- Program Education
- Program Area Expanding Economic Opportunity
- Grant Amount $350,000
- Grant Period April 1, 2010–December 31, 2011
- Location New York, NY, United States
- Geographic Focus United States
About this grant
Federal and state governments currently support a variety of programs and policies to encourage saving. However, most of these programs are focused on long-term goals, with consequent restrictions on use and penalties for withdrawals other than those tied to a specific goal. Currently, no systematic savings program exists to intentionally encourage savings that are unrestricted and not oriented toward specific long-term goals, such as emergency or contingency savings. MDRC is requesting support to test the AutoSave concept, a savings strategy that uses the workplace as the portal to initiate and sustain the accumulation of unrestricted savings for emergencies and/or short-term uses. Mott funds will enable the grantee to continue field testing this new savings intervention in at least five diverse workplace settings. The primary deliverable from this pilot phase will be a memorandum summarizing the early operational lessons, including employer and employee take-up and attitudes toward savings and the AutoSave concept. Established in 1974, MDRC is a nonprofit research institute headquartered in New York City.