The 73% Number

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The 73% Number

August 17, 2026 by Sandra Roussel

That’s the share of our own residents who told us the financial literacy program we’d referred them to was “not relevant to my current situation.” We tracked this ourselves between 2016 and 2018, before we built our own curriculum, back when referring residents out to community programs was our default approach.

Not “too basic.” Not “boring.” Not relevant. As in, unrelated to what they were actually facing that week.

If nearly three out of every four referrals fail this badly, the problem can’t be the residents, and it can’t be that the outside programs are poorly run. It has to be something upstream of both: the referral itself was built on a mismatch nobody could see coming, because “financial literacy” on a flyer doesn’t tell you whether that program teaches long term saving or crisis navigation.

We stopped referring out almost entirely after seeing this number. Curious whether any other organizations here track referral outcomes this closely, and if so, what your version of the 73% looks like.

Sandra Roussel

The 73% Number

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