Launch Plan
A four-phase plan for rolling out Banzai across your institution - starting with your Financial Aid team and expanding outward to campus partners, faculty, and finally your student body. Each phase builds on the last. Work through them in order for the smoothest launch.
The resource links throughout this page point to Banzai's hometown demo subdomain. Before you share, embed, or paste any of these URLs, replace hometown in the URL 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.
Before You Launch
We recommend taking the following steps to ensure a smooth launch:
- Outline a full communication plan, including a timeline for each phase.
- Identify the appropriate "messenger" for each strategy (Financial Aid staff, faculty, student ambassadors, resident advisors).
- Brainstorm the resources you'll need (materials, departments, existing campus programs and events).
To execute:
- Collect necessary materials.
- Connect with campus partners and departments as needed.
- Draft your communication materials.
Phase One: Internal (Financial Aid & Team Launch)
Start by getting your Financial Aid Office and any partner departments familiar with the program. Staff who understand Banzai will be your strongest internal advocates and can speak confidently about it to students during appointments, counseling sessions, and outreach.
- Meet with your Banzai Representative to plan the launch and include any team members who will help manage or champion the program - Financial Aid, Bursar, Student Success, TRIO, and any other department that touches student financial wellness.
- Walk your Financial Aid team through the Wellness Center so they can confidently recommend applicable Coaches, calculators, and articles during entrance and exit counseling and one-on-one appointments.
- Provide staff with a short internal reference sheet outlining the top 5 resources for common student questions - for example: Create a Budget for budgeting, How Do I Build Credit? for credit-building, Repaying Student Loans for loans, Build Your Emergency Fund for emergency funds, and Find a Place to Rent for first-apartment questions.
- Encourage staff to complete a Reward themselves so they've experienced the flow before recommending it to students.
Optional: Host a short training or lunch-and-learn to help staff confidently introduce Banzai to students.
Phase Two: Campus Partner Outreach
Extend your reach by looping in the campus programs and services that already interact with students on money-related topics. These partners provide built-in distribution channels and shared audiences.
- Meet with Student Success, TRIO, First-Year Experience, and orientation leadership to introduce the program and identify natural touchpoints (orientation modules, first-year seminars, TRIO advising cycles).
- Coordinate with Career Services to embed Banzai's career-readiness and post-graduation financial content into their existing programming - resources like the Starting a New Job collection, Understanding Total Compensation, and Payroll Taxes Explained are natural fits.
- Reach out to Residential Life and Housing so Resident Advisors can direct students to specific resources like Create a Budget, Build Your Emergency Fund, and Find a Place to Rent.
- Contact International Student Services and student veteran services if your institution has these populations - Banzai content on U.S. credit, taxes, and banking is especially valuable to them.
- Create custom collections with your Banzai Representative for each partner program, so each team has a curated set of resources they can point students to.
Phase Three: Faculty & Staff Awareness
With campus partners on board, broaden awareness across the faculty and staff who can refer students or embed content into their courses.
- Announce the program to faculty teaching personal finance, business, first-year seminars, life-skills, or professional-development courses - these instructors can directly assign or link to Banzai resources.
- Offer to guest-present at faculty meetings, department chair meetings, or advisor training days to demo the Wellness Center.
- Provide a "referral cheat sheet" for academic advisors so they can send students to relevant Coaches during degree planning or financial-hardship conversations.
- Extend an employee-microsite invitation to faculty and staff themselves - the same platform that supports students can support employees' personal financial wellness.
- Loop in Human Resources if you want to formally offer Banzai as a staff benefit or wellness program.
Phase Four: Student Launch
Now that your team, campus partners, and faculty are set up, launch publicly to the student body.
- Send an announcement email to all students introducing the Wellness Center, from your Financial Aid Office or the program's champion.
- Feature the Wellness Center in your student portal (Canvas, Blackboard, D2L, Moodle, or SSO landing page).
- Add a link to the Financial Aid Office homepage and any student-services landing pages.
- Push through orientation - include a short intro to Banzai in New Student Orientation, transfer orientation, and family orientation materials.
- Post on campus social media and pitch a story to the student newspaper.
- Fold the Wellness Center into entrance and exit counseling touchpoints for federal student aid recipients as a deeper self-paced follow-up to the required counseling.
- Consider a launch Reward to drive early engagement - for example, "Complete any 3 Coaches by the end of the month to enter a drawing for bookstore credit."
