How to adapt to your community.
Want to go deeper? This section offers additional information to help further adapt messaging to your city or county.
Reach your target audience.
Use this section when you want to customize materials for your city or county or build a new asset.
Tailor to the local context
Adapt by how top-of-mind disasters are where you’re communicating.
Tailor to your audience
Adapt by who you’re trying to reach, from lower-income to general audiences.
Promote a specific behavior or program
Adapt by the action you’re promoting and how you talk about it.
Route residents to action
Point people to a specific service or a simple direct action they can take.
Name the local context.
Consider what types of disasters are top-of-mind for your residents.
Highly relevant disasters
Name the specific type of emergency that people view as a legitimate, local threat — wildfire season, hurricane season, flood risk, tornadoes, winter storms. Meet residents where they already understand physical preparedness, then add the financial piece.
Less relevant or less obvious disasters
If large-scale disasters feel unlikely or remote, communicate that the same preparation also covers personal emergencies: job loss, medical bills, car repairs, or a broken transmission. Let “emergency” stay broad enough for residents to see their own version.
Note: don’t drop the disaster examples entirely. Using a personal crisis as the entry point while still naming larger disasters keeps the connective tissue between them. This is still about disaster financial preparedness, even when the hook is an everyday emergency.
Tailor to your audience.
Adapt by who you’re trying to reach.
For lower-income or vulnerable residents
Connect emergency preparedness to issues people are already navigating. Use plain language, avoid jargon, and recognize skepticism around financial messaging and digital tools. Lead with the trusted messenger and tangible help.
- Use “money” when it feels clearer than “finances.”
- Say what the program helps people do.
- Offer human support, not just a link.
For middle-income or general audiences
Anchor to the goals people are already working toward: buying a home, paying down debt, protecting retirement. Frame preparedness as protecting what they have worked hard to build.
- Lead with the why, not generic financial advice.
- Make the next step quick and specific.
- Don’t assume financial stability.
Promote a specific behavior or program.
How to talk about specific actions or programs.
Avoid scams and fraud
Frame scam avoidance as a skill and a city-provided service, not just a warning. Teach residents how to recognize and verify legitimate sources, and offer help if they have been targeted.
Build credit
People already want better credit. Lead with free, professional help from the city or county, and use the emergency preparedness to broaden the frame: good credit can help residents access fair loans after a disaster.
Build emergency savings
Recognize that many people have saved before and had to spend it down. Position savings as the cushion that protects every other goal, not one more thing competing with those goals.
Get banked
Address perceived barriers head-on – e.g., overdraft fees, hacking, access, immigration concerns, garnishment – while explaining how safe accounts help people access money and recovery resources faster.
Rightsize insurance coverage
Speak directly to both homeowners and renters. For renters, make the benefit concrete: renter’s insurance covers everything they own – TVs, electronics, furniture, clothes – and costs as little as $15/month. That said, in some areas coverage can be hard to find or afford, so point residents to local insurance counseling where it’s needed.
Safeguard key documents
For lower-income audiences, address security fears and offer trusted human help. For general audiences, make the action feel quick and concrete: a few minutes to photograph key documents and store them safely.
Matched savings, assessments, certificates, and resilience grants
Lead with the concrete payoff — money saved, incentives unlocked, lower premiums, or home improvements funded. Pair the offer with navigation support and don’t scare people off with the fine print. Instead of “Eligibility criteria,” try: “You should apply if…”
Make the next step concrete.
A good call to action names a doable next step, anticipates barriers, and routes the resident to a trusted, specific destination.
Book an appointment
Describe what residents will get out of the appointment and whether it is in-person, virtual, or both.
Sign up for a program
Keep the sign up form as short as possible and feature the trusted city/partner name.
Attend a workshop
Emphasize what people will leave with. Lower the barrier with language like “nothing to prepare.”
Take a direct action
Say how long it takes and offer help doing it, even if the step seems simple.
Open a financial product
Anticipate barriers up front, such as “no overdraft fees,” and offer both DIY and supported paths.
Promote awareness
Make the resource findable later: “Screenshot this” or “save this with your important documents.”
Ready to get started?
Start from a ready-to-use direction, then adapt the message using this guidance.