CDSF was established in 2004 to help stakeholders understand and navigate the complex and often invisible channels of our financial world. We seek to increase financial literacy.

Financial literacy is an understanding of money and the finance systems that move money. Efforts to build a sustainable world are most effective when we understand the ways that money moves among communities, businesses, and governments.

At a grass-roots level, people unable to manage their personal money face difficulties in managing their lives and creating healthy communities. Leaders of social change also face challenges in understanding money, especially when facing the mechanisms of global finance. Without an understanding of finance, we all face difficulties in achieving goals and implementing solutions.

    CDSF provides a deeper understanding of social finance.     

— Christy Chin,
Associate Director of Alumni Activities, The Philanthropy Workshop West