Trainings & Resources

ProBonoPlannerMatch.Org helps bring free, quality financial advice and planning to people in need by matching CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals with volunteer opportunities nationwide.

CFP®’s can register here and browse opportunities to volunteer. Nonprofits can register here to connect with CFP® volunteers who want to provide free, no-strings-attached financial planning and advice to underserved populations. Check out 7 steps Nonprofits Can Use to Get Started to learn more.

The Pro Bono Financial Planning Volunteer Training is a free, one-hour online module that helps financial planners understand the basics of how to provide pro bono service to underserved members of the community. The Pro Bono Financial Planning Volunteer Training is approved for one hour of continuing education (CE) credit by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board). After viewing the training in its entirety, volunteers must take and pass a self-assessment to receive their CE credit. *A version of the Pro Bono Financial Planning Volunteer Training specially geared to FPA members is also available on FPA’s site here.

Since October 1^st, 2020, FFP has provided Errors and Omissions (E&O) Insurance to pro bono financial planners. As long as you qualify, you are automatically covered by this policy at no cost to you!

To qualify for the FFP coverage, you must:

• Be a Certified Financial Planner in good standing with the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards; and
• Have successfully completed the “Pro Bono Volunteer Training” offered by FFP.

FFP’s policy will only cover claims that arise from your pro bono advisory services delivered:

• through a nonprofit organization that has received a grant from FFP; or
• through a nonprofit organization you connected with via FFP’s  Pro Bono Planner Match, our digital platform for matching CFP volunteers with FFP-approved nonprofits.

For more information, click here.

This deck provides additional information about many key aspects of building a pro bono financial planning program, from promoting the program to potential clients to recruiting and training pro bono financial planners. Other tools and resources, several developed by nonprofit grantees of FFP, include:

• Pro Bono Financial Planning: An Overview for Nonprofits can help you understand how CFP® professional volunteers can support your nonprofit organization’s constituents, and 7 steps Nonprofits Can Use to Get Started provides actionable recommendations for developing a program.
• Sample Financial Habits Survey: This survey, developed by Britepaths, can be taken by clients prior to and post- financial planning sessions as a part of a nonprofit’s performance measurement process.
• Sample Volunteer Resource Manual: This manual, developed by Goodwill of Lane and South Counties, was developed to give volunteers access to information that will support its Prosperity Center It contains information about community resources including childcare, housing, food, health insurance, career counseling, vehicle purchase, education, and more.
• This brief and webinar by the Asset Funders Networks provides recommendations for improving client engagement and retention in financial capability programs.
• This report summarizing the findings of our efforts, with GreenPath Financial Wellness, to understand barriers and gain insights into how to best help people with low- to moderate- incomes engage with pro bono financial planners.
• Resources by Population Served: Here you’ll find resources to help you serve specific populations, like military/veterans, people affected by serious illness, or domestic violence survivors.

These disclosures can also serve as important tools in a pro bono engagements:

• Sample Pro Bono Financial Planning Engagement Letter: Used to define the terms and objectives of the relationship as well as the limitations of service. FFP recommends that the Letter of Engagement be signed by the financial planner and the client, with a copy retained by each, and if feasible by the nonprofit host of the program.
• Sample Verbal Disclosure: If it is not possible to use a written Letter of Engagement due to the nature of service delivery (for example, if there is only a brief, one-time consultation using video conference or telephone), FFP has developed a Sample Verbal Disclosure for the planner to share with the client verbally. Note however that the abridged version is not as protective as the Letter of Engagement, and does not include a Privacy Policy, a requirement per the CFP Board’s Standards of Ethics and Conduct when a CFP professional is providing financial planning or advice.
• Sample Privacy Policy: If needed by the volunteer, FFP has also developed a customizable Privacy Policy.
• Sample Volunteer Agreement Disclaimer: This disclaimer, developed by the Foundation for Financial Planning, ensures that pro bono financial planners and nonprofit organizations agree to a set of terms as they engage with one another.

• Secure your Financial Future: Building Wealth is a personal finance education resource that presents an overview of wealth-building strategies for consumers, community leaders, teachers and students.
• CFPB’s Your Money, Your Goals toolkit, and related videos, helps practitioners have money conversations with their clients. A companion to this toolkit, the Your Money, Your Goals Military Guide, provides resources to help military families overcome the unique financial challenges they face and improve their financial well-being.
• Navigating Your Financial Roadmap Workbook PDF (all populations)

• Make a Budget PDF
• Current Spending Plan PDF
• Future Spending Plan PDF
• Family Goals PDF
• Family Balance Sheet PDF
• Bill Payment Schedule
• Debt Management Worksheet PDF
• MoneySense Complete Financial Planning Toolkit PDFs
• Savings Fitness Worksheets

Financial Planning Event-in-a-Box: This toolkit (including an overview document and sample templates/documents) has been developed to help financial planning groups, nonprofits and others organize, promote, and execute events that offer a combination of educational sessions and free one-on-one advice from CFP® professionals to at-risk people from the community. The resource includes general instructions, guidelines, sample documents, and templates for implementing the event.

Apple Seed Program: Developed under an FFP grant, members of Texas Tech University’s Department of Personal Financial Planning created this curriculum and program model as a framework for students in Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) registered programs and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals to use in efforts to shape practicums and clinics that can serve students and underserved people from the community. You can link to supporting materials here.

CFPB Bulk Publications and other Practitioner Resources: The mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for consumers by making rules more effective, by consistently and fairly enforcing those rules, and by empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives.

Nonprofits and pro bono financial planners can use CFPB publications and resources to help the people they serve increase their understanding of key areas such as credit, saving, debt, retirement, and more. CFPB also offers a number of prerecorded webinar series that pro bono financial planners can use to support their clients, including:

• Helping clients explore their personal finance rights and;
• Helping Clients Monitor and Improve Their Credit Reports and Scores