholarships, share the link to the list for families to review on their own.
- Fun facts about financial aid: This can be federal, state, or institutional financial aid facts. Think about the number or percentage of students who receive financial aid from the institution or fun ways for students to access more financial aid. Consider sharing information from a state or federal level as well. The office of Federal Student Aid has information about how much aid is received each year nationwide and some states have state scholarship information that could benefit students and families.
- Upcoming deadlines: Is there an institutional deadline coming up for FAFSA or to review financial aid? Institutions can share deadline information for current and prospective students as well.
You can take this one step further and host online Q&A sessions by fielding questions throughout the month or at specific times or hosting weekly topics to allow students and families to ask questions online. Offices can also create contests to engage members online.
- Meet students on campus. This takes a little more planning than simply sharing information, but still manageable. Meet students where they are – on campus. Students may be intimidated to come to the financial aid office, especially if they don’t necessarily need anything right now, or may not know where to go when they have questions. Set up a table or a meet and greet event in the cafeteria or student lounge area. Introduce the office and staff to students and share information with them during these conversations. You should have something to hand out to students so they know how to contact the office when needed, whether it’s a business card, office brochure/magazine, or giveaways, if available. This will allow for students to connect with the staff on a personal level and provide valuable information for students who need financial planning help.
- Host a financial literacy event. These events will take planning and advertising to be successful. Events can vary from workshops to complete financial aid applications or learn about funding options to financial literacy sessions like “What is Credit?” and “How to Budget.” These sessions can be on campus or webinars, targeted at current and prospective students. Some institutions create a week full of financial literacy events and/or promote them by incentivizing attendance with giveaways or a drawing based on attendance.
How is your office planning to celebrate and promote Financial Aid Awareness Month?