Your Money & Business
Teaching Teens Financial Literacy
Interview with Alexa du Pont Bell, Co-founder & Chairman of the Board of Cents Ability
August 2018
Alexa du Pont Bell
About Alexa:
Alexa du Pont Bell is co-founder and chairman of the board of Cents Ability, a nonprofit organization that has taught financial literacy to teens throughout New York City since 2004. She is also vice president of business development at Paperless Post, where she is responsible for developing partnerships and creating products that drive growth and engagement. Prior to joining Paperless Post, Alexa was Vice President, Strategic Development at RecycleBank, a platform that helps cities track recycling by household and rewards citizens for their impact, both to the environment and to the budget. Previously, Alexa was at RRE Ventures, where she focused on investments in early-to-mid-stage information technology companies. She started her career as an investment banker at UBS focused on Telecom, Media & Technology. She holds an A.B. with honors from Harvard University, where she was commodore of the Radcliffe Varsity Crew, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and two very tall kids.
Alexa du Pont Bell is co-founder and chairman of the board of Cents Ability, a nonprofit organization that has taught financial literacy to teens throughout New York City since 2004. She is also vice president of business development at Paperless Post, where she is responsible for developing partnerships and creating products that drive growth and engagement. Prior to joining Paperless Post, Alexa was Vice President, Strategic Development at RecycleBank, a platform that helps cities track recycling by household and rewards citizens for their impact, both to the environment and to the budget. Previously, Alexa was at RRE Ventures, where she focused on investments in early-to-mid-stage information technology companies. She started her career as an investment banker at UBS focused on Telecom, Media & Technology. She holds an A.B. with honors from Harvard University, where she was commodore of the Radcliffe Varsity Crew, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and two very tall kids.
Nancy Burger, senior editor, spoke with Alexa about the inspiration behind Cents Ability, course content and what she sees as the organization's path forward.
Cents Ability was inspired by your personal experience, correct?
I ran into a problem in that I just didn't pay off my credit card balances - I just sort of approached it very casually, never realizing the impact it would have on my credit rating until later on in life. Obviously, what's nice is that if you change your ways and straighten things out, in a couple of years, all is forgotten. But it was very eye-opening for me.
Could you please explain your program for our readers?
Many of the teenagers we talk to are actually making real contributions to support their families. They're in that tenuous spot between kids and adults, and I like that we are trying to give them access to this valuable information, even if they hadn't thought of it. What we provide is a basic curriculum that offers life skills and knowledge that is applicable to everyone. If you're understanding the systems that help you manage your personal finance, then you have stronger positioning for success in anything you try to do. Our curriculum is broken into modules that we can use depending on the audience.
Cents Ability creates an opportunity for volunteers to take our teacher training course, take what they need from it, and then give back to the community by training kids. It's a really nice cycle.
Do you have any funding to support your work?
Yes. We were able to secure funding from Société Generale so that we could hire our executive director, Roy Paul [Roy joined Cents Ability in July 2017]. He's amazing, and he's living and breathing it every day, full time. It's made a world of difference, because we now have someone who is dedicated to pushing the initiative forward on a full-time basis. Roy has been tremendous. There are really two parts to the job: finding organizations that have kids to reach and recruiting and training volunteers as well as matching the volunteers with the venue, times and locations. It's logistically challenging, but scalable. Roy feels very passionately about the organization, and he has what I've always had - a 'bigger picture' vision for the trajectory.
According to the Cents Ability website, the organization has 300 volunteer teachers, offers 500 classes and teaches 2,812 students.
What's your level of involvement now, and what do you see for the organization moving forward?
I'm co-founder and chairman of the board. My job is to steer the long-term vision of the organization. We've probably spent the last decade becoming a really solid volunteer organization in New York City. If you Google 'financial diversity volunteer organization' we're at the top because we do what we do really well. Now, we're asking the tough and interesting questions of what we want to be in the next five years. It's a very sustainable business model, but we're looking to make an impact, so we're going to start measuring the efficacy of what we do and improving it more. We've done ‘pre’ and ‘post’ surveys, so we see the effect it's having on the kids, but we're looking to work with some universities and maybe do some studies and analytics on the efficacy and then make it a national organization.
In our work here at Sanctuary, I'm realizing what a huge issue this is for adult women, and it's coming together in my brain that it might be great to bring this information to that segment as well.
Yes, absolutely. There are kids, women, adults who never had the education, adults who are well-educated who just never focused on this piece of it because it really isn't a requirement in the public school curriculum - to understand the principles of personal finance. And yet it's the most important information - puts food on the table, assures you shelter, helps you really manage your life.
This started as a program focused on high schools in the New York City area, but you mentioned that you wanted to make it a national organization. Can you elaborate?
Yes, we're definitely getting some interest on a national level, and if we can find ways to scale the programming and the volunteer organization, we're willing to be entrepreneurial about this and see how many people we can reach. At the end of the day, the world's bigger than New York. We're affiliated with a club at Baruch College in New York, where the students learn the curriculum themselves and then teach it to high school students. It’s a really exciting model because it's crossing into the college arena and a lot of college students are looking for the opportunity to give back to the community.
What is one of the things that most excites you about this organization?
One thing we've discussed internally, and I think is interesting on both sides of the coin, is this notion that Cents Ability reaches a lot of students that didn't sign up for it. Either their principal or teachers signed them up for this curriculum. That really motivates me because I think that as you get older you get more interested in these topics and how they impact your life - so you reach out to learn. But it's often the younger folks or those removed from a personal finance role model that are the least likely to ever raise their hand as an adult and go after it. Not every kid in our classes is interested in what we have to say, but we have a higher likelihood to really turn on some light bulbs in people's heads that hadn't thought of it and weren't going to be exposed to it. That excites me more than a university class that people can choose to register for.
