1. Introduction
In fiscal year (FY) 2021-2022, FCAC launched interventions that aimed to improve the financial knowledge and confidence of children and youth. The interventions leveraged an education platform and behavioural insights to provide gamified financial education modules and short quizzes (“the interventions”) to students in Canada. The interventions ran for 2 years and demonstrated positive impact in strengthening the financial knowledge and confidence of children and youth. FCAC seeks to continue to field these interventions and to potentially develop new interventions to broaden their scope. Funding was allocated for the next fiscal year (FY 2024-2025) with the potential for continued funding through FY 2025-2029 for interventions and experimentation initiatives targeting children and youth. This project will be part of these initiatives.
The objective of the requirements is to implement the existing online interventions developed by FCAC via an educational digital platform to help improve financial confidence in youth (particularly among girls/young women) and strengthen their intentions to engage in positive financial behaviours, such as saving and budgeting.
The Contractor will be responsible for performing the following tasks (the full list of requirements and deliverables is outlined in Table 1):
- Support FCAC in implementing the existing online interventions previously developed by FCAC and in making adjustments to the interventions as needed throughout the contract
- Be responsible for recruiting a minimum of 5,000 participants each school year from the target demographic group (i.e., students in grades 6-12)
- Be responsible for collecting the necessary data to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions and share the anonymized data with FCAC
2. Project background and objectives
2.1 Project background
FCAC’s mandate includes collaborating with stakeholders to contribute to and support initiatives that strengthen the financial literacy and financial well-being of Canadians.
· This project contributes to FCAC’s goal to “Leverage data and research to impact consumers' financial outcomes” through the “design and delivery of financial literacy interventions” (FCAC Business Plan).
· It also contributes to advancing Canada’s National Financial Literacy Strategy by:
o Supporting Priority 5: Use behavioural design to simplify financial decisions by helping “more Canadians use tools that use behavioural insights in the design and presentation of financial decisions to facilitate and motivate choices leading to better outcomes” (National Financial Literacy Strategy – Priority 5).
o Including materials and/or measures that align with the Consumer Building Blocks:
? Build just-in-time financial knowledge and confidence
? Manage expenses
? Manage savings
? Manage debt
? Navigating the financial marketplace
o Focusing on populations with vulnerabilities that have been identified in the National Financial Literacy Strategy (youth, and in particular young women).
• Interventions aimed at enhancing the financial confidence of youth, especially girls and young women, and helping them adopt positive financial behaviours are necessary because prior research shows that women tend to have lower financial literacy and financial confidence than men. ,
• The 2018, “Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)”, a worldwide study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that measures the performance of 15-year-olds in different areas, showed that girls were less confident than boys in dealing with money matters in all participating countries/economies including Canada. Girls were also less confident using digital financial services in 17 out of 19 participating countries/economies including Canada.
• The preliminary findings from the previous research conducted from FY 2022-2024 indicated that:
o Gender gaps exist among youth in terms of their financial confidence and self-reported financial knowledge.
o Gamified modules were effective at improving students’ financial confidence. The intervention effectively closed the gender gap in several critical areas, including credit card knowledge, knowledge about budgeting, understanding of future expenses and knowing where to find useful financial information. Additionally, the interventions also narrowed the gender gap in several other areas, such as confidence in achieving future financial goals, confidence and knowledge in money management, and feeling prepared to make future money decisions. Notably, girls exhibited substantial increases in confidence levels, indicating the potential for targeted interventions to make meaningful progress in closing the gender gap in financial confidence and financial literacy.
2.2 Project goals and objectives
The goal of the project for FY 2024-2025 is to implement interventions that were previously developed by FCAC (i.e., gamified learning modules and short quizzes) via an educational digital platform, to improve financial confidence and boost behavioural intentions (e.g., intention to budget and/or intention to save money) among youth, particularly girls/young women in grades 6-12.
FCAC has 2 interventions available under courses entitled ‘Money Management Foundations’ and ‘Managing My Money After High School’. Topics covered in these interventions include the difference between needs and wants, credit and debit cards, saving and budgeting, getting a first job, and funding for post-secondary school. These FCAC interventions have demonstrated significant improvements in financial confidence and related behavioural intentions among youth participants. FCAC is therefore seeking to sustain the interventions to ensure a continued positive impact. All findings will contribute to FCAC’s body of evidence on vulnerable populations, specifically youth and young women.
