Yield & Spread – Best Non-Profit Adult Financial Education Project Runner-Up | The MAIAs 2022

Helping people become financially literate is always a worthwhile endeavour and what the MAIAs are all about. Moreover, when money from finance courses is donated to charity, even more people benefit. And what if the people who are learning about money want to become philanthropists? Even better!

Trudi Harris Dubon, MAIA co-founder, said, “We started the MAIAwards to promote financial education and celebrate those on the same mission. If that makes profits that are then funnelled to helping others, that is a great extra!”

This is what Yield & Spread does – it teaches paid finance lessons and then donates profits to charity. The idea led to it winning a runner-up MAIA for best non-profit adult financial education project.

Yield & Spread was founded by Rebecca L Herbst, who explains, “We teach personal finance, investing, and financial wellbeing. Our course shows that intelligent investing can be simple, despite attempts by the financial industry to make it seem otherwise. The Learn to Invest & Build Wealth course helps gather all the necessary skills to invest and manage money independently and confidently.”

She adds, “But the best part about Yield & Spread? All of our profits go to charity.”

The Learn to Invest course is based in the US and caters primarily for Americans. It comprises over six hours’ worth of content for just $75 and includes lifetime access. This is incredibly cheap compared to similar offerings, but it is still enough to generate profits.

The course is designed to be simple, direct, and easy to understand. “We just wanted to create a straightforward course that people can understand and relate to. The videos are simple and welcoming; students can ask questions openly in our live class offerings. We don’t spam our students. We just send out a monthly email with continuing education and insights.”

After operating costs, all money generated goes to ‘The Life You Can Save’ charity, which supports highly cost-effective and impactful charities. It is a non-profit corporation currently under review for 501(c)(3) status. The driving force behind Yield & Spread is to help people take control of their money and lives.

“We believe financial literacy is our superpower to do good in this world. When we teach how to build wealth, what we are really doing is empowering people to rise to their full ambitions. Our ambition is to help others, and financial literacy has been our greatest tool in achieving this,” Rebecca says.

“Yield & Spread was inspired by both the Financial Independence (FI) and Effective Altruism (EA) movements. FI is the status of having enough wealth to pay one’s living expenses for the rest of one’s life. EA aims to determine the most effective ways to improve the world, and many of its community members donate a significant portion of their income or wealth to impactful causes.

“We believe there is a strong overlap in these two movements. Building wealth lifts us to do great things. Using this newfound wealth to help others is how we truly leave a lasting legacy.”

Rebecca has plans for more courses in the future. “We’d like to introduce more content around the intersection of Financial Literacy and Effective Altruism, for example,” she says. “We are also growing our student base.”

MAIA co-founder Trudi Harris Dubon adds, “Educating people, charging a minimal fee, and then passing that money onto others is a great model that benefits even more people. It will be interesting to see how Rebecca and Yield & Spread continue to develop.”

For more information about Yield & Spread, you can visit their website, or email us at michael@maiawards.org.