How Two Decades of CSA Lessons Can Ensure 530A Accounts Expand Equity and Opportunity

 

FROM GREG MANGUM, VICE PRESIDENT, ECONOMIC MOBILITY, UNITED WAY OF METROPOLITAN DALLAS
JUNE 2026

AFN Short Take is a blog series highlighting insights and perspectives from recent AFN programming events.

Early wealth building has reached a remarkable inflection point. With the rollout of 530A accounts—widely known as Trump Accounts—the federal government has created its first national platform to seed long-term savings for every child born in the United States. Headline philanthropic commitments from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Dalio Philanthropies, and others have layered onto that platform, and account activation begins in July 2026. The window to shape how families experience this new tool in the years to come begins now.

Yet none of this is starting from zero. Early childhood wealth-building accounts have been developed and tested over many years, and now take three forms: Children’s Savings Accounts (CSA), Baby Bonds, and now 530A accounts. For more than two decades, Children’s Savings Account programs have done the patient, place-based work of testing what it takes to help children—especially those from low- and moderate-income families—arrive at adulthood with assets, aspiration, and a sense of possibility. How well 530A accounts serve the families philanthropy cares about will depend in large part on whether the field advocates and invests in what CSA practitioners have tested, refined, and proven.

On April 23, AFN’s webinar of CSA experts put those lessons on the table. Moderated by Becca Loya, Research Director at the San Francisco Treasurer’s Office, the conversation featured three CSA leaders whose programs together touch more than half a million children: Colleen Quint of the Alfond Scholarship Foundation in Maine, Debra-Ellen Glickstein of NYC Kids Rise, and Rubi Hernandez of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas Dollars for College.

A Field Built on Evidence, Not Hype

Decades before 530A accounts arrived, CSA practitioners and researchers were designing programs and proving that early, inclusive saving changes outcomes for children across every income bracket. The field’s evidence base began with SEED OK, a landmark randomized controlled trial out of the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis. Later CSA research established that even modest amounts have an aspirational effect on children and families and can influence outcomes across the life course: social-emotional development, maternal mental health, educational expectations, and academic performance. Many of these benefits are strongest for children from low-income families and those without disposable income for long-term savings.

San Francisco’s Kindergarten to College (K2C) program—the nation’s first citywide opt-out CSA automatically enrolling students at kindergarten—became the first to demonstrate measurable impact on college enrollment. K2C students are six percentage points more likely to enroll in college than peers, with the effect driven almost entirely by gains among underrepresented students of color, who saw a twelve-percentage-point increase. That single finding closes nearly a third of the college enrollment gap.

Over the years, more than 120 CSA programs have tested different designs, messaging strategies, and growth approaches—overwhelmingly settling on 529 accounts held in trust as the primary vehicle.

This is the foundation 530A accounts are built on. The statute created a national savings platform but left many design choices to rulemaking. The challenge now is to translate CSA evidence into those choices, ensuring the new federal platform narrows the wealth gap rather than quietly widens it.

Lesson 1: The Power of “Opt-Out” (Automatic Enrollment)

If there is one design feature CSA practitioners point to most often to advance inclusion and impact, it is automatic enrollment. Alfond began its CSA as an opt-in program in 2008, investing $500 at birth for every Maine child whose family enrolled by the first birthday. Even at its peak, opt-in reached only 35 to 40 percent of families.

In 2013, Alfond became the first statewide universal, at-birth, automatic CSA program in the country. Today, every Maine baby—roughly 180,000 children—has an Alfond Grant, and the $500 seeded eighteen years ago for today’s high school seniors has grown to roughly $2,300 through market gains alone.

NYC Kids Rise has scaled the opt-out model citywide, with roughly 380,000 children enrolled and more than $80 million invested in scholarship accounts.

“If you build it, they will not come. I hope I’m wrong, but it seems like I’m right. That’s why this work has to be both standardized and micro-local—and why we built a public-private community partnership instead of a top-down program.Debra-Ellen Glickstein, NYC Kids Rise

By contrast, 530A accounts currently require a parent or guardian to actively open the account through IRS Form 4547 or trumpaccounts.gov. Without sustained outreach, that single step risks becoming the same filter that left more than half of Maine families behind in the early Alfond years.

Philanthropy committed to equity and opportunity for our children has a clear role: funding the trusted intermediaries—schools, child care providers, tax preparers, churches, and community nonprofits—that can turn an opt-in form into a moment of activation. Funders should also advocate directly, or fund advocacy, to convert 530A accounts to opt-out enrollment. At the same time, these accounts are only one tool in a broader, complementary ecosystem. Philanthropy should continue investing in CSAs, baby bonds, and related early wealth-building tools, which remain essential to long-term financial security.

Lesson 2: Stack the Deposits, Layer the Capital

“We chose $500 because it was a meaningful amount that would grab the attention of families. But the signal to families that someone else values your child, that their future matters—that resonates so deeply with the families we want to serve.Colleen Quint, Alfond Scholarship Foundation

One of NYC Kids Rise’s most striking innovations is the idea of engaging the community and its institutions and businesses to build a child’s “capital stack” into a more meaningful amount. Beyond the initial $100 scholarship (CSA) seed, community businesses, philanthropy, public school alumni, faith institutions, and tenant associations among others layered additional dollars into specific groups of children’s accounts. For example, an eighth grader in an Astoria public housing development has already accumulated more than $2,200—drawn from the seed, family savings, market growth, and five community scholarships, including funds raised by a local gospel concert and a tenant association of mostly elder leaders.

