How Organizational- and Community-Level Dimensions Inform Children’s Savings Account Implementation Process: Case of Collegebound Saint Paul

Background and Purpose. Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs) are policy interventions aimed at building children’s assets, particularly for low-income families, to support their future educational opportunities. Prior CSA research has articulated the importance of core design principles (e.g., universal eligibility, account structure, bonuses) and demonstrated positive program participant outcomes in asset accumulation, educational progression, and psychological benefits. However, little attention has been paid to how CSA programs are designed, implemented, and sustained in practice. The research gap not only leaves practitioners with little guidance on how to actualize CSA principles in practice but also limits the scope of scholarship, despite CSA’s potential contribution to community-level change.

We draw on program implementation literature to highlight eight organizational- and community-level dimensions relevant to CSA program implementation (e.g., program policies and procedures, structural and material resources, stakeholder collaboration, program interactions with the external environment, and community capacity building). Using a case study of CollegeBound, a City of Saint Paul-initiated CSA program in Minnesota, we ask: How do these organizational- and community-level dimensions inform the translation of core CSA principles into practice?

Methods. This study draws on qualitative data from 16 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders (e.g., City of Saint Paul staff, community partners) and two focus groups with parents (n=5) engaged in CollegeBound design and implementation processes. Interview and focus group protocols were informed by asset-building and program implementation literature. Interviews and focus groups were conducted in May-June 2025 and transcribed verbatim. Using a combined inductive and deductive approach, two coders conducted open and process coding, followed by axial and theoretical coding, to refine a codebook. The finalized codebook was applied to all transcripts, with discrepancies resolved through discussion.

Results. Our analysis shows that, while CollegeBound aspired to adopt the core design principles, their implementation was not straightforward and involved ongoing negotiation and compromise. For instance, CollegeBound planned to automatically enroll every child born on or after January 2020 using public birth records. However, Minnesota’s law classifies birth records for children born to unmarried parents as confidential, limiting automatic enrollment for approximately 40% of eligible children (program interaction with external environment). Identifying, contacting, and enrolling children who could not be automatically enrolled required significant investment in city staffing and outreach materials (structural and material resources), coordination with numerous community partner organizations (stakeholder collaboration), and the active involvement of parents as champions who supported local outreach and enrollment efforts, particularly within immigrant and refugee communities (community capacity building).

Conclusions and Implications. Our study examines how core CSA principles are implemented in practice, and provides salient practical and research implications for realizing CSA’s full potential to increase financial security, financial capability, and educational outcomes for low-income families. For practitioners, attending to organizational and community-level dimensions would provide clearer conceptual guidance for implementing CSA principles within their local programs. For CSA scholars, incorporating organizational and community perspectives can offer explanations for variations in program design and outcomes across contexts.