Staff who never presented before now run financial literacy workshops on their own.
At TriState Capital Bank, Mark Conner runs the financial education volunteer program. The hardest part isn’t finding workshops to deliver. It’s finding staff who want to deliver them. Most workshops mean a slide deck on a topic the volunteer doesn’t teach for a living. Even staff who said yes once are a hard ask the second time.
“It’s not easy to get volunteers. You’re trying to teach the 50/30/20 rule with PowerPoints and talking points. That gets boring fast, for them and for the audience.” Mark Conner, CRA Officer, TriState Capital Bank
Mark went looking for a tool that made the format the easy part. Something where the workshop didn’t rest on the volunteer’s presentation skills.
Cashy’s games and presentations are plug and play. The game runs the session, so the presenter doesn’t prep slides or memorize talking points. They watch the room, point things out, and react to what’s happening on screen.
“The staff who used Cashy loved presenting it, because it wasn’t a heavy lift. They didn’t have to learn anything new. There were no boring materials. The pace does the work, so the presenter just has to be enthusiastic and add a few touches.” Mark Conner, CRA Officer, TriState Capital Bank
Training is quick. Cashy is plug and play, so staff can run workshops without Mark in the room.
“After they saw it done, they were able to do it without me, after just one quick go-through.” Mark Conner, CRA Officer, TriState Capital Bank
No slides to prep, no talking points to memorize. Anyone on Mark’s team can pick it up after a single walk-through.
Video of a budgeting workshop with Cashy
TriState has used Cashy with 4th-graders, high schoolers, and adults in their fifties. The game adapts to the audience. The conversations change, but the engagement doesn’t. At Point Park University, a group of high school students from low-to-moderate income schools broke into a standing ovation at the end of a 30-minute session.
“The students gave us an ovation when we were done. Normally it’s the teacher saying, ‘alright, give these guys a hand.’ This time the students did it themselves. They didn’t want it to end.” Mark Conner, CRA Officer, TriState Capital Bank
That kind of feedback drives the program forward. After a recent workshop, the teacher emailed the principal saying it was so much fun and the students couldn’t wait to do it again. TriState is heading back in the fall.
Cashy’s presentations and games are both built for discussion. Presentations come with discussion prompts between slides. Games surface trade-offs as attendees play. Either way, volunteers don’t have to lecture. The format does the work.
“The talking points and the topics just come up organically.” Mark Conner, CRA Officer, TriState Capital Bank
In one session, an attendee went super frugal. Saved aggressively, cut everything else, and watched their happiness score crash.
“One student thought they saved a lot of money. But they went super frugal, did all these other things, and their happiness score went down.” Mark Conner, CRA Officer, TriState Capital Bank
That kicked off a discussion about balance, about why all the money in the world doesn’t make you happy. The next round the S&P crashed, and the conversation moved to portfolio basics.
That’s financial education without a slide deck.
See the platform and experience the interaction.