FCAC may elect to continue implementing the interventions for an additional optional 4 years (FY 2025-2029). During these optional years, FCAC may also wish to expand the interventions to include additional gamified modules and daily quizzes. Any modules added under the current two courses should be included at no extra cost. The Contractor will provide the price for additional modules on different topics not added under the existing two courses (e.g., financial fraud, investment and financial planning) and the daily quizzes as optional items.
3. Requirements and deliverables for the Contractor
3.1 General requirements
FCAC requires an online digital education platform with a large user-base of youth and/or children (6,000 or more active users). The platform must be capable of delivering and testing a gamified module intervention with short quizzes that aim to increase financial confidence and behavioural intentions in line with an agreed-upon research protocol. Online platforms were identified as the delivery channel of choice for the implementation of the interventions on financial confidence, because they:
• leverage gamification and delivery modes that are attractive for youth
• provide a consistent, efficient, and effective way to collect data
These features will enable us to test online interventions with youth within the project timelines.
3.2 Proposed schedule
The Contractor will need to undertake and complete the following activities:
• Posting learning modules to schools across Canada, including reviewing questions in collaboration with FCAC. The Contractor will need to post module(s) for a full academic year on the platform.
• Promoting the modules via email, social media, newsletter and at conference presentations.
• Promoting the modules using a competition approach to increase the level of participation.
The table below outlines the major project milestones, deliverables, and Contractor responsibilities. The delivery dates are estimates only, and will be refined with the Contractor. It is anticipated that the Contractor will begin work on this project in August 2024.
The following activities and milestones are based on the structure of a 1-year contract with an additional optional 4 years. The decision to continue the contract for the additional optional years will be at the sole discretion of FCAC. The Contractor is to repeat these same activities and milestones each year of the contract.
Table 1: Requirements, deliverables and estimated delivery dates
Activities Milestones Deliverables Estimated date
1. Kick-off meeting • Project kick-off meeting
o Review project protocol (Appendix 1)
o Finalize work plan, schedule, and budget-costing proposal • Detailed work plan August 2024 (upon approval of contract)
2. Implement 1-year licence to post Financial Literacy Module(s)
• Support FCAC in developing the module content and implement research procedures in line with agreed-upon research protocol(s)
• Support FCAC in adjusting and adding modules based on FCAC feedback
• Contribute to end of each school term meetings with FCAC and to any ad-hoc meetings as required
• Launch the module(s)
• Monitor and provide progress updates to FCAC (as applicable)
• Design and deliver module completion certificates to students who complete FCAC’s modules • Demo/pre-test of the modules and research procedures
• Post the approved modules (including the relevant research procedures) on the platform so that they are accessible to students and teachers
• Design and deliver completion certificates
August 2024
August 2024
-
August 2025
3. Promotion and outreach via email, social media, conferences, and/or any other applicable channels
a. General promotion and outreach
b. Using a competition approach for promotion
General promotion and outreach
• Include FCAC’s modules in outreach campaigns (calls to district schoolboards, e-mails, etc.)
• Include a big box banner in FCAC’s modules (i.e., an image with URL clickthrough)
• Provide a question booklet to educators for module content, and for pre-screening purposes, and possibly provide a
dedicated landing page for educators to request information
• Include FCAC’s modules in other ongoing promotion efforts (e.g., conferences, newsletters) • Two marketing planning reports summarizing planned promotion activities and including promotion materials
• Implementing approved promotion/ outreach activities
• Two high-level summary reports summarizing completed promotion activities and their outcomes (e.g., number of students who completed the modules, schools and provinces reached, etc.)
September 2024 & January 2025
September 2024 – August 2025
October 2024 &
March 2025
Using a competition approach for promotion
• Develop an approach for promoting FCAC modules using 2 competitions
• Contribute to ongoing meetings with FCAC
• Design competition and create leaderboards
• Support schools with competition rules
• Launch and promote approved competition, likely using an information landing page
• Monitor outcomes and delivery, and present a summary report for each competition
• Two competition planning reports
• Implementing approved competitions
• Two summary reports with competition results
September 2024 & February 2025
September 2024 & February 2025
October 2024 &
March 2025
4. Complete the data-collection (according to sample size requirements) and share the data with FCAC • Deliver the anonymized raw data to FCAC in line with the data-collection template that will be provided by FCAC (Appendix 2). The data must have a minimum sample size of 5,000 participants.
