How we make financial education relevant to the next generation

Sarah Marks has been CEO of the children’s financial education charity RedSTART since August 2021. Previously, she undertook the role of Development Director, where she was responsible for developing the case for support and fundraising strategy, and prior to that she worked for RedSTART as a volunteer. Sarah has over 20 years of experience leading client service teams in the finance sector, most recently as Global Head of Client Service at Insight Investment.

She is passionate about education and its role in levelling up and is hugely excited about the potential for transformation in people’s lives that could occur if they are taught as children about how money works.

RedSTART is one of the IFW Conference’s three charities for 2024. It is a children’s financial education charity, working only with primary schools that serve communities in areas of greater disadvantage. They see the same children repeatedly from Reception to Year 6 and combine in school lessons and workshops with a bank app and shop. They also use volunteers to connect the children to the world of work in order and raise aspirations.

This focus has allowed RedSTART to commission a unique longitudinal, randomised control study designed and run by The Policy Institute, King’s College, London which will measure the impact that this intervention has on the children as they grow up. The aim is for the charity to cease to exist beyond 2030 as the work they are doing will have resulted in policy change to support the delivery of similar interventions in every one of the 20,000 primary schools across the UK.

Stephanie Fitzgerald leads on The Money Charity’s work with Young People across the UK, including our Money Workshops, Student Money Manual and resources for teachers.
Stephanie has over ten years of financial capability experience and before that had a background in working and volunteering in education and the charity sector in a variety of roles. This has included working in schools, on National Citizens Service programmes and for government. Steph has international experience as a Programme Manager at The Commission for Financial Capability in New Zealand, which involved running workplace and community Financial Education ‘behaviour change’ programmes across the country.
Stephanie is passionate about helping people to gain more confidence in managing their money and to enjoy the control and freedoms it brings, especially young people.

The Money Charity is another of the IFW Conference’s charities. For over 25 years, The Money Charity has been the UK’s Financial Capability charity and their vision is that everyone achieves financial wellbeing by managing their money well.

The charity empowers people across the UK to develop the skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours to make the most of their money throughout their lives. By proactively providing education, information, advice and guidance to people of all ages and at all stages of life, the charity helps people get to grips with their money and increase their financial wellbeing.