About This Post: Children’s savings accounts, baby bonds, and similar programs need more than money in an account to help families plan for a child’s future. Readers will learn why trust, clear information, trusted community partners, family engagement, and financial coaching can make the difference between a program families enroll in and a program families actually use.
For more than three decades, researchers have argued that assets do more than provide financial resources. They shape how families think about the future, set expectations, expand what children believe is possible, and lay the foundation for growing wealth. As Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs), baby bonds, and related initiatives continue to grow across the country, the idea that assets can shape children’s futures feels especially relevant. By the end of 2023, an estimated 121 CSA programs were operating across 38 states, serving more than 5.8 million children — nearly five times the number participating just two years earlier. Connecticut has launched a statewide baby bond initiative, and Rhode Island has enacted legislation to establish one, while researchers continue to examine the long-term impacts on educational attainment, wealth accumulation, and economic mobility.
As these programs continue to expand, the field faces both an important opportunity and a challenge. As programs grow, learning about implementation deserves the same attention as impact research. Without understanding how programs work, for whom, and under what conditions, we risk knowing whether an impact occurred without knowing what produced it. Documenting the experiences of youth, families, and communities can help identify the relationships, supports, and program features that drive participation and shape outcomes.
Much of the conversation has focused on foundational design questions: How much should children receive? Should programs be universal or targeted? How should funds be invested? These are important questions. But another deserves equal attention:
What helps families engage with these opportunities once they exist?
At Community Science, we often think about implementation alongside outcomes. Through our evaluation and learning partnership with the Brilliant Futures Children’s Savings Program, an initiative of Greater Washington Community Foundation, we’ve had the opportunity to learn alongside a growing child wealth-building initiative while it’s still evolving. While long-term impacts take years to fully understand, we’re already seeing valuable lessons emerge about how families experience these opportunities, what builds trust, and what supports sustained engagement.
These early lessons from Brilliant Futures, together with findings from across the field, suggest that enrolling children is only the beginning. The relationships, supports, and experiences surrounding the program matter just as much.
Where Should We Be Paying Attention?
Several questions stand out:
- Which institutions and relationships are most effective at building the trust that drives participation?
- What engagement strategies keep families connected beyond enrollment as children grow and milestones change?
- How can programs better support families in moving from aspiration to action?
- What role should financial coaching play alongside account creation, and how should it be structured?
- How should programs measure trust, engagement, and family experience alongside financial outcomes?
None of these are questions any single program can answer alone. They require shared learning across practitioners, researchers, evaluators, funders, and families.
What Brilliant Futures and the Field Are Teaching Us
Findings from Brilliant Futures, alongside research on CSAs and Child Development Accounts more broadly, point toward several consistent themes.
Aspiration and Action
Research consistently finds that families hold high aspirations for their children’s futures regardless of income level. Long-term findings from the SEED for Oklahoma Kids study support this perspective, showing that families participating in Child Development Accounts demonstrated stronger parent-child educational engagement, higher expectations for their children’s futures, and greater levels of hope over time.
Early findings from Brilliant Futures tell a similar story. Parents reported strong confidence in their children’s ability to achieve educational goals and expressed high levels of hope for their futures. At the same time, many families were less likely to report having a savings plan, regularly setting money aside, or knowing what resources were available to support long-term financial planning.
Taken together, these findings show that many families already hold high aspirations and are motivated to support their children’s long-term success. The challenge is often having the resources, information, and opportunities needed to translate those aspirations into action. Families with fewer financial resources are frequently balancing immediate needs with long-term goals. In 2023, only 63% of U.S. adults reported being able to cover a $400 emergency expense using cash or savings. In this context, saving for a child’s future competes with many pressing priorities. Understanding how programs help families bridge the gap between aspiration and action is just as important as how much money is deposited into an account.
Trust
Trust is emerging as one of the most important factors influencing participation in child wealth-building programs. When programs ask families to engage with financial systems, investment concepts, or long-term planning, they are asking them to navigate systems that may feel unfamiliar or difficult to trust. Families have raised questions about how the program works, where funding comes from, what documentation is required, and whether participation could have unintended consequences for their households. The U.S. Treasury’s National Strategy for Financial Inclusion identifies trust as a key barrier to financial participation among underserved communities.
Brilliant Futures offers a practical example. Stakeholders consistently described schools, trusted staff, and familiar community settings as critical to participation. Families were not simply responding to information about the program; they were responding to people and institutions they already knew and trusted. Research from other wealth-building programs points to similar conclusions. Partnerships with schools, health systems, and community-based organizations can help establish the credibility and relationships necessary for sustained engagement.
Together, these findings suggest that trust isn’t simply a byproduct of effective programs; it is part of the infrastructure that supports participation. For practitioners and funders, this raises a foundational question: Before asking families to trust a new financial opportunity, are we building with the institutions and relationships they already trust?
If trust helps families enroll, meaningful engagement may help them build relationships.
