Invest It Forward®
Invest It Forward connects volunteers with teachers and classrooms to expose students to new career pathways and deepen their understanding of the financial industry. Over 17,000 volunteers have helped bring financial education and career exploration to life.
Real-world insight for the classroom
Invest It Forward is an industry-wide capital markets literacy and career exploration program. It connects educators and classrooms, virtually and in person, with financial industry volunteers and firms.
Volunteers get an award-winning capital markets curriculum developed with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, plus ready-to-use presentations, so no preparation from scratch is needed.
For students, it is often the first time they meet someone who works in finance. For teachers, it adds credibility and real examples to the Stock Market Game.
Pick a topic, use our materials
Volunteers choose a topic when they claim an opportunity. Each comes with slides or videos that can be used as they are or adapted.
- Meet a Financial Professional: share your career path and answer questions, no presentation needed
- Getting Started with SMG: why we save and invest, what companies and stocks are
- What are Capital Markets? Videos and decks from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
- What is a Stock? Reading quotes, earnings reports and market data
- Buy, Sell or Hold? Beginner and advanced decks on cycles, valuation and diversification
Choose how you volunteer
The current portal offers classroom speaking. Other roles from earlier years could return in the new site; SIFMA to confirm.
Classroom speaker
Share your professional journey and core financial content with a 4th–12th grade class for about an hour.
InvestWrite judge
Score up to eight student essays online in one to two hours. No meetings or calls.
Field trip host
Invite a class to your firm to see trading desks and meet teams. Great for community days.
How matching works
Explore opportunities
Teachers post requests. Volunteers browse in-person and virtual opportunities across the country.
Get matched
Claim an opportunity and we connect you directly with the teacher to confirm the details.
Choose materials
Pick a lesson topic and the ready-made slides or videos that go with it.
Start volunteering
Spend about 45–60 minutes with the class and help students connect learning to real life.
Source: investitforward.sifma.org and the IIF Volunteer One-Pager (April 2025). To be confirmed by SIFMA.
From teachers, students and volunteers
“Our volunteer was great and it was really worthwhile for the students to hear from someone else other than a teacher.”
SMG teacherInvest It Forward classroom“Your presentation was really cool because you told us a lot about how to know which stocks are good or not. Thanks to you my team is doing the best in class right now!”
SMG studentInvest It Forward classroom“For doing volunteer work it doesn't get better than this.”
SIFMA member firm volunteerInvest It Forward
Common questions
Who can volunteer?
Financial professionals who work at a SIFMA member firm. Volunteers from outside the SIFMA network can apply, but placement is not guaranteed.
Do I need to prepare a presentation?
No. Use the ready-made decks and videos, or choose Meet a Financial Professional, where no presentation is needed.
Is the material compliance-approved?
Yes. FINRA review letters for the classroom presentations and mini-lessons are available for your firm's compliance team.
How do teachers request a volunteer?
Teachers in the Stock Market Game register on the educator portal and choose in-person or video chat, a lesson topic and preferred times.
Where can I get help?
Join the weekly open office hour on Thursdays at 12 pm ET, or email iif@sifma.org.
Useful links
Volunteer one-pager
Who volunteers, what the opportunities are and how to sign up.
Getting Started with SMG
An introduction to saving, investing, companies and stocks.
SMG Essential Mini-Lessons
Videos under six minutes, each ending with an exit ticket.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis curriculum
What are Capital Markets? videos and decks.
Connected programs
Bring your experience to a classroom
Most sessions take about an hour, in person or by video, with materials ready to use.