Junior Achievement of New York

New York continues to be one of the nation’s most expensive states to live with New York City facing acute affordability challenges for parents and their children. With state and city-wide economic challenges in Fiscal Years 2023-2026, securing funding for organizations outside of the crisis and emergency service categories would prove to be difficult. Junior Achievement of New York (JANY) provides financial literacy, personal finance, and economic development programs in partnership with schools and wanted to ensure their impact was felt in halls of Albany and City Hall to make certain services could continually be provided.

Hollis Public Affairs (HPA) designed a comprehensive state and city strategy to not only maintain critical funding but identify new opportunities to expand it by making the case that personal finance and financial literacy education are core services that are inextricably linked to the other key areas such as housing affordability, food insecurity, and maintaining stable incomes. Stakeholder mapping, message testing, and amplifying alumni testimonials were key in unlocking new audiences and deepening existing partnerships.

Utilizing a data-driven approach, HPA analyzed the impact data of JANY’s programs and tailored an advocacy strategy of identifying new champions in the state legislature and city council who were previously less aware of the organization’s impact in their communities. Simultaneously, a messaging and communications overhaul linking JANY’s services as a key component of the emerging affordability agenda proved fruitful as high-level engagements with key elected leaders yielded a year-over-year increase in funding, including an important first-time budget line item commitment — secured in FY26 — and maintained to date in the budget by the New York State Legislature.