The Dell Foundation’s $6.25 billion commitment to seed $250 into the accounts of up to 25 million children in zip codes with median incomes of $150,000 or less, and Dalio Philanthropies’ complementary effort in Connecticut, are early demonstrations of how this stacking model can scale within the 530A framework. Realizing this investment will require the accounts to be opened by the parents – yet another reason for outreach. Because federal rules permit deposits to defined geographies but not to individual families, geographic targeting for 5,000 children becomes one of the most powerful equity levers available to funders, whether they give directly or through nonprofit partners.

For funders, the implication is that contributions to 530A accounts are most powerful when layered into a meaningful amount and are paired with state and local CSA seeds (typically in 529 accounts), philanthropic match dollars, employer contributions, and community-led scholarships. No single deposit transforms a child’s trajectory. A stack of them, compounded over eighteen years, becomes what researcher Willie Elliott has called “hope in tangible form.”

Lesson 3: Accounts Open Imaginations—But Only If Families Know They Exist

Across every program represented on the panel, the same message surfaced: the dollars matter, but the meaning to the family and the child matters more.

CSAs work, in part, because they help children and caregivers see themselves as savers and as college-bound. Independent evaluators of K2C found that the program helped families dream and reduced stress around financial aid, even among families who could contribute only small amounts. It builds and reinforces hope for the future and aspiration.

Making that identity real requires sustained engagement:

  • Alfond sends every family a one-page printed summary each quarter showing the child’s balance and contributions; families specifically ask for the paper version because it lives on the refrigerator and sparks conversations.
  • Dollars for College builds its model around school district partnerships, back-to-school events, and a four-year match designed to keep families engaged from kindergarten on.

“A lot of our parents don’t have knowledge of what CSAs are. Being face-to-face with them, building that trust, and explaining the program is what makes it real. We’re promoting our accounts as part of a bigger puzzle of financial aid—so families take advantage of everything they qualify for.Rubi Hernandez, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas

The implication for 530A implementation is direct. A 530A account—whether federally or philanthropically seeded—that families never claim, never see on a statement, and never connect to their child’s future will not deliver the benefits CSA research has documented. Philanthropy can fund the communications, trusted messengers, and on-ramps that turn an account number into an asset-building identity.

Lesson 4: Inclusion Is a Design Choice

State and local CSA programs have spent years solving for inclusion in ways the federal 530A platform has not yet matched. Dollars for College partners with Utah’s 529 plan because it accepts both Social Security numbers and ITINs, ensuring the children of mixed-status families are not shut out. Programs like K2C and NYC Kids Rise have invested in translation, simplified enrollment, and omnibus account structures that allow funds to be held in trust for children regardless of a parent’s immigration status.

Because 530A accounts require parents of US citizen children to provide their own identification, the platform as designed risks excluding some of the very families CSA programs have worked hardest to reach. Funders can press for federal refinements while continuing to invest in state and local programs that already include every child.

What Philanthropy Can Do Now

Across the panel discussion and two decades of field experience, six funder priorities stand out—and the strongest path forward is not a choice between CSAs and 530A accounts, but weaving them together:

  • Put dollars directly into accounts. Direct contributions, whether through the Treasury’s general-contribution mechanism or established state and local CSAs, give time and compounding the chance to do their work. Geographic targeting remains one of the most powerful equity levers available.
  • Invest in implementation and activation. Seeding accounts is powerful, but participation is not automatic. Fund schools, tax assistance programs, child care providers, and community nonprofits that help families understand, claim, and engage with accounts over time.
  • Protect existing public benefits. As 530A accounts grow, families should not face means-test penalties for participating. Support policy research and advocacy to ensure account balances do not jeopardize Medicaid, SNAP, housing assistance, or financial aid.
  • Build the data infrastructure. Without shared measurement, the field cannot learn what is working. Funders can underwrite the evaluation, data-sharing agreements, and longitudinal research that will tell us whether 530A accounts close gaps or widen them.
  • Protect and grow existing CSA infrastructure. Maine, New York City, San Francisco, Connecticut, Texas, and dozens of other places ranging from states and cities to non-profits, have programs that have built the relationships and systems to make early wealth building work. These programs remain the most inclusive vehicles in the field and need to continue to inform federal policy.
  • Help families navigate complexity. Families may soon hold multiple accounts with different rules and use cases. Support the financial education and trusted intermediaries that turn complexity into clarity. CSAs and 530A accounts are individual savings vehicles; Baby Bonds, as publicly funded endowments, augment what either alone can do. These tools are not mutually exclusive, and families will need help understanding the differences and opportunities each presents.
Looking Ahead

Twenty years ago, the CSA field was a handful of pilots and a thesis: that an account seeded early with even small amounts of capital, held in trust, and paired with a message of belief could change the arc of a child’s life. That thesis has held up. The evidence is robust, programs are operating at scale, and the federal government has, in its own way, validated the premise and created an adjacent account for the child to own.

The work ahead is to make sure that validation translates into real opportunity for the children who need it most—and that the field doesn’t lose sight of what it has already built in the rush toward what is new. The architecture for progressive early asset building exists. The question now is whether funders will resource it at the scale and depth this moment, and these children, deserve. As Debra-Ellen Glickstein reminded the room: “We didn’t come so far to only come this far.”

For additional context, explore AFN’s fact sheet comparing Children’s Savings Accounts, Baby Bonds, and Trump (530A) accounts; a new Funder’s Guide to applying CSA lessons to the rollout of 530A accounts; the Aspen Institute’s webinar, Making Trump Accounts Work for LMI Families; and The Hill’s op-ed on automatic enrollment in Trump Accounts.