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Former Nickelodeon Executive Creates Financial Literacy Platform Aimed At Closing Wealth Gap For Black Families

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April 30, 2021

This is revolutionary!

A former Nickelodeon executive has created a financial literacy platform to close the wealth gap for Black families, AfroTech reports.

Tanya Van Court is the founder of Goalsetter, a platform she created inspired by her daughter, that has set out to close the wealth gap for Black and brown families while educating Black youth about financial literacy.

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Van Court’s daughter had asked her for money at the time to start an investment account in celebration of her ninth grade. That’s when she realized she could combine her skills with children and her passion for educating youth around finances.

“I didn’t want to be an entrepreneur. It’s not like I was one of these people who was like, I have to go and sow my entrepreneurial roots. It was really like I had this mission and, I felt like I was uniquely equipped for it because here I had an eight-year-old who was excited about learning about money and investing. I knew that I was uniquely qualified to not only engage kids from a media, entertainment, and multimedia perspective, but I [also] have very deep roots in education. So I thought that well, if not me, then who? I really believe that I was prepared for this moment to help our kids and lead them down the path of financial freedom,” Van Court said.

The platform focuses on “education-based banking for the whole family,” providing a debit card and savings app that educates children and teens about finance using games, memes, and pop culture. Users can send money electronically to their debit cards while also learning money lessons like creating a savings plan and defining an interest rate while also including features like round-up savings on purchases.

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Goalsetter has already raised $3.9 million in seed capital and caught the attention of influential investors like Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Baron Davis, and Sterling K. Brown. They have also been featured in several publications and been named “app of the day” twice by Apple. Recently, Nike donated $1 million to the platform due to their commitment to addressing racial inequality.

“[Nike was] really committed to finding organizations that they thought had a huge and lasting impact on the next generation and closing the wealth gap. So for Nike, it was absolutely about those 10,000 kids that they sponsored to get Goalsetter savings accounts, but it was about more than that…There are so many times when we, as Black people on technology platforms, say, ‘why are our voices being suppressed on these platforms?’ One of the things that I love about [being featured on Apple] is it’s making sure that our voices are uplifted and that it has been such a tremendous boost to the work that we’re doing,” Van Court said.

The rising tech-entrepreneur feels like the reason Goalsetter is such a hit is not just because of its offerings but also because a Black woman leads it.

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“I think what makes it so disruptive is that never before in the history of America has there been a Black woman-owned tech and financial education company that is targeted at our children. Never before have our children had the opportunity to learn financial education from a Black woman…You can’t grow wealth until you grow knowledge. So [we’re] making sure that our kids have the knowledge that they need to both learn to spend and invest money responsibly,” she said.

To learn more about Goalsetter, click here.

Congratulations, Tanya!

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Photo Courtesy of Mom.com

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