New DVD toolkit from NCUF helps CUs bring financial education into the classroom.
Biz Kid$ Marketing Toolkit
The links below will allow you to customize materials to promote Biz Kid$ in your area. Download the following electronic files and add the channel(s) and air time(s) for Biz Kid$ in your market(s). If your organization is an underwriting sponsor, you can also add a line proclaiming that you are a proud national and/or local sponsor of Biz Kid$!
Biz Kid$: Credit Union-Sponsored TV Series Airing Nationally on PBS...and More!
Helping Kids Make and Manage Money
Biz Kid$: A financial literacy initiative launched nationally in January 2008 that teaches kids about money and business. The initiative includes a TV series, free classroom curriculum, outreach activities, a website and a monthly on-line newsletter targeting children 9 – 16 years old. It is the first national public television series promoting financial education for elementary and middle school students.
National Credit Union Foundation: Responsible for fundraising, outreach and administrative responsibilities for Biz Kid$. The Foundation's involvement solidifies the commitment that America’s credit unions have to educating our youth in the skills necessary to be financially literate. (Read about the transition of Biz Kid$ in June, 2011 from the Washington CU Foundation to NCUF here.)
Since its inception, Biz Kid$ has received significant entertainment industry recognition:
2009 Daytime Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
2009 Environmental Media Award for Outstanding Children’s Television Series
2009 NASDAQ closing bell ceremony
2010 Nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards
2010 Silver Telly for Outstanding Children’s Financial Literacy Programming
2010 Herb Wegner Award for Outstanding Program
2010, 2011 rang the NYSE closing bell ceremony
2011 Nominated for three Daytime Emmy Awards
Since the series launch, it has aired in all of the top 75 markets, reaching more than 271 million people. According to American Public Television, Biz Kid$ has the highest recorded carriage of any children’s programming ever carried on public television, with a viewing audience of more than 1.2 million per episode. At its peak, the show aired on over 338 public television stations, reaching 98% of the country.
What is Biz Kid$? Watch the video promo:
Credit Unions Recognized on the Air
Every Biz Kid$ episode begins and ends with a narrator reminding viewers that:
“Production funding for Biz Kid$ is provided by America’s Credit Unions, where people are worth more than money.”
Companion materials and other resources for teachers and parents are available at no cost on the Biz Kid$ website, www.bizkids.com. The site also features clips from the series and invites kids to appear on the show.
Website visitors can also sign up for the Biz Kid$ monthly newsletter, The Vault. The e-mailed newsletter offers ideas on how kids can start their own businesses, earn money, and make their money grow.
Biz Kid$is a financial literacy initiative launched nationally in January 2008 that teaches kids about money and business. The initiative includes a TV series, free classroom curriculum, outreach activities, a website and a monthly on-line newsletter targeting children 9 – 16 years old. It is the first national public television series promoting financial education for elementary and middle school students.
A coalition of over 200 credit unions and affiliates from across the country have helped exclusively fund Biz Kid$ over the past four seasons. This collective body has contributed $10.4 million towards the show’s production, website, curriculum development, and outreach.
The fourth season began airing in April 2011 and returned with an extensive national carriage already in place, delivering great ratings and building an audience for its classroom materials. All 52 episodes produced thus far include an underwriting credit for America’s Credit Unions at the beginning and conclusion of the show, as does all the downloadable collateral materials, helping draw the brand link between credit unions and the national underwriting sponsorship of Biz Kid$.
The long-term goal is to produce a total of 65 episodes (five full seasons), which is necessary to reach syndication; accompanied by implementing outreach activities connecting the credit union community to schools nationwide. This will help increase awareness and publicity of financial literacy concepts to kids nationwide, along with the branding of America’s credit unions.
In 2010, there was active advocacy to ensure that the curriculum and show was approved by State Boards of Education. It is now an approved teaching resource for public schools in Texas, California, Wisconsin, Idaho, Virginia, Florida and Iowa. This means that Biz Kid$ curriculum is an approved statewide educational resource in the areas of financial literacy, personal economics and entrepreneurship education for grades 6-12. Work is underway for Board of Education approval in North Carolina, New York, and Washington with a goal of adding five additional states by year-end 2011. Over 1.5 million students and teachers have been exposed to the curriculum, which has been implemented in classrooms and after school programs nationwide.
In addition to credit union support, the producers of Biz Kid$ have engaged in other multifaceted outreach efforts, including news and print media, conferences, and public relations opportunities. Some examples of current initiatives include:
A partnership with Ernst & Young to take financial literacy and entrepreneurship content into the classrooms of schools where E & Y has offices across the country.
A venture with WETA (Washington DC PBS) to do a series of financial literacy summer camps for YMCA’s in the greater Washington metro area.
A partnership with Kip Academy charter schools to incorporate the series into the 20 states where they have a total of 99 elementary, middle and high schools.
These initiatives, and others like them, provide opportunities for credit unions across the country to partner with organizations in bringing Biz Kid$ into the classroom. There also continues to be an aggressive campaign to increase the show’s carriage and airtime positioning on public television stations. With a multitude of opportunities, Biz Kid$ is poised for explosive growth.
2-page pdf overview. 
