Individual Development Accounts

Organizations that provide access to an asset building tool that is designed to enable low-income families to save towards a targeted amount, usually used for building assets in the form of home ownership, post-secondary education and small business ownership. States are authorized by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 to create community-based IDA programs with TANF block grant funds, and to disregard all money saved in IDAs when determining eligibility for means tested government assistance. Although the program requirements vary from state to state, most are offered through a collaboration of organizations in a community including nonprofit organizations which recruit participants and provide financial planning services, banks or credit unions which provide matching funds (usually one or two dollars for every dollar saved), and foundations, state or federal government which provide financial support for the matching funds. The latter are also known as "matched savings accounts".