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WE'RE MINTING FINANCIAL FUTURES.
Founded in 2016, 8 Cents in a Jar is an award-winning Florida-based nonprofit building pathways to economic mobility for students from under-resourced communities.
We believe knowledge is currency, but its greatest value comes from what students are able to do with it. Through Economic Succession, we connect students and families to the education, experiences, resources, and relationships that move financial knowledge from learning to practice, ownership, wealth, and ultimately, the next generation.
Beginning at age 8, students learn to save, invest, acquire assets, and strengthen their economic position long before adulthood.
Our Mission
To enlighten youth from under-resourced communities with financial life skills and resources to prevent poverty and rise to a higher economic position.
Our Vision
Transform youth from under-resourced communities into financially independent adults, fostering wealth and resilience in their families and communities.
IT STARTED WITH EIGHT CENTS.
8 Cents in a Jar was founded in 2016 with a belief that still guides our work today: financial education must begin early enough to change a student's financial trajectory.
The name comes from founder Lashea Reaves' own financial story. As a college freshman, Lashea lost her parents and borrowed $20,000 in student loans to bury her father, who left no financial safety net. While taking responsibility for her younger sister, she found herself with just eight cents remaining in her bank account.
She put those eight cents in a jar and made herself a promise:
Never again.
What began as a response to one family's financial trauma became a commitment to help young people build something different.
Students' financial decisions are shaped by the lives they actually live: their families, neighborhoods, responsibilities, resources, opportunities, and experiences. Some need a lesson. Others need someone willing to understand what is happening beyond the lesson. So, 8 Cents went deeper.
Today, our approach combines financial education, financial social work, lived experience, and multigenerational support to help students put financial knowledge to work.
We begin at age 8 and continue through young adulthood and parenting, creating opportunities to earn, save, invest, build credit, acquire assets, strengthen economic position, and eventually pass that advantage forward.
What started with eight cents has grown into something much bigger:
A pipeline for Economic Succession.
OUR STORY
It Started with Eight Cents
Founded in 2016, 8 Cents in a Jar began with a belief that financial education must start early enough to change a student’s financial trajectory.
For founder Lashea Reaves, that belief was personal. After losing her parents as a college freshman, she faced the financial consequences of a family without a safety net, including taking out $20,000 in student loans to bury her father. While taking responsibility for her younger sister and rebuilding their lives, Lashea was left with just eight cents in her bank account.
She placed those eight cents in a jar and made herself a promise:
“Never again.”
That jar became the beginning of 8 Cents in a Jar and a commitment to help young people build financial knowledge, resources, and assets before financial hardship becomes their inheritance.
Today, beginning at age 8, we help students strengthen their economic position and build toward something greater.
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Eight cents can become savings.
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Savings can become investments.
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Investments can become assets.
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Assets can become wealth.
And wealth can move forward. Wealth Starts with Eight.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Students should enter adulthood knowing how money works.
That is why we believe in preparing students to economically inherit the cities they call home. They should have the financial capacity to own, invest, build, and lead within them. That is the difference between teaching financial literacy and building Economic Succession.
Knowledge is Currency.
Financial knowledge has value, but its greatest return comes from what students can do with it. We believe knowledge should build confidence, capability, ownership, and economic opportunity.
Community Creates Access
Economic mobility doesn't happen alone. Families, educators, volunteers, partners, and communities create the relationships and access that allow students to turn opportunity into action.
Literacy Leads to Ownership
Knowing is the beginning. We believe students should have access to literacy of all forms that lead to opportunities to save, invest, acquire assets, and build wealth long before adulthood.
Change is the Return
We measure success by more than participation. We look for evidence that students are changing financial behaviors, accumulating assets, strengthening their economic position, and creating opportunities that can extend beyond one generation.
