Person-Centered Insights

Aspen FSP takes a broadly informed approach to research. One of our key principles is that empirical evidence and personal experience both provide valuable and essential information. In order to operationalize this principle, Aspen FSP leads a set of person-centered research initiatives to generate actionable insights for improving the financial security of families in the U.S.

These insights are built through cross-sector partnerships that illuminate the needs and experiences of financially insecure workers, consumers, and households through data-driven and qualitative research. In addition, FSP convenes the Community Advisory Group, composed of leaders from around the country to provide deep, ongoing feedback and direction driven by their experience of financial insecurity. The lessons drawn from these efforts:

  1. Serve as a foundation to refine the way we, and other leaders in the financial security field, think about  and prioritize the financial challenges facing people in the U.S. today and in the future; and 
  2. Inform the development of policy and market solutions grounded in the perspective of people directly or the organizations (public, private, or nonprofit) that serve them.

Aspen FSP’s work on person-centered insights is made possible through our funders. Visit our funders page to learn more.


Latest Person-Centered Research and Events from Aspen FSP

Community Advisory Group

Person-centered insights create more effective, responsive systems and help advance financial security at scale. For systems to reflect the needs of the people affected by them, people need power and influence over how those policies are designed, delivered, and evaluated.

To ensure those voices are included throughout Aspen FSP’s work, our team established the Community Advisory Group (CAG) in December 2021 to inform the program’s research, activities, and publications. The group is composed of 6 leaders with current or previous experience with financial insecurity, who have the expertise as users of financial systems core to Aspen FSP’s work, and who are working to advance financial security in their communities through organizing advocacy, or direct service. 

The CAG has made a tangible impact through direct external engagement with cross-sector leaders and internally focused work shaping Aspen FSP’s publications, events and strategic direction. Their insights are relevant across Aspen FSP’s portfolio of issues and ground-level leadership, shaping Aspen FSP’s work to develop effective, responsive solutions. 

In 2024, the CAG will continue to weave its valuable expertise into Aspen FSP’s research, activities, and publications to build a more people-centered system of benefits that can deliver long-term financial security for individuals and families in the U.S.

Insights Collaborators

Aspen FSP works with a wide range of collaborators, including the members of our Consumer Insights Collaborative, that have unique data assets and insights about the financial lives of people living in the U.S., including nonprofit service providers, research institutions, movement-based organizations, for-profit companies, and other experts–including people with lived experience of financial insecurity–to help shape policy, program, and product design to improve family financial security in the U.S.

Past and current insights collaborators include: AARP Public Policy Institute, Change Machine, Code for America, Commonwealth, Inclusiv, Jain Family Institute, JPMorgan Chase Institute, LIFT, Mission Asset Fund, MyPath, Neighborhood Trust, Propel, SaverLife, Springboard to Opportunities, UpTogether, and WorkRise.

View news, research, and events from our insights collaborative below.