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Banzai 101 Quickstart

Banzai helps your institution meet and maintain core student-success objectives. This quickstart walks you through your first steps as a Higher-Education Banzai partnert, taking you through phases like getting connected, defining your goals, picking the right team, and planning your rollout to students.

Before you share any Banzai resource links

Any Wellness Center resource URL on this page (and throughout the toolkit) points to Banzai's hometown demo subdomain. Before you share, embed, or paste any of these URLs, replace hometown with your institution's own Wellness Center subdomain (e.g. https://[subdomain].banzai.org/wellness/embedded#/articles/...).

Not sure what your subdomain is? Ask your Banzai Representative.

Your First Three Steps​

Send your institution's logo as an SVG, AI, or EPS file to your Banzai Representative. The sooner you send your logo over, the sooner our team can start setting up your Wellness Center. We'd love to have a co-branded site designed for you by our very first meeting.

Step 2: Get to know your Banzai Representative​

In the days following your sign-up, a Banzai Representative will reach out to you. This representative will be your eyes, ears, and voice for everything Banzai related - from onboarding and branding setup to launch and student engagement strategies.

Step 3: Implement the Banzai program​

These initial calls and meetings are crucial, so include everyone who will be actively involved with Banzai in the onboarding process. For you, this could include Financial Aid, Bursar, Student Affairs, or wherever the program's champion will sit.

Plan Your Program​

Before launching to students, take time to define a few key things up front. The clearer you are on these, the easier the rest of the rollout becomes.

Define your goals​

What outcomes matter most for your institution? Common goals for higher-education partners include:

  • Reducing financial stress as a driver of student retention and graduation rates.
  • Meeting financial literacy expectations for federal student aid recipients (supplementing entrance and exit counseling with deeper, self-paced content).
  • Supporting first-generation and underserved students who may not have received financial education at home.
  • Strengthening career-readiness programming with resources on budgeting, taxes, and life-after-college financial planning.
  • Reducing student-life friction around common money milestones like getting a first apartment, buying a first car, and understanding a first pay stub.

Pick the goals that matter most so the rest of your decisions ladder up to them.

Define your program lead​

Banzai has huge potential in the hands of a dedicated advocate - someone willing to tie this program into existing student services and academic operations. Likely candidates:

  • Director or Assistant Director of Financial Aid
  • Financial Literacy or Financial Wellness Coordinator (if your institution has one)
  • Bursar or Director of Student Accounts
  • Dean of Students / VP of Student Affairs
  • Student Success or First-Year Experience Coordinator
  • TRIO or Student Support Services Director
  • Career Services Director
  • Institutional Marketing & Communications
  • Wellness Center or Student Wellbeing staff

Define your audience​

Banzai serves multiple audiences on a college or university campus. Who do you envision reaching first?

Students - Your primary audience. Use Banzai's Wellness Center, complete with over 200 life-literacy resources like calculators, Coaches, articles, and assessments, to help students build financial confidence throughout their time on campus.

Campus partners - Create custom collections and collections for specific programs: TRIO, first-year experience, orientation, student veteran services, international student services, or an on-campus Wellness Center. Each program can highlight the content most relevant to their students.

Faculty & staff - Faculty who teach personal-finance, life-skills, or first-year seminar courses can embed Banzai content directly into their syllabi. Staff can also use the platform for their own financial wellness through an employee-facing microsite.

Prospective students and families - Feature Banzai content in your admissions materials and orientation programming to help incoming students and their families make informed decisions about paying for college.

Define your communication channels​

How will you let students and staff know about the new resources? Higher-ed partners typically reach their audiences through:

  • Your institution's website (admissions, financial aid, and student services pages)
  • Student portal (Canvas, Blackboard, D2L, Moodle, or your custom SSO landing page)
  • Institution-branded student email
  • New Student Orientation and first-year seminar programming
  • Financial aid entrance and exit counseling touchpoints
  • Campus social media (@yourinstitution accounts)
  • Student newspaper or campus radio
  • Campus digital signage
  • Direct outreach from Financial Aid staff
  • Family and parent newsletters

What's Included​

Higher-Education partners get access to the following tools and content:

Wellness Center & Content

  • Wellness Center - A student-facing website with over 200 financial and life-literacy resources including calculators, Coaches, articles, and courses.
  • Collections of Content - Bundle resources together into custom collections to feature on your co-branded Wellness Center. Real examples from the Banzai library: Paying for College, Starting a New Job, and Renting a Place to Live.
  • Featured Content - Highlight specific resources on your Wellness Center homepage.

Engagement Tools

  • Calls to Action - Add clickable CTAs throughout any featured resource, pointing students to your Financial Aid Office, appointment scheduling, or specific campus programs.
  • Offers - Motivate students to take advantage of institutional services (financial aid appointments, career counseling, tutoring).
  • Rewards - Incentivize students to complete Banzai courses, calculators, assessments, and Coach sessions with campus incentives (bookstore credit, event access, meal-plan swipes, etc.).

Marketing

  • Coach Marketing Materials - Per-Coach marketing kits with social media posts, web banners, and trifolds. Coach Marketing Materials
  • Marketing Kits - Ready-to-use social media and email campaigns targeting specific topics (Budgeting, Credit, College, and more). Marketing Kits
  • Banzai Pocket Advisor - Marketing assets for promoting the Banzai Pocket Advisor mobile app to students. Banzai Pocket Advisor
  • Printable Materials - Certificates and multi-language rack cards for on-campus distribution.
  • Presentation Library - Pre-built presentations for financial literacy workshops, orientation sessions, and classroom guest lectures. Workshops

Manager & Analytics

  • Banzai Manager - Access analytics, downloadable marketing content, and Wellness Center management.
  • Analytics - Track web traffic, resource engagement, and student lead capture.

Legal & Compliance

  • Compliance documentation - Privacy, accessibility, SOC 2, and editorial-practices documents your IT and compliance teams can share directly. Legal & Compliance

Create Your Launch Plan​

We recommend the following high-level steps to ensure a smooth launch:

  1. Outline a full communication plan, including a timeline for each phase.
  2. Identify the appropriate "messenger" for each strategy (financial aid staff, student ambassadors, faculty, resident advisors, etc.).
  3. Brainstorm the resources you'll need (materials, departments, allies, campus events).

To execute:

  • Collect necessary materials.
  • Connect with campus partners and departments as needed.
  • Draft your communication materials.

For a phase-by-phase walkthrough, see the full Launch Plan:

Higher-Education Launch Plan

A four-phase launch plan covering internal rollout, campus partner outreach, faculty and staff awareness, and student launch.