Financial Fridays: Ally

April 7, 2022

By Demetrius Scott, Manager Corporate Citizenship

Ally is a leading digital financial services company headquartered in Detroit, MI. We’re committed to changing the online banking landscape with innovative digital experiences. Our award-winning online bank (Ally Bank, Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender) offers home loans, along with a full suite of banking products including savings, money-market, checking, certificates of deposit (CDs) and individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Ally’s Corporate Citizenship work is fundamental to the company’s culture as a relentless ally for positive social impact. Our strategic approach to corporate citizenship recognizes that for communities to thrive, every member must have equitable opportunities to succeed.

Ally is focused on providing individuals and communities with greater access to education and resources they can use to improve their economic circumstances and enrich their lives. One of the ways we can move people up the economic ladder is to start teaching financial literacy early and reinforce those lessons as they grow. Our educational system today often doesn’t prepare students with money management basics, a cornerstone to economic mobility and improving generational wealth. Ally believes everyone deserves a path to financial stability and we’re committed to helping create opportunities for economic mobility. One way we’re doing that is through the use of games to teach financial literacy. We think people learn more when they are having fun. That’s why we collaborated with Minecraft developer Blockworks and Microsoft to bring to life Fintropolis, a new Minecraft world that teaches users about personal finances – everything from building credit to paying taxes and buying a house. Using games is a powerful way to make learning about money easy and effective. Ally is always looking for ways to help people better understand money. We want to help people with the education they need to make smart decisions about their money.

Find us in the Jump$tart Clearinghouse!

This past August, Ally unveiled a new addition to the wildly popular Minecraft universe: Fintropolis, an independent city where players learn financial concepts through Minecraft play. Since its launch, Fintropolis has been downloaded more than 2.9 million times and earned rave reviews from students, parents and teachers alike. Fintropolis is a game-based learning experience in Minecraft that helps build financial literacy skills in an engaging way and can transform financial learning. Throughout the game individuals explore the city, earn gold to purchase homes and learn the value of decisions, like spending vs. saving. Fintropolis teaches users about careers and job opportunities, taxes, cash flow and budgeting, credit and debt, investing and identity protection. The world can be found on both Minecraft Marketplace and Minecraft: Education Edition, but Ally prioritized the education version to provide access to students who might not have access to the game at home. Minecraft: Education Edition is available in many public schools through Office 365 Education licenses. Ally has a history of robust financial education initiatives ranging from a children’s book series to high school/adult education with Ally WalletWise. Fintropolis, its most ambitious effort to date, has the greatest potential reach.

More about Fintropolis:
www.allyfintropolis.com
Contact:
Demetrius Scott
demetrius.scott@ally.com

Sometimes it’s important to just say “thank you.” Thank you for your continued support of the Jump$tart Coalition. We are who we are because of you and your belief, commitment, and contributions to our collective mission of moving financial literacy forward. Thank you for all you do. We see you, and we are truly grateful!

Financial Literacy Month is next month! Do you have an event, webinar, podcast, Twitter chat, social campaign or etc. that you would like for us to spread the word about? Send it to us so we can share with our audience!

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