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Case Study: Excite Credit Union Sammy Rabbit Collaboration

by Team Sammy

Thank you Excite Credit Union

Thanks to Sammyriffic collaboration partners like Excite Credit Union, we are making daily efforts to end youth and family financial illiteracy one child, one family, one resource and one financial education experience at a time! Woohoo!

Excite Credit Union knows the importance of financial literacy and how the right resources can help serve and increase their membership.

They set themselves apart with their on-going support of early-age and family financial literacy.

Learn more about the strategies and successes of our collaboration with Excite Credit Union below. Contact us today to collaborate!

Excite Credit Union offers their members the following Sammyriffic resources:

  • -Custom-branded Books
  • -Learn with Sammy Resource Hub
  • -Money School Memberships
  • -Live Virtual and In Person Events/Author Reading

Special Accounts:

  • -"Step Up" Children Savings Accounts

Sammy Rabbit supports Excite Credit Union with:

  • -Child Money Memories Interview
  • -Social Media Exposure and Press Coverage
  • -Marketing and Public Relations Support

Read below for a summary of each topic:

Co-branded Books
Custom Sammy books that stress "habit" formation and teach kids the language and basic principles of money! They make great gifts, rewards and incentives. They also put books in home, classroom and non-profit libraries.

Online Co-Branded Resource Hub
Excite Credit Union offers members, community partners and web visitors a wealth of FREE digital, downloadable activities via their own co-branded
Learn with Sammy Dream Big Financial Education Resource Hub!

The Hub is organized into three sections:

(1) Sammy's Big Dream Deluxe Story Book

(2) Story Program (for Teachers and Trainers)

(3) Dream Big Song Program.

Money School Memberships
Excite Credit Union wants to make certain the children, families, schools and non-profits they serve have access to a wide variety of education resources at all times.

So they have "stepped up" their commitment by augmenting their Sammy Resource Hubs with "Free" memberships to Sammy’s new online Money School.

The School offers kids even more opportunities to learn including new and original programming like "Decode and Sing" and building their own "Dream Big Journal" plus lots, lots more..

Live Virtual and In Person Events
Children's author Sam X Renick has been inspiring kids to save and read for the past 20 years with his dynamic and interactive brand of live financial education experiences. He knows how to motivate kids to “get in the habit” of saving.

Excite Credit Union and Sammy have been working together to bring these experiences to kids and families in English and Spanish!

Check out the recording of the event HERE!

Sam X Renick reads Sammy's Dream Big to members while being translated to Spanish

Child Savings Account
Excite Credit Union offers special "STEP UP" (TM) Kids Savings account. Check them out HERE!

ENDING FINANCIAL ILLITERACY

The following pictures, press and text tell the Excite Credit Union - Sammy Rabbit collaboration story.

And, they specifically demonstrate Excite Credit Union's exemplary efforts to make financial literacy accessible and available to any and every child, parent, school or community leader who aims to put children on the path to greater financial freedom, security and stability!

Collaboration History
Our collaboration started in 2018 and is built around Excite Credit Union's new and innovative Step Up Savings program for kids.

The purpose of the program is to give everyone the chance to build a financially stronger future, so together we can build a stronger community.

Excite Credit Union launched the program November 1, 2019. It is offered to families connected to non-profits and low income schools in two of Excite's market areas: Silicon Valley and North Carolina.

Excite deposits the first $50 to open a child’s savings account and then they match family deposits up to $25 per year. They also make deposits of $25 on the child’s 5th, 10th, 15th and 18th birthday. The account pays high interest. The combination of these factors makes it a great savings vehicle for education for children.

Excite is distributing Sammy Rabbit books to children as part of the program via schools, non-profits and their branches.

According to Excite VP for Community Relations, John Hogan, the combination of the fun books to build great habits and Excite's contributions to kick-off and support those habits is a powerful incentive for families to start savings accounts for their children’s education.

The Step Up Savings program is off to a great start and has earned print and television coverage in English and Spanish.

Excerpt from Financial Advisor Magazine

John Hogan, Vice President of Community Relations at Excite Credit Union, has worked to give out more than a thousand Sammy Rabbit books in Santa Clara County, CA and North Carolina, where the credit union is based.

“The goal is to get kids and families saving, building assets, financial security and independence,” Hogan said.

“We distributed over 1,700 Sammy Rabbit books to grades 1, 2 and 3 throughout Santa Clara County.  One of our staff members, Aleta Smith, who recently joined our team as a Community Relations Specialist, was able to personally read the books in classrooms...” according to Hogan who said the credit union has already gotten requests for Sammy books in Spanish and Vietnamese.

“We love the fun and engaging nature that the Sammy Rabbit books bring to the program,” said Hogan, who works with a number of community programs to launch savings programs to help lower-income families.

San Jose Spotlight reports on Step Up Savings Strategy
San Jose credit union launches program to help low-income students save for college.

A unique partnership between a local credit union and a slew of East Side school districts could help low-income students in Silicon Valley do something many have only dreamed of — save up for college.

Excite Credit Union Chief Executive Officer Brian Dorcy this month announced the Step Up Savings Program, a partnership between the credit union and the East Side Alliance, a group of eight East San Jose school districts, that allows children to begin saving money for higher education by making an initial investment and then matching those funds. READ MORE

Telemundo 48 reports on Step Up Savings Strategy



Additional Media and Awareness 
Media

Social Media Posts

Samples of posts featured and promoted on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. 

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Contact Sammy to collaborate!

CONNECT WITH SAMMY

Website and Email

If you have questions, suggestions or would like learn more about Sammy Rabbit and his mission to teach kids great money habits and other important life skills, contact us!

CLICK to contact Sammy via our website contact form;

or email us at: contact@SammyRabbit.com

Social Media

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