Charles Schwab & Co.

CRT/tanaka has advised financial services provider Charles Schwab & Co. on a range of public relations activities including corporate social responsibility, media relations and investor outreach. The agency also supports the work of the Schwab Foundation, which focuses on promoting financial literacy for young people. CRT/tanaka has worked with Schwab’s consumer education team to develop the Schwabmoneywise.com Web site promoting “Family Financial Literacy,” and has executed strategic media outreach to raise consumer awareness of basic financial knowledge and responsible fiscal behaviors. The agency also assists Schwab with initiatives supporting the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, which was established by President Bush in 2008 and is chaired by Chuck Schwab.

FAMILY FINANCIAL LITERACY

Challenge

CRT/tanaka was engaged to help elevate Charles Schwab & Co.’s consumer education activities to a higher purpose for the company. From its inception, Charles Schwab & Co. has committed to helping consumers save and invest for a sound financial future. The company has evolved from its founder’s commitment to a strong philanthropic organization to a solid effort to educate consumers about financial literacy. Each fiber of the organization already was involved in financial education. However, it had not formalized a Corporate Social Responsibility platform within the organization.

Solution

CRT/tanaka helped the company develop a five-phased path to transition from a company following a sound approach to business to one that institutionalizes its commitment to strengthening America’s financial constitution through a Corporate Responsibility platform that includes consumer education. CRT/tanaka was challenged to help the organization guide its consumer education so that the short-term goals of consumer education aligned with the long-term path to an institutionalized commitment.

CRT/tanaka helped the organization focus its consumer education first on helping parents/grandparents to educate the next generation of investors – their teenagers. From this target, the organization will reach to other cohorts so that all stakeholders in “Family Financial Literacy” are eventually touched.

Tactically, CRT/tanaka supported this first phase of educating parents/grandparents through research; the development of Schwabmoneywise.com, a site with resources to help parents/grandparents educate teens about finances; Schwab’s annual Teens & Money Survey with the Boys & Girls Club of America and media outreach; bylined article placement for Carrie Pomerantz-Schwab, the Consumer Education group’s leader, on Yahoo! Personal Finance and Copley; storytelling to support greater awareness of and participation in its MoneyMatters initiative with the Boys & Girls Club of America; and a unique calendar of media pitches that touched on life-stage financial topics, including announcing Schwab’s decision to lower account minimums for custodial accounts to encourage parents to help teens save. CRT/tanaka also helped to shape Schwab’s first-ever Parents and Money Survey, which launched in 2008.

Results

As a result, CRT/tanaka has helped Schwab to secure top placements in more than 75 media generating more than 300 million impressions. Additionally, participation in the Boys & Girls Club has reached more than 75,000 teens and close to 1,000 clubs. Visits to Schwabmoneywise.com have increased sharply because of public relations alone.