• Contribute to ongoing meetings with FCAC
• Assist FCAC with analysis and interpretation of results
• Deliver drafts (up to 3) of the final report on the findings from the interventions
• Deliver a final report on the findings from the interventions
• Present findings to relevant stakeholders (if applicable) • Raw data for the modules: Anonymized individual level data to be shared with FCAC according to FCAC’s data-collection template
• Up to 3 draft final reports
• Final report (including the outreach activities throughout the school year) August 2025
June & July 2025
August 2025
3.3 Optional requirements and deliverables:
For any additional modules that are added to the platform but not under ‘Money Management Foundations’ and ‘Managing My Money After High School’ courses, or for any new modules created to replace existing content under the existing two courses, the following deliverables would also apply:
5. Implement additional modules to be included under a different course (i.e., not added under the existing Money Management and Budgeting courses) • Launch the module(s)
• Design and deliver daily quizzes in line with module content
• Monitor and provide progress updates to FCAC (as applicable)
• Design and deliver module completion certificates to students who complete FCAC’s modules
• Demo/pre-test of the modules and research procedures
• Post the approved modules (including the relevant research procedures) on the platform so that it is accessible to students and teachers
• Design and implement delivery of completion certificates
Dates to be determined if optional deliverables are requested by FCAC
6. Promotion and outreach of optional additional modules General promotion and outreach
• Include FCAC’s additional modules in outreach campaigns (calls to district schoolboards, e-mails, etc.)
• Include a big box banner in FCAC’s modules (i.e., an image with URL clickthrough)
• Provide a question booklet to educators for module content, for pre-screening purposes, and possibly a
dedicated landing page for educators to request information.
• Include FCAC’s additional modules in other ongoing promotion efforts (e.g., conferences, newsletters) • Two marketing planning reports summarizing planned promotion activities and including promotion materials
• Implementing approved promotion/ outreach activities
• Two high-level summary reports summarizing completed promotion activities and their outcomes (e.g., number of students who completed the modules, schools and provinces reached, etc.)
Dates to be determined if optional deliverables are requested by FCAC.
Using a competition approach for promotion
• Develop an approach for promoting additional FCAC modules using 2 competitions
• Contribute to ongoing meetings with FCAC
• Design competition and create leaderboards
• Support schools with competition rules
• Launch and promote approved competition, likely using an information landing page
• Monitor outcomes and delivery, presenting a summary report for each competition
• Two competition planning reports
• Implementing approved competitions
• Two summary reports with competition results
Dates to be determined if optional deliverables are requested by FCAC
7. Complete the data-collection (according to sample size requirements) and share the data with FCAC • Deliver the anonymized raw data to FCAC in line with the data-collection template that will be provided by FCAC. The data must have a minimum sample size of 5,000 participants.
• Contribute to ongoing meetings with FCAC
• Assist FCAC with analysis and interpretation of results
• Deliver drafts (up to 3) of the final report on the findings from the interventions
• Deliver a final report on the findings from the interventions
• Present findings to relevant stakeholders (if applicable) • Raw data for the modules: Anonymized individual level data to be shared with FCAC according to FCAC’s data-collection template
• Up to 3 draft final reports
• Final report (including the outreach activities throughout the school year) Dates to be determined if optional deliverables are requested by FCAC
4. Optional requirements
At its sole discretion, FCAC may elect to continue using the Contractor’s services for up to an additional 4 years after the initial 1-year contract has ended.
During these optional years, FCAC may wish to add additional gamified modules and short quizzes with new content that will not be included under the “Money Management and Budgeting” courses. The Contractor must include the cost for each additional module and each additional daily quiz added to the platform in their financial proposal.
Additionally, during these optional years, FCAC may wish to replace the current gamified modules and short quizzes under the “Money Management and Budgeting” courses with new modules. The Contractor must also include the cost for the creation and development of each new module and each new daily quiz created to replace existing modules and quizzes under the “Money Management and Budgeting” courses.
