The Military Saves Campaign

1. The Military Saves Campaign OPLAN 2012

2. Social Marketing Campaign • Military Saves is a DoD-wide financial readiness campaign to persuade military service and family members, to reduce debt and save money • Military Saves encourages: • Developing a personal financial plan • Establishing good credit • Saving a portion of each paycheck • Enrolling in SGLI, TSP, and (when eligible) SDP

3. Desired Outcomes: • Increased household savings for short- and long-term needs • Decreased consumer debt • Command climate and overall culture that supports prudent financial behavior over consumption • Demand for financial literacy education and counseling • Supply of financial products that encourage saving, especially regular (automatic) deposits, systematic increase in amount of deposits, and advance planning for purchasing and investing

4. Annual Saver Drive • Annual during “Military Saves Week” • In conjunction with America Saves Week • 19 Feb – 26 Feb 2012 • Goal: motivate people to act! • Enroll as Saver and save money!!

5. Ongoing Saving/Debt Reduction Campaign • Enrollment open 24/7 year-round • Participating organizations welcome and encouraged to organize local promotions to stimulate increased/new/automatic saving and debt reduction throughout year • Changing to an ongoing campaign with 4 Quarterly themes: Save & Invest, Military Youth, Debt Reduction, Retirement

6. Military Saves Campaign Materials • Growing infrastructure to support campaigning communities • www.MilitarySaves.org • Customizable Graphics • Checklists • PSAs

7. Campaign Coordinators Andia Dinesen, andia@militarysaves.org or info@militarysaves.org

8. Military Saves is part of the DoD Financial Readiness Campaign OSD – Brenda McDaniel brenda.mcdaniel@osd.mil Army – Gale Johnson panesha.g.johnson@us.army.mil Navy – Fred Davis fred.w.davis@navy.mil Air Force – Lt Col Karen Terry karenm.terry@pentagon.af.mil Marine Corps – Kelley Faulk kelley.faulk@usmc.mil

9. Saver Drive • An organized effort to enroll as many people as possible in Military Saves • A commitment to exercise good financial habits and encourage other Americans to do the same • Savers who enroll online receive electronic newsletters

10. Desired Outcomes • 10% or more of military personnel, civil servants, and defense contractor employees worldwide enrolled as Military Savers • Receive electronic newsletters for financial readiness and savings tips • Encourage them to get involved in encouraging others to: • Start Small. Think Big.

11. Desired Outcomes • Project Officers at ever U.S. military installation CONUS and OCONUS • One POC in every shop • Suggested ratio for POCs to personnel is 1: 50 to facilitate one–on-one contact • Ratio of 1:500 is better than no POC at all

12. Method • Modeled on the Combined Federal Campaign drive • Recruiting method is one-on-one personal contact of all personnel (military and civilian) • Supported by visible leadership, emails, website, public affairs, partnerships, posters, special events, fun challenges, and outreach to family members, contractors, and the general community

13. Recommended Schedule: October • Commander: Appoint installation Projo • Communicate command directive for campaign • Request POCs designated in all subordinate units, tenants and affiliated organizations • Authorize Projo to task functional areas to invite community participation (PA, Finance, MWR, SEA, AAFES, DECA, spouse clubs, on base financial institutions, CAP, etc.)

14. Recommended Schedule: November • Commander, Projo, POC take the Saver Pledge at www.militarysaves.org • Projo train POCs • Projo ensure no firewalls block access to www.americasaves.org and militarysaves.org • Projo schedule major events (Saver Drive kick-off, volunteer appreciation event, etc.) to permit Commander’s participation • Projo meet with PA and other key partners to establish marketing plan and other support

15. Recommended Schedule: December • POCs get unit manning document to identify the people you’re responsible for recruiting • POCs plan your program to start in January and go through the week following America Saves week • POCs get creative about inviting family members, deployed members, and anyone else you don’t see regularly at work

16. Recommended Schedule: January • POCs hang flyers, posters, and banners (start with a few, increase every week through kick-off) • Projo, POCs meet with any volunteers you’ve recruited to help maintain their excitement/involvement and give them specific tasks • Projo, POCs confirm with your leadership that they will be attending installation-wide special events and unit/shop activities • PA start running teaser stories

17. Recommended Schedule: February • POCs Recruit Savers • Public Affairs run feature stories about campaign activities and Saver success stories • Projo install/display/update Saver enrollment display (similar to CFC thermometer – what is the goal, and how close is the installation to reaching it) • Attend kick-off and other events

18. Recommended Schedule: March • Projo prepare after action reports as required by branch of service; submit success stories, suggestions, and best practices at www.militarysaves.org • Commander, Projo, POCs recognize workers – volunteer appreciation event, certificates of appreciation, letters to supervisors, passes/time off work, etc.

19. Promotional Campaign • Year-round promotional campaign • Commands encouraged to keep “Build Wealth, Not Debt” message in front of the community at all times • Engage public affairs to promote the campaign • Encourage defense credit union and military bank to do the same

20. Promotional Methods • Regular feature stories, ads, and other articles in military/civilian newspapers • “Hold music” messages • Reader board messages • Billboards, posters, flyers, banners • Briefings and motivational speeches at commanders’ calls, organizational events, clubs, and special events • Take the Saver Pledge at all personal finance and life skills classes and briefings • Profile successful Savers and fun Military Saves events and activities in unit newsletters and other promotional avenues

21. Partnerships • Military banks and defense credit unions • Cooperative extension, Boys and Girls Clubs, 4H, your local chamber of commerce, Military Affairs Committees • All military and private organizations • MWR, AAFES/NEX, DECA • Partnerships between for-profit companies and military organizations subject to restrictions

22. Participation • All four Services and the U.S. Coast Guard participated in the campaign in 2007 and 2008 • Enrolled more than 25,000 individuals and stimulated more than 100,000 positive financial actions such as putting money in savings or investment accounts • More than 80 credit unions and military banks participated in a wide variety of activities to promote personal financial readiness

23. The campaign guidelines and resources are provided by DoD’s nonprofit partner, Consumer Federation of America

24. Military Saves was made possible in part through the generous support of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. • Please visit • Military Saves is also supported by Chase Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, and Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University Military Edition.