Commonwealth Bank Foundation

In 2003, the Commonwealth Bank (the Group) established the Commonwealth Bank Foundation, building on the Bank’s community activities and contributions towards education and financial literacy over the previous 70 years.

The Commonwealth Bank Foundation encourages developments in education, in particular the financial literacy skills of young Australians and Indigenous Australians. It aims to create awareness, skill and understanding of the benefits of a more financially literate community.

The Foundation was set up with a $70million contribution from the Group but it is very careful not to support activities which could be viewed as directly or indirectly marketing the Commonwealth Bank’s products or services.

At this time, the Foundation is running and developing its own education programs and is not seeking applications for funding from other organisations.

The Commonwealth Bank were proud recipients of the 2009 Australian Business Award for Community Contribution.

This award recognises our commitment to developing financial literacy skills in the Australian community and most notably the work done by the Commonwealth Bank Foundation through its StartSmart program and other financial literacy initiatives.

The Foundation’s programs

StartSmart – The Commonwealth Bank Foundation is proud to offer our award winning StartSmart programs free of charge to primary and secondary school students across Australia. Since the program originally started in 2007, we have reached over 120,000 students across Australia.

The Foundation has worked in close consultation with education experts to create a program that is high energy, interactive, engaging and most importantly educational to ensure that young people walk away with essential skills in money management.

Delivered on school premises by our team of expert facilitators, StartSmart has an offering for students at all stages of their education. These sessions do not promote the products of the Commonwealth Bank.

National Financial Literacy Curriculum Resource – free resource to help teachers improve their Year 7 to 10 students’ knowledge, skills and understanding of financial literacy.

Financial Literacy Research – commissioned by the Commonwealth Bank Foundation. The results highlight the effects of a more financially literate community.

DollarsandSense – online resource containing unbiased objective information for students on a range of topics including jobs, tax, saving and budgeting as well as a number of interactive tools that can be used in the classroom.

Australian Financial Literacy Assessment(AFLA) – previously offered to Year 9 and 10 students to identify financial literacy strengths and weaknesses.

Financial Literacy Grants – offered from 2004 to 2008, grants of $3,500 each were awarded to 100 secondary schools each year to develop tailored money management programs, investing a total of $1.75million in the Australian community.