One of our goals is to teach people Biblical Financial Principles so they become better stewards of God's money.  Savings clubs are one avenue to achieve this goal.  A savings club is a semi-formal group of individuals who come together with a common purpose of saving money. Living Way's aim in launching savings clubs is to promote fiscal discipline and minimize vulnerability to financial crisis.

The impact of savings clubs

Members of savings clubs learn the importance of setting money aside for future use. This money can be saved for any or all three of the areas in which the poor require usefully large sums of money: a) lifecycle needs – including weddings, funerals, school fees; b) emergency needs – including medicine, fires, sudden lack of household income and c) investment – including start up capital for businesses and housing.

Beyond the access to usefully large sums of money, members learn the discipline of saving and are exposed to training that equips them to budget their money. Another key element of savings clubs is community - there is a shared sense of purpose between the members.  In weekly meetings, there are opportunities to share one's problems and gather support in various forms from others who may be in similar circumstances.

The formation of the clubs

In Living Way's model, savings clubs are formed by recruiting potential leaders from churches and students on our campus. Through training and mentoring, these leaders are equipped to launch clubs in their community. Potential leaders have the opportunity to visit other savings groups in different areas to observe firsthand how they operate. TDuring these visits, they witness people similar to themselves who are saving and benefitting from the club. All in all 8-10 people form a group.

The rules of savings clubs

One of the strongest features of the savings club concept is that the members make the decisions. It is a bottom-up approach. The framework of the groups is as follows:

• Daily collections by a designated member of the group.
• Transparency: Money must be counted in front of everyone and all amounts accounted for;
• Multiple signatories on bank accounts to reduce the risk of stealing.
• Rituals: In counting the money and checking the books, a ritual is developed that is repeated at every meeting. This brings consistency and standards to the club.
• This allows members to count the money in the box and reconcile their books to the bank statements on a regular basis.

Everything else is up to the group.

Other purposes of savings clubs

The structure of weekly meetings allow for a focused element of evangelism and discipleship while providing financial management training through Christian-based materials. This assists those individuals to grow and develop, share the gospel in a language that is suited for the group, pray for those who are in need etc. In this way, the spiritual formation of the group happens organically.  Savings clubs are also perfect for recruiting people for additional Living Way programmes.  For example,in observing their savings history, one would be able to get an idea of how reliable they might be should Living Way offer them capital services, like an entrepreneurial start up loan.