The Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards 2023 Open For Submissions Today

London, January 3, 2023: The Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards Open For Submissions Today, Announcing New Awards For Green Financial Literacy and Closing the Gender Gap.

The Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards, the global awards ceremony dedicated to “Making Money Better” through financial literacy, education and inclusion, opens for submissions today. This year, entrants can choose to enter 15 different categories, whether they represent individual efforts, non-profit organisations or for-profit companies.

MAIA co-founder and experienced Singapore-based financier Michael Gilmore said “Weak financial understanding and the legion of problems it causes can only be solved if we invite everyone to take part. As well as big banks and fintech start-ups, we need to hear from authors and influencers, right across the board, if we are to find the best solutions and spread them to wherever they’re needed. Last year, a teacher’s assistant from Canada developed an app and website called Gifting Sense that almost beat the whole University of Chicago and all its resources.”

The first awards, held online earlier this year, attracted more than 150 entries from all over the world, with winners hailing from the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Dubai and Peru among others.

Gilmore continued: “Last year, judge Patrick Jenkins, deputy editor of the Financial Times and chair of its Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign (FT FLIC), highlighted the work the awards found in Peru to help their teachers improve their own finances.”

In their second year, the awards have added two new categories, reflecting issues in money awareness that merit special attention.

“Closing the Gender Gap is of particularly urgent concern,” said MAIA co-founder Trudi Harris, who has held senior roles in marketing communications for over twenty years. “With women displaying lower levels of financial literacy across all income levels and countries, often for reasons of confidence, accessibility and inclusion as much as education, the causes of this need to be addressed. The “Fearless Woman” report by winner of the 2022 best academic prize and 2023 judge Professor Annamaria Lusardi is a big influence, as it indicated that financial education programs tailored specifically to women, to boost both knowledge and confidence, should be more effective than one-size-fits-all.”

Gilmore added “Green Financial Literacy can also play a vital role in helping promote proper sustainable finance. One of the reasons we have seen so much backlash against greenwashing and ESG in recent times is due to there being very few people who are both financially literate and sustainability literate. The only way this can change quickly is with a real sea-change in the way money, finance and sustainability are taught – and we want to find the best examples.”

The award entry website opened for submissions on January 3rd, 2023, and potential entrants can find more details about which categories to enter on the FAQ page of the website. The final deadline for submissions is March 28th, to coincide with Global Money Week at the end of March, although for-profit companies are advised that the free-entry early-bird will close for them on February 3rd. The awards will be free to enter throughout for individuals, non-profits and the special categories.

About the MAIAs: Founded by Gilmore and Harris, the MAIAs were devised as the first global financial literacy body aiming to solve the problem of weak financial literacy experienced all over the world, by finding and celebrating the best solutions. The winning solutions in 2022 ranged from academic research on gamifying education, to 12-year-old influencers making videos about money.

Contact: Trudi Harris at trudi@maiawards.org or Michael Gilmore at michael@maiawards.org to discuss the MAIAs or for interviews about the problems weak financial literacy is causing, and the emerging solutions to this.