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When Outback Stores goes into a community to talk about the possibility of taking over the management of a shop, it uses a tool called the Money Story (R) to help community members in the decision-making process.
 Using simple graphics and language, the Money Story translates complicated financial information into a form that is easy to understand, overcoming barriers created by language and different standards of numeracy and literacy.
The process takes into account that in some cultures there are no concepts for things such as “expenditure”, “variance” and “budget”. Because the concepts do not exist, neither do the words.
The Money Story is a tool for making this translation so anyone can understand the information. It reproduces the core ideas in standard financial reports using graphics and pictures with little or no loss of detail.
It allows for a two-way process of feedback giving people the means of planning and managing their own finances.
In the case of Outback Stores, The Money Story helps the community understand how the store is situated in terms of profit and loss, the financial process in relation to the management agreement, how loans work and how profits are distributed.
The first Money Story was presented in the Mimili community in Central Australia in 1985 and the program has gone on to be tried and tested with Indigenous people over many years. It has been so successful that Little Fish (the company that now runs Money Story programs) was the first Northern Territory business to win at national level in the Telstra/Australian Government Business Awards.
For further information go to www.littlefish.com.au
Money Story Example Graphic (pdf)
Money Story Example Text (pdf)
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