As part of my journey to become a Certified Financial Planner, I’ve come across three organizations that help widows with their finances and have volunteered for the first two:

Savvy Ladies

Savvy Ladies is a nonprofit providing all women with free financial education, including webinars and online courses. It has a free financial helpline where you can submit your questions online and be matched with a financial advisor who will provide customized advice via call or email, whichever you prefer. Financial advisors can see all the questions that have been submitted and answer the ones where they have expertise.

No financial topic is off limits. The ones I’ve seen range from asking how to best pay off debt to how to evaluate a proposed divorce settlement to how to invest a specific sum of money. If you have questions on different financial topics, you may be better off submitting different questions on each topic as an advisor may not be an expert on all the topics.

Women’s Money Matters

Women’s Money Matters is a nonprofit that provides financial education and coaching to women and girls living on low-incomes through a program that combines instructional workshops and personal, one-to-one coaching. They offer multi-week programs that cater to different age ranges: teenagers, young adults/adults, and older adults nearing retirement. The format of the program is that you meet as a group to learn about a specific topic such as budgeting and then you meet separately with your assigned coach to apply what you learned to your finances.

I’ve volunteered as a coach for the Financial Futures Collective program, which targets young adults/adults. Over eight weeks, it taught participants about earning, budgeting, saving; managing money; building/fixing credit; protecting from fraud and identity theft; and healthy eating on a budget.

Wings for Widows

Wings for Widows is a nonprofit that provides free, professional coaching and education to help widowed men and women navigate the financial trauma experienced in widowhood. Their coaches, all of whom are Certified Financial Planners, provide a minimum of four hours of free coaching virtually to clients. Coaching areas can include: finances, wills/probate, taxes, Social Security, life insurance, health insurance, household administration, legacy/trusts, home & auto insurance & maintenance.

Their WidowWise University provides a Personal Finance for Widowed Men and Women online course for a small fee, which is waived when you work with one of their coaches. I haven’t yet volunteered for this organization, but I hope to once I complete the final experience requirement to become a Certified Financial Planner.

See the full list of organizations that provide free financial coaching and planning.