Financial Toolbox

Please help us give West Australian women greater financial know-how and and confidence!

Financial Toolbox aims to build women's financial knowledge to give them independence and freedom of choice throughout their lives. 

Financial Toolbox has recently become an Incorporated Association with an independent Board, and a working agreement with Chartered Accountants ANZ. We are seeking kickstarter funding to help us put a strong foundation in place, so that we can help educate women across WA.

Financial literacy is a critical barrier to gender equity. The disparity in wealth between genders limits women’s life choices and makes many women in violent or abusive relationships vulnerable.

Financial Toolbox was developed following the release of State Government statistics showing WA women have barely more than half the superannuation savings of men, 60% of WA women retire with zero superannuation and many WA women lack financial confidence and skills to invest.

The Australian Gender Equality scorecard shows 42% less appointments to management roles are women, the average woman still earns 23% less than a man for doing the same job, and graduate women are being paid on average 2.9% less than graduate men.

Homelessness in older women has grown significantly in recent years. Between 2011/12 and 14/15 the number of 55+ women accessing homelessness services increased by 30%. Some of the reasons this is happening is that many women in their 50s and 60s spent years in non-paid work and now have far lower superannuation savings, lower home ownership, lower personal wealth and lower financial confidence.

Financial Toolbox is aiming to address these issues by better educating women of all ages and social situations about personal finances, and helping to build their confidence.

Our programs

• Financial Toolbox workshops - Financial Toolbox interactive workshops are tailored for women of all ages and demographics. The workshops are dynamic and interactive evenings, facilitated by some of Perth’s leading financial and legal experts. All experts volunteer their time. Nine workshops have been held since the initiative launched, catering for up to 100 participants per event. Event participants have ranged in age from teenagers to late 60s and have travelled from outer suburban areas to central city areas. We want to hold more workshops in the near future so we can empower more women through financial knowledge.

• Women at Risk program - The Women at Risk program aims to use Financial Toolbox resources and expertise to provide financial education for women in at risk situations.  Our team of financial and legal experts from Chartered Accountants and LegalAid have worked closely with social workers, psychologist and sufferers of domestic and financial abuse to prepare a comprehensive education package for women in various stages of need. The information is being converted to training material and delivered to women at risk in collaboration with various partners organisations, who can ensure the women receive training in a holistic setting. The team has also been working with an app/website developer to establish an on-line program so that financial education material can be made available to women in need directly.

• Young people program - Financial Toolbox is partnering with Student Edge to develop a program of financial education online learning material specifically targeted at young people. Our team of financial experts from Chartered Accountants ANZ and Curtin University, has teamed up with Student Edge website content experts to tailor online content for a student audience. Two programs have been developed for young people aged 11-15 covering Budgeting for beginners and Preparing your tax returns. This content is currently being loaded onto the e-learning platform, ready for distribution into schools in the coming months. Student Edge has around 900,000 members Australia wide.

• Rural and Regional program - Our Rural and Regional team is collaborating with UWA researchers and Money School to investigate providing the financial education element for a series of workshops to be run with regional small businesses. They have also had discussions with Partners in Grain regarding potential development of financial education podcasts.

Our dedicated subcommittees are continuing to develop each of these programs to help educate and empower women across WA from all walks of life.

Financial Toolbox has been running for 2 years as a collaboration between Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand and American Chamber of Commerce, and has now become an independent association.

Business establishment and legal fees $500

Marketing and social media campaign $2000

Website development including domain name registration and server fees $2000

Public liability and Professional Indemnity Insurances $3000

Program grant preparation and submission $5000

Financial Toolbox customer database development and management $2000

Financial Toolbox business plan development and action (including establishing robust governance framework) $3000

We aim to cover some of these costs through pro bono services, some through volunteer time and the remainder through grants and gifts.

Our organisation is powered solely by passionate volunteers. While these volunteers are extremely dedicated, this is not a sustainable business model. We need to move to position where we have a core of paid employees delivering key programs, and a sustainable business model to fund these employees. 

Our challenge over the coming year is to deliver quality, outcome based financial education programs for WA women, supported by sustainable funding, a robust governance framework and business model.