The Council for Economic Education (the new name, since 2009 January, of the National Council on Economic Education) is a national non-profit organization "committed to empowerment and opportunity through economic and financial literacy

Financial literacy

Financial literacy is the ability to understand finance. More specifically, it refers to the set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual to make informed and effective decisions through their understanding of finances...

."

The mission of the Council for Economic Education is two-fold: To advocate for better and greater school-based economic and personal finance

Personal finance

Personal finance is the application of the principles of finance to the monetary decisions of an individual or family unit. It addresses the ways in which individuals or families obtain, budget, save, and spend monetary resources over time, taking into account various financial risks and future...

 education at the kindergarten through 12th grade levels (K-12); and to educate young people in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and around the world, primarily through well-prepared teachers, so they may become empowered with economic and financial literacy.

Headquartered in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, the Council provides resources to teachers and students in K-12 working in economics. These publications - print and electronic - are available nationwide.

Campaign for Economic Literacy

The Council for Economic Education is working on an "ambitious campaign effort to significantly increase economic literacy -- much like the national campaign already well underway for reading literacy."

From their website:

The need for such a concerted effort is urgent; the issue is critical. Young people entering the workforce cannot function effectively without knowledge of how the world works. The spiraling rate of personal bankruptcies and credit card debt

Credit card debt

Credit card debt is an example of unsecured consumer debt, accessed through credit cards.Debt results when a client of a credit card company purchases an item or service through the card system...

; the lack of understanding of the importance of saving and investing; the inability to discern the consequences of powerful international economic changes, or even to know the meaning of "profit," are all evidence that we as a nation can no longer afford to make economics an option in our schools. It is especially necessary to give our young people -- who are our future -- a grasp of the basic principles of the American economic system

Economic system

An economic system is the combination of the various agencies, entities that provide the economic structure that defines the social community. These agencies are joined by lines of trade and exchange along which goods, money etc. are continuously flowing. An example of such a system for a closed...

.

Investors

The following is a partial list of donors to the Campaign for Economic Literacy. Each has donated at least 100,000 US Dollars to the Campaign.

3M 3M 3M Company , formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation based in Maplewood, Minnesota, United States....  Foundation	Allstate Insurance Company Allstate The Allstate Corporation is the second-largest personal lines insurer in the United States and the largest that is publicly held. The company also has personal lines insurance operations in Canada. Allstate was founded in 1931 as part of Sears, Roebuck and Co., and was spun off in 1993...	American Express Foundation
Ameritech Ameritech AT&T Teleholdings, Inc., formerly known as Ameritech Corporation , was a U.S. telecommunications company that arose out of the 1984 AT&T divestiture. Ameritech was one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies that was created following the breakup of the Bell System...	AT&T AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...	Bank of America Bank of America Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...  Charitable Foundation
Business Roundtable Business Roundtable The Business Roundtable is a politically conservative group of chief executive officers of major U.S. corporations formed to promote pro-business public policy.-History:...	Carson Group	Thomas J. Holce Investments
HSBC HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a global banking and financial services company headquartered in Canary Wharf, London, United Kingdom. it is the world's second-largest banking and financial services group and second-largest public company according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine...  - North America	International Paper International Paper International Paper Company is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 59,500 employees, and it is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.-History:...	Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a non-profit foundation based in Kansas City, Missouri. It has an asset base of $2 billion...
The Calvin K. Kazanjian Economics Foundation	The McGraw-Hill Companies	Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch is the wealth management division of Bank of America. With over 15,000 financial advisors and $2.2 trillion in client assets it is the world's largest brokerage. Formerly known as Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., prior to 2009 the firm was publicly owned and traded on the New York...
The Moody's Foundation	Mortgage Bankers Association Mortgage Bankers Association The Mortgage Bankers Association is the United States national association representing all facets of the real estate finance industry. Headquartered in Washington, DC, MBA represents over 3,000 member companies nationwide in an industry that employs approximately 350,000 people...	NASDAQ Educational Foundation
State Farm Insurance Companies	The John Templeton Foundation	United States Department of Education United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education, also referred to as ED or the ED for Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government...
UPS United Parcel Service United Parcel Service, Inc. , typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is a package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the...  Foundation, Inc.	The Vanguard Group The Vanguard Group The Vanguard Group is an American investment management company based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, that manages approximately $1.6 trillion in assets. It offers mutual funds and other financial products and services to individual and institutional investors in the United States and abroad. Founder...	Verizon Foundation
Wells Fargo Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by assets and the largest bank by market capitalization. Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home...	Worth Media

Other past contributors:

• Ariel Investments, LLC
• Caterpillar Foundation
• Charles Schwab Foundation
• Citigroup Foundation
• Dillon Foundation, Inc.
• Edward Jones
  Edward Jones
  Edward, Eddie, or Ed Jones is the name of:Finance* Edward Jones , co-founder of Dow Jones & Company* Edward D. Jones , investment banker** Edward Jones Investments, company founded by Edward D. Jones...
  
  
• FedEx
  FedEx
  FedEx Corporation , originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee...
  
   Services
• Ford Motor Company
  Ford Motor Company
  Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
  
   Fund
• JA Japan
• JP Morgan Chase & Co.
• Kraft Foods, Inc.
• McDonald's
  McDonald's
  McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
  
  USA
• Mentor Press LLC
• NYSE Group
• Univision Radio

External links

• Council for Economic Education homepage
• EconEdLink - A resource for teachers, providing lesson plans for students in grades K-12.
• Council for Economic Education online store - Print and electronic resources for educators, parents and students.