After Launch
Once your launch is underway, the work shifts to ongoing optimization: tracking engagement in the Banzai Manager, refreshing your Collections to match the academic calendar, adding new CTAs pointing to Financial Aid appointments or events, and rolling out seasonal Rewards campaigns.
Academic-Year Resource Calendar
Below is a suggested resource lineup for each moment in the academic year, hand-picked from Banzai's Wellness Center library. Use these as a starting point for your seasonal promotions, Rewards campaigns, and staff talking points.
Reminder: Replace hometown in each URL with your institution's own subdomain before sharing (see the note at the top of this page).
August / Move-in
| Theme | Resource | Type |
|---|---|---|
| First Apartment Basics | Find a Place to Rent | Article |
| Renting Rulebook | Article | |
| Understanding Your Renter Rights | Article | |
| Renter's Insurance: What It Is and What It Covers | Article | |
| Moving Costs | Article | |
| Rent Affordability Calculator | Calculator | |
| Renting a Place to Live | Collection | |
| Roommate Budgeting | 4 Tips for Using Peer-to-Peer Payment Apps | Article |
| 7 Tips to Lower Your Utility Bill | Article | |
| Create a Budget | Coach | |
| Budget Calculator | Calculator | |
| Student refunds and first accounts (closest match - no dedicated "student refund" resource yet) | College Budget Breakdown | Article |
| The Cost of College Life | Article | |
| Opening Your First Account | Article | |
| Going to College | Collection |
October / FAFSA opens
| Theme | Resource | Type |
|---|---|---|
| FAFSA | Filling Out the FAFSA | Article |
| Filling Out the FAFSA | Coach | |
| Entrance counseling supplements | Borrowing Basics: How Loans Work | Article |
| Interest | Article | |
| From SAVE to RAP: 2026 Student Loan Changes | Article | |
| Student Loan Payoff Calculator | Calculator | |
| Cost-of-attendance planning | The Cost of College | Coach |
| How 529 College Savings Plans Work | Article | |
| College and Careers | Course | |
| Paying for College | Collection |
December / Finals
| Theme | Resource | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Holiday budgeting | Holiday Budgeting 101 | Article |
| Create a Holiday Budget | Coach | |
| Holiday Shopping Tips | Collection | |
| Seasonal-job income | Earning Extra Income | Coach |
| Payroll Taxes Explained | Article | |
| Federal Income Tax Withholdings Calculator | Calculator | |
| End-of-semester stress | Coping With Financial Stress | Article |
| Retail Therapy | Article | |
| Digital Spending Traps | Article | |
| Money and Emotions | Collection |
January–April / Tax season
| Theme | Resource | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Understanding a W-2 (closest match - no dedicated W-2 walkthrough yet) | Payroll Taxes Explained | Article |
| Federal Income Taxes | Article | |
| Filing your first tax return | Completing a Tax Return | Article |
| A Guide to Understanding and Paying Taxes | Article | |
| Tax Brackets and Statuses | Article | |
| Taxes | Collection | |
| Tax Return Pre-Game | Your Tax Return Pre-Game | Coach |
April–May / Graduation
| Theme | Resource | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Life After Graduation (closest match - no dedicated "Life After Graduation" hub yet) | Starting a New Job | Collection |
| Cost of Living Calculator & City Comparison | Calculator | |
| First pay stub (closest match - no dedicated pay-stub walkthrough yet) | Payroll Taxes Explained | Article |
| Evaluating a job offer | Understanding Total Compensation | Article |
| Job Benefits | Article | |
| Meet Your 401(k) | Article | |
| Health Insurance Basics | Article | |
| The Cost of Driving to Work | Coach | |
| Repaying student loans | Repaying Student Loans | Article |
| From SAVE to RAP: 2026 Student Loan Changes | Article | |
| Student Loan Payoff Calculator | Calculator | |
| Paying Student Loans | Collection |
Summer
| Theme | Resource | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency fund | Emergency Funds | Article |
| Build Your Emergency Fund | Coach | |
| Emergency Fund Calculator | Calculator | |
| Summer-job budgeting | The 50/30/20 Rule for Teens | Coach |
| Saving With A Purpose | Coach | |
| Savings Calculator | Calculator | |
| Credit-building basics | How Do I Build Credit? | Coach |
| How to Get Your First Credit Card | Article | |
| Credit Scores: The Adult Report Card | Article | |
| Building Credit | Collection |