Advisers Give Back Get started — it’s free

Free help from a financial adviser, in the Bay Area.

Bay Forward pairs people and families with a volunteer adviser, by phone. No judgment. Advisers must put your interests first and can’t sell you anything.

Get started — it’s free

For households earning under $100,000 a year ($150,000 for a couple), with under $250,000 saved. You don’t need a job.

A financial adviser? Volunteer with us. A library or community group? Partner with us.

Offered with libraries and groups you know.

  • San Francisco Public Library
  • Oakland Public Library
  • Alameda County Library
  • SF’s Economic Justice Center
  • BrightBee
  • The Health Trust

Did one of these send you?

Pick its name to get started, so it gets credit for sending you.

No one sent you? You’re welcome too. Get started — it’s free

Our story

This is where it all begins.

Advisers Give Back began in the Bay Area. We became a nonprofit in Oakland in January 2020, and in April our first pilot paired people who needed help with volunteer advisers from the Financial Planning Association’s San Francisco chapter. Bay Forward, launching in early 2027, brings that work home, and it’s built to travel: the same model, in metro areas around the country.

  1. Founded in Oakland

    Advisers Give Back became a California nonprofit.

  2. The first pilot

    Volunteers from the Financial Planning Association’s San Francisco chapter met their first clients, online from the start as the pandemic began. The Foundation for Financial Planning funded it.

  3. Open to the whole country

    advisersgiveback.org opened nationally, and wealth firms began volunteering as partners.

  4. A first pilot in another city

    With the T. Rowe Price Foundation in Baltimore: 89 first meetings.

  5. Bay Forward launches

    Our first program for one region, with San Francisco Public Library, Oakland Public Library and BrightBee in San Jose.

  6. Metro areas across the country

    Everything we learn here goes into a playbook, so the same model can open in the next metro area, and the one after that.

  • It’s home. We started here, and Bay Area advisers were our first volunteers.

  • The need is here. 1,759 people in the nine Bay Area counties had signed up by August 2026, months before Bay Forward’s launch.

  • The doors are here. Libraries and partners people already trust, in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose.

  • Built to travel. What works here becomes the playbook for metro areas around the country.

People from across the Bay Area are already asking for help.

Each dot is a city, sized by how many people there signed up for a free adviser. Tap a dot or a city, or pick a county.

A map of the Bay Area with a dot for each city where people signed up; bigger dots, more sign-ups. The list beside it gives every number.

From the ZIP code each person gave when they signed up, through August 20, 2026: 1,759 sign-ups in the nine Bay Area counties. A ZIP code counts toward the city the Postal Service names for it. Cities with fewer than 5 sign-ups aren’t named. 4 cities tie for 25th place, so all 4 are listed.

What’s the catch? There isn’t one.

  • Nothing to buy, ever. Bay Forward is from Advisers Give Back, a nonprofit. Advisers can’t take you on as a paying client.

  • Advisers must put your interests first. They’re fiduciaries. We check their credentials and public record before you meet.

Get started — it’s free

Three steps to a plan of your own.

  1. Tell us what’s going on

    Answer friendly questions online about your goals and your money.

  2. Meet your adviser

    Pick one of your adviser’s open times. Your adviser calls you through our line.

  3. Make a plan together

    Meet as many times as you both find useful.

Get started — it’s free

You won’t be the first to ask for help.

She created an actionable plan for me, broken up into smaller tasks so everything didn’t feel so overwhelming.
Francesca, Oakland Public Library patron
  • 6,800+signed up, from all 50 states
  • 9 in 10say they left their first meeting more confident
  • 97%say their adviser was kind
How we count

These are national numbers from our impact dashboard as of October 21, 2026. It updates every week. We count everyone who has signed up since 2021, rounded down to the nearest hundred. The other two numbers come from 546 surveys people answered after a first meeting. “Kind” means they rated their adviser “kind and empathetic” as excellent or good.

See every number on our impact dashboard

For financial advisers

Financial advisers: your neighbors need you.

Libraries and local partners in three cities now send people our way, and each person who signs up needs an adviser. Help by phone, at times you set, through our nonprofit.

  1. We find the people. We match you with people who’ve asked for help.

  2. You come in prepared. Before each meeting, you see their sign-up answers, including their top goal in their own words.

  3. Our line, not yours. Calls go through our line, so clients see our number, not yours.

Apply to volunteer

How volunteering works

For libraries and community groups

Run a library or community group? Bring this free help to your people.

Partner with us, and we’ll make you your own page and a kit to share it.

  • Your own page. With your logo and a sign-up link that credits you.

  • A kit to share it. Email and social text, quote cards for social media, and a flyer in English and Spanish with a QR code.

  • Money guides on your page. Your people can search our free guides and read them without leaving your page.

Become a partner

A volunteer adviser is ready when you are.

Get started — it’s free
Get started — it’s free