Saving for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Downpayment (SEED) tested asset-building accounts for children and youth with the goal of providing strategic and practical lessons in how to create an inclusive system of Child Development Accounts (CDAs). From 2003 through 2008, SEED piloted CDA programs in 12 communities, which included over 1,200 low-income children and their families. The SEED Initiative involved state and federal policy design, market development, and communications.
Lessons from SEED: A national demonstration of Child Development Accounts provides an overview of SEED findings. SEED’s multi-method design was based on an empirical research effort on child savings led by CSD and the University of Kansas. Research methods in SEED include account monitoring, in-depth interviews with youth and their parents, cross-sectional surveys, a process study, and an impact study of 500 pre-school students and their parents. CSD conducted all account monitoring in SEED, and seeks to inform policy on child savings through research on inclusive 529 savings policy.