Financial Education and Entrepreneurship
At ING, we believe that empowering individuals to better understand and take control of their finances is an essential first step toward building a secure and rewarding future.
We help people become financially independent by increasing their knowledge of and comfort with financial matters – especially underserved groups such as multicultural individuals and youth.
Our charitable efforts focus on encouraging better savings and investing habits early, with a special emphasis on key life changes, which can have a devastating impact on a family’s financial security.
Promoting financial literacy is a natural, logical way for us to share our expertise and align our outreach activities with our core business interests and skills. In the process, we help build stronger communities.
ING-Girls Inc. Investment Challenge
In partnership with Girls Incorporated, we launched a pilot program called the ING-Girls Inc. Investment Challenge – an innovative program that gives participating girls practical, hands-on investing experience while allowing them to keep their gains in the form of college scholarships. With the help and guidance of trained Girls Inc. staff and ING employee volunteers, teams of girls ages 12-18 will build and manage diversified, real-time portfolios as part of an integrated investment- and economic literacy curriculum. The one-year pilot program began in New York City, Denver, Los Angeles and Alameda counties in California.
Operation Hope® – “Banking on our Future®”
One of ING’s national financial literacy partners, Operation Hope®, works to replace financial illiteracy with something more powerful than money: knowledge. Among its many projects, Operation Hope® conducts tours with business leaders to visit inner city schools and educate students about the importance of money management.
Junior Achievement®
Junior Achievement® is a group of volunteers, educators, parents, and other contributors who seek to educate and inspire young people, grades K-12, to value free enterprise, business, and economics to improve the quality of their lives. ING has partnered with Junior Achievement® on a national level to help teach kids the basics of saving and investing.