5. Requirements & deliverable specifications
5.1 Deliverable specifications
The work will be considered final once approved by FCAC management.
5.1.1. Detailed work plan
The Contractor will develop and provide a detailed work plan for the project and will liaise with FCAC’s Project Authority and other FCAC staff as necessary. The work plan may be adjusted throughout the contract if required. The work plan must include:
• Detailed timeline of the activities to be conducted and submitted for approval
• Detailed invoicing schedule
5.1.2. Planning reports (marketing planning reports and competition planning reports)
The planning reports listed in Table 1 Activity 3 will provide the FCAC team with an overview of the planned activities for a particular aspect of the project (i.e., competition or marketing activities), including any materials (e.g., marketing or web content) that need to be approved by FCAC before their implementation. The reports will be provided in Microsoft PowerPoint format and will be approximately 5-10 slides in length, and can include additional appendices when appropriate (e.g., additional tables, charts). The marketing planning reports must include actual marketing materials that need to be approved by FCAC before implementation. The competition planning reports must include any relevant web content (screenshots or mock-ups) that need to be approved by FCAC before implementation.
5.1.3. Summary reports
The summary reports listed in Table 1 Activity 3 will provide the FCAC team with an overview of a particular completed aspect of the project (e.g., competition). The summary reports will be provided in Microsoft PowerPoint format and will be approximately 5-10 slides in length, and can include additional appendices when appropriate (e.g., additional figures, tables, technical details). The results of detailed outreach and activities will be included in the final report at the end of each school year.
The following components must be included within these summary reports:
• A summary of the project components that were completed
• An account of any challenges encountered, and any recommended or applied solutions
• An outline of the results and outcomes achieved through the relevant project component, including number of students who completed the modules, gender breakdown, schools and provinces covered, etc.
5.1.4. Demo/pre-test of the intervention and research procedures
The demo/pre-test of each module, set of questions, and/or research procedures will ensure that the implementation is in line with the research protocol prior to launch.
The optimal format of presenting the demo/pre-test (e.g., screenshots or live demo) will be determined in discussion with the Contractor.
5.1.5 Raw data
FCAC requires the raw data from the interventions to conduct rigorous statistical analyses, including but not limited to evaluating the effectiveness of the modules on financial confidence and related behaviours.
All raw data FCAC receives must be anonymized by the Contractor and presented at the individual level. The data must be provided to FCAC in Microsoft Excel and must not include any identifying, sensitive, and/or protected information (such as name or email). The data must include user ID, user type, gender, grade, Indigenous status and province.
A data-collection template (see Appendix 2) in Microsoft Excel will be developed by FCAC and agreed upon with the Contractor in advance of launching the module/questions, to ensure that all data requirements are met (i.e., anonymized, includes all required variables, and meets minimum sample size).
5.1.6. Final report requirements
This project will ultimately result in the preparation and delivery of a report of approximately 10-15 pages (in Word or pdf format) detailing the scope of the modules completed and the results and outcomes achieved through the project. The Contractor can include additional appendices when appropriate (e.g., additional figures, tables, technical details).
The final report must include the following components:
• A narrative executive summary
• A plain-language, high-level statement of purpose for the project and objectives
• Description of the scope of the completed modules
• The characteristics of the samples reached through the modules
• A summary of results and outcomes achieved through the project, including tables and graphs where appropriate (e.g., number of students who completed the modules by gender, grade, province, etc.)
• Conclusions and lessons learned from the project
Multiple soft copies of the final report may be required depending on the extent of revisions needed. Up to 3 versions will be considered by the contractor and included in their financial proposal. The deliverable will be considered final once it has been approved by FCAC Management.
The project members must also make themselves available for any questions following the delivery of the report.
5.1.7 Ownership
• Unless otherwise specified in the Contract, the Work or any part of the Work belongs to Canada after delivery and acceptance by or on behalf of Canada.
• If any payment is made to the Contractor for or on account of any Work, by way of progress payments or milestone payments, that work paid for by Canada belongs to Canada upon such payment being made. This transfer of ownership does not constitute acceptance by Canada of the Work or any part of the Work and does not relieve the Contractor of its obligation to perform the Work in accordance with the Contract.