Engaging Parents in Meaningful Ways
Programs often invest heavily in outreach and communication. While important, information alone rarely leads to sustained engagement. What Brilliant Futures and the field suggest is that meaningful engagement is built through relationships. Families need opportunities to ask questions, connect information to their own circumstances, and build confidence navigating unfamiliar systems.
Within Brilliant Futures, family events, school-based gatherings, and one-to-one conversations emerged as particularly valuable engagement opportunities. These interactions helped families move beyond awareness and develop a deeper connection to the program.
The findings also highlight the importance of meeting families where they already are. Outreach embedded within known settings, such as schools and community organizations, can reduce barriers and create opportunities to connect over time rather than through a single enrollment experience.
It also matters who is doing the engaging. Families often respond more readily when outreach comes from trusted individuals they already know and are comfortable with, whether a teacher, program coordinator, or community member. Research from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reinforces this finding, suggesting that ongoing engagement throughout the life of the program can influence whether families remain active participants.
Information may help families understand a program. Relationships are often what help them stay connected and engaged in the long term.
Financial Coaching
One question emerging is the role financial coaching should play alongside program participation. While savings accounts provide an important foundation, some families may benefit from additional support in translating long-term aspirations into concrete financial plans and actions.
Financial coaching may help bridge that gap by supporting families as they navigate financial decisions, set goals, and connect today’s actions with future opportunities.
Though evidence on the most effective approaches remains limited. Questions remain about which coaching models work best, when support is most valuable, and how services can be made accessible and relevant to families’ needs. As child wealth-building initiatives continue to evolve, understanding the role of financial coaching will be an important area for future learning.
What This Means for Funders and Community Leaders
The lessons emerging from Brilliant Futures and the child wealth-building field suggest several practical considerations for funders and community leaders.
- Invest in trusted institutions and relationships. Schools, community-based organizations, and other familiar community partners often play a critical role in helping families engage with and stay connected to new opportunities.
- Measure more than financial outcomes. Early indicators such as trust, family engagement, confidence navigating financial systems, participation in program activities, and families’ sense of connection to the program may provide important insight into whether initiatives are building the conditions for longer-term impact.
- Explore financial coaching as a complementary strategy. Families may benefit from support that helps translate long-term aspirations into concrete actions and plans while navigating competing financial priorities.
- Support shared learning across programs. Many of the questions facing the field are larger than any one initiative and will require collaboration among practitioners, researchers, evaluators, funders, and families.
Looking Ahead
The field has already generated compelling evidence that assets matter. Research from Children’s Savings Accounts, Child Development Accounts, and baby bond initiatives points to the potential benefits of investing in children’s futures early. What remains less understood is how families experience these opportunities and what supports meaningful engagement over time.
At Community Science, we see value in learning from implementation while programs are still evolving. Understanding how trust is built, how families stay connected, and how programs support action alongside aspiration can help strengthen child wealth-building initiatives today while longer-term outcome evidence continues to emerge.
Programs such as Brilliant Futures are helping the field move beyond asking whether these programs work and toward understanding how, for whom, and under what conditions they create impact. At this stage of the field’s growth, those lessons are often just as valuable as the outcomes themselves.
References
- Sherraden, M. (1991). Assets and the Poor: A New American Welfare Policy.
- Prosperity Now. (2024). From Small Beginnings to Great Heights: The State of Children’s Savings Accounts.
- Urban Institute. (2024). Modeling the Impacts of a Federal Baby Bonds Program.
- Kajeepeta, S., et al. (2025). National Support for Wealth-building for Children from Low-Income Households. JAMA Network Open.
- Elliott, W., & Beverly, S. (2011). The Role of Savings and Wealth in Reducing “Wilt” Between Expectations and College Attendance. Journal of Children and Poverty 17(2), 165–185.
- Huang, J., et al. (2025). Effects of Child Development Accounts on Parent–Child Educational Engagement and Children’s Hope.
- Center for Social Development. (2025). The Long-term Impacts of Child Development Accounts on Parental Educational Expectations and College Preparation.
- Federal Reserve Board. (2024). Report on the Economic Well-being of U.S. Households.
- U.S. Department of the Treasury. (2023). National Strategy for Financial Inclusion in the United States.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (2024). Children’s Savings Account Programs: Measuring Program Performance and Outcomes.
About the Authors
Carlos Anguiano, Ph.D., Director, is an educational psychologist whose professional interests and commitments are rooted in his passion to ensure that every child has fair access to high quality education, from their formative years to adolescence and young adulthood. His research training combined with his cultural experiences enable him to work effectively with parents, youth, educators, and community leaders from different backgrounds.
Brandi Gilbert, PhD, Managing Director, brings expertise in researching topics and evaluating initiatives related community resilience, especially efforts that build community capacity to respond to natural disaster. She also has extensive experience working with youth to build their capacity to lead change in their community. She is actively involved in the evaluation profession, is a graduate of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) program, and then led the program for six years. She leads Community Science’s practice area on youth leadership and civic engagement.