Assessing the Outcomes of a Social Marketing Program: Lessons Learned from

A number of states and cities have adopted programs based on the America Saves model. Similar to health and safety campaigns to persuade people to buckle their seat belts and not drink before driving, America Saves programs combine broad public education and motivational forces to persuade individuals to select a savings and/or debt reduction goal, develop a plan to achieve the goal, and then stick with it until the goal has been achieved. This paper describes an evaluation of the Cleveland Saves program. The goal was to assess the effectiveness of the program from the perspective of the individual participant. The paper reports not only the outcomes of the evaluation but its deficiencies and ideas for improving the value of future evaluations of Saves and other social marketing programs related to financial management.