Do you find that the kids are interested in the material, or is it difficult to get their attention?
Some kids are already interested, and they get the content and often ask questions that are even outside the scope of Cents Ability. For the kids who aren't interested, a good way to hook them is to ask, 'Hey, do you want to talk about money? Do you like to make money?' It really does get them engaged in a way that takes them by surprise, which is great.
Where is your sanctuary (#WheresYourSanctuary)?
That's an interesting question. I'm a working mom, so I joke that every Monday morning I come to the office, get a cup of coffee, and I'm at my spa. The truth is, I always crave time with my kids and my family. My heart is happiest when I'm with my family, and we're doing something - usually outdoors - and connecting with one another.
Cents Ability was inspired by your personal experience, correct?
I ran into a problem in that I just didn't pay off my credit card balances - I just sort of approached it very casually, never realizing the impact it would have on my credit rating until later on in life. Obviously, what's nice is that if you change your ways and straighten things out, in a couple of years, all is forgotten. But it was very eye-opening for me.
Could you please explain your program for our readers?
Many of the teenagers we talk to are actually making real contributions to support their families. They're in that tenuous spot between kids and adults, and I like that we are trying to give them access to this valuable information, even if they hadn't thought of it. What we provide is a basic curriculum that offers life skills and knowledge that is applicable to everyone. If you're understanding the systems that help you manage your personal finance, then you have stronger positioning for success in anything you try to do. Our curriculum is broken into modules that we can use depending on the audience.
Cents Ability creates an opportunity for volunteers to take our teacher training course, take what they need from it, and then give back to the community by training kids. It's a really nice cycle.
Do you have any funding to support your work?
Yes. We were able to secure funding from Société Generale so that we could hire our executive director, Roy Paul [Roy joined Cents Ability in July 2017]. He's amazing, and he's living and breathing it every day, full time. It's made a world of difference, because we now have someone who is dedicated to pushing the initiative forward on a full-time basis. Roy has been tremendous. There are really two parts to the job: finding organizations that have kids to reach and recruiting and training volunteers as well as matching the volunteers with the venue, times and locations. It's logistically challenging, but scalable. Roy feels very passionately about the organization, and he has what I've always had - a 'bigger picture' vision for the trajectory.
According to the Cents Ability website, the organization has 300 volunteer teachers, offers 500 classes and teaches 2,812 students.
What's your level of involvement now, and what do you see for the organization moving forward?
I'm co-founder and chairman of the board. My job is to steer the long-term vision of the organization. We've probably spent the last decade becoming a really solid volunteer organization in New York City. If you Google 'financial diversity volunteer organization' we're at the top because we do what we do really well. Now, we're asking the tough and interesting questions of what we want to be in the next five years. It's a very sustainable business model, but we're looking to make an impact, so we're going to start measuring the efficacy of what we do and improving it more. We've done ‘pre’ and ‘post’ surveys, so we see the effect it's having on the kids, but we're looking to work with some universities and maybe do some studies and analytics on the efficacy and then make it a national organization.
In our work here at Sanctuary, I'm realizing what a huge issue this is for adult women, and it's coming together in my brain that it might be great to bring this information to that segment as well.
Yes, absolutely. There are kids, women, adults who never had the education, adults who are well-educated who just never focused on this piece of it because it really isn't a requirement in the public school curriculum - to understand the principles of personal finance. And yet it's the most important information - puts food on the table, assures you shelter, helps you really manage your life.
This started as a program focused on high schools in the New York City area, but you mentioned that you wanted to make it a national organization. Can you elaborate?
Yes, we're definitely getting some interest on a national level, and if we can find ways to scale the programming and the volunteer organization, we're willing to be entrepreneurial about this and see how many people we can reach. At the end of the day, the world's bigger than New York. We're affiliated with a club at Baruch College in New York, where the students learn the curriculum themselves and then teach it to high school students. It’s a really exciting model because it's crossing into the college arena and a lot of college students are looking for the opportunity to give back to the community.
What is one of the things that most excites you about this organization?
One thing we've discussed internally, and I think is interesting on both sides of the coin, is this notion that Cents Ability reaches a lot of students that didn't sign up for it. Either their principal or teachers signed them up for this curriculum. That really motivates me because I think that as you get older you get more interested in these topics and how they impact your life - so you reach out to learn. But it's often the younger folks or those removed from a personal finance role model that are the least likely to ever raise their hand as an adult and go after it. Not every kid in our classes is interested in what we have to say, but we have a higher likelihood to really turn on some light bulbs in people's heads that hadn't thought of it and weren't going to be exposed to it. That excites me more than a university class that people can choose to register for.
Do you find that the kids are interested in the material, or is it difficult to get their attention?
Some kids are already interested, and they get the content and often ask questions that are even outside the scope of Cents Ability. For the kids who aren't interested, a good way to hook them is to ask, 'Hey, do you want to talk about money? Do you like to make money?' It really does get them engaged in a way that takes them by surprise, which is great.
Where is your sanctuary (#WheresYourSanctuary)?
That's an interesting question. I'm a working mom, so I joke that every Monday morning I come to the office, get a cup of coffee, and I'm at my spa. The truth is, I always crave time with my kids and my family. My heart is happiest when I'm with my family, and we're doing something - usually outdoors - and connecting with one another.
For more information about the
nonprofit Cents Ability, see the buttons below:
nonprofit Cents Ability, see the buttons below:
