Dondreá Brown has been committed to providing financial literacy since he graduated college. He first began educating himself, then his family and friends on the basic principles of money management. He quickly recognized that educating and supporting others to create and achieve financial goals was social justice work. That reality gave him the drive and motivation to create safe, motivational, educational, and fun environments to teach financial literacy.
Dondreá Brown is an NFEC Certified Financial Education Instructor and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Kent State University. While pursuing his PhD in Cultural Foundations, he teaches personal finance courses at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dondreá is also the CEO of 1428 Financial Wellness. 1428 Financial Wellness exist to solve the issues moderate to low income families have with money management and to cultivate healthy relationships with their finances. His company uses the Culturally Responsive Financial Literacy™ system to empower individuals through financial coaching, high impact workshops, and products to take control of their finances. He also partners with Colleges, Universities, and organization to help rewrite their financial literacy curriculum to improve their retention rates. His company is partnering with the Boys and Girls Club, WMCAT, the LEAD Program, CASA, and Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative (ELNC).
Dondreá is also the Executive Director of Young Money Finance (YMF), a nonprofit he created to empower children and young adults to utilize healthy financial behaviors to become financially independent adults. YMF provides financial literacy summer camps, workshops, and educational materials to first-generation, low-income, and students with accommodations. He has also created the Financial Master Planner, which is comprised of practical spaces to track your spending progress, checklists to assess your financial health, and tools to help you maximize your money.
Dondreá believes financial literacy is essential to our development as a nation. We must educate and empower our communities and prepare our children to make meaningful decisions with money.
