About Us

San Francisco Financial Counseling began when a family experiencing homelessness won a below-market-rate unit in the City’s housing lottery, only to have their housing application denied because they had subprime credit. Officially launched in 2015 and known as Smart Money Coaching, the program has helped thousands of people increase their own financial capability, providing the skills necessary to achieve positive financial outcomes and improve their financial well-being.

Now the program is part of the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund’s Financial Empowerment Center national model. The model emphasizes city government as a trusted source of financial counseling and a coordinator of partnerships that complement other social services through collaborations.

San Francisco Financial Counseling’s Financial Empowerment Center offers free, confidential, and personalized financial counseling tailored to each client's goals. Counseling is available virtually or in person at various community locations. Services are available in multiple languages, and clients can schedule as many meetings as needed. Anyone who lives, works, or receives services in San Francisco can sign up for an appointment today!

Read our Reports

Read five ways to create meaningful and life-changing financial outcomes for the community with this report from Smart Money Coaching.

Blacklisted: How ChexSystems Contributes to Systemic Financial Exclusion

In this report we tackle the unfair, unequal and opaque consumer banking systems that have blacklisted so many low-income consumers, immigrants, and in particular Black consumers from the financial mainstream.

Systemic Barriers to Banking the Unbanked

Since founding the Bank On movement in 2006, the San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) has found persistent disparities in banking access due to structural flaws in the financial system. This brief outlines four major systemic barriers to banking -- distrust of mainstream financial institutions, ChexSystems records, debt in collections and asset limits -- as well as opportunities to remove these barriers and increase banking access. Read more here.

Pre-Existing Conditions: Assessing the Financial Services Response to Racism, Inequality, and COVID-19

A joint report done with the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC). As COVID-19 continues to ravage the health and economic security of millions of Americans, it is critically important to evaluate the relief efforts offered by financial institutions. And at this time, when our nation is confronted with the reality of its historic and systemic racism, it is crucial that we evaluate such relief efforts with a racial equity lens.