• Despite any transfer of ownership, the Contractor is responsible for any loss or damage to the Work or any part of the Work until it is delivered in full to Canada in accordance with the Contract. Even after delivery, the Contractor remains responsible for any loss or damage to any part of the Work caused by the Contractor or any subcontractor.
• Upon transfer of ownership to the Work or any part of the Work to Canada, the Contractor must, if requested by Canada, establish to Canada's satisfaction that the title is free and clear of all claims, liens, attachments, charges or encumbrances. The Contractor must execute any conveyances and other instruments necessary to perfect the title that Canada may require.
5.2 Contractor obligations
The Contractor must:
• Use its own equipment and software to perform work under the contract
• Attend meetings (via conference call) with the Project Authority to discuss purpose and objectives, design issues, intervention schedule and draft report, etc.
• Work in close and frequent collaboration with FCAC’s project manager and any other Agency representatives, as required
• Provide written and verbal progress/recommendation reports and written summary reports (see specifications below)
• Present the details of the project and/or key findings, if requested by FCAC, to FCAC staff and/or relevant stakeholders in person, such as at internal meetings or at local or national conferences
• Not issue any public communications about this project or its results without prior authorization and approval by FCAC
• Notify FCAC of any existing/identified and potential issues/complications in a timely manner (no longer than 48 business hours) and provide suggestions on possible solutions/resolutions
• Be technologically equipped to participate in MS Teams meetings with FCAC at no additional charge to FCAC (FCAC uses MS teams for all virtual meetings)
• Make the materials needed for the FCAC modules (e.g., module content, associated questions to evaluate the module) available to users in both official languages
5.3 Financial Consumer Agency of Canada obligations
FCAC will:
• Provide an initial briefing to the Contractor, and provide guidance as required throughout the project
• Provide information related to the intervention or government requirements as necessary
• Provide timely feedback and input throughout all stages, to ensure that tight timelines are met
• Review and approve a workplan, including timelines and a payment schedule
• Review any progress or consultancy reports and any other documentation provided by the Contractor, and request changes/revisions, as required, before final approval
• Provide the materials needed for the FCAC modules (e.g., module content, associated questions to evaluate the module) to the Contractor in both official languages
6. Optional years
At its sole discretion, FCAC will decide whether to exercise the optional years in the contract (FY 2025-2029). FCAC will provide the Contractor with written notice of its decision to continue with the Contractor’s services no later than 60 days before the end-date of each annual contract.
7. Invoice amounts
The Contractor will be paid for the actual work completed based on firm, all-inclusive, per-deliverable rates, as outlined in the Basis of Payment, after all work under the given deliverable has been submitted to and approved by FCAC and after the Contractor invoice is submitted to the Project Authority for review and approval.
8. Location of work, work site and delivery point
The Contractor will complete the work from its offices, using its own equipment and software. The initial briefing will be conducted by conference call or via MS Teams meeting (at FCAC’s sole discretion). The Contractor will submit all documentation to FCAC’s project manager electronically, by email in formats approved/requested by FCAC. Documentation must not include any identifying or sensitive information.
9. Language of work
English and French will be the languages used to fulfill the work under the terms of the contract. All content posted to the ChatterHigh platform must be posted in both English and French. Reports and other deliverables submitted to FCAC can be submitted in English only.
10. Insurance requirements
The Contractor is responsible for deciding if additional insurance coverage is necessary to fulfil its obligations under the contract, and to ensure compliance with any applicable law. Any additional insurance coverage will be at the Contractor’s expense and for its own benefit and protection.
11. Relevant policies and legislation requirements
The Contractor must provide services and produce materials in compliance with the policies of the Government of Canada, including but not limited to the following:
a. Policy on Communications and Federal Identity (https://www.tbs-sct.canada.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=30683) to ensure that communications across the Government of Canada are well coordinated, effectively managed and responsive to the diverse information needs of the public.
b. Privacy Act (http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-21/) to ensure proper privacy practices are incorporated and respected in the handling of personal information .
c. Operational Security Standard: Management of Information Technology Security (MITS) (https://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=12328).
