NBA star Chris Paul starts Goalsetter campaign to deposit $40 in a million minority youth accounts 

Financial tech company Goalsetter has launched its Black History Month campaign alongside basketball star Chris Paul, who will help minorities learn how to save money.

Featured athletes in the campaign will each select 100 youths and deposit $40 into savings accounts set up on the Goalsetter mobile banking app, the company told CNBC.

Paul will jump-start the campaign by drafting kids from the Club 61 Leadership Alliance in his hometown, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

 “Black History Month is a reminder of the hundreds of years that Black people have been a labor force and a consumer class in America,” Paul said in a statement. “This partnership is about learning from our history to create a strong future that prepares the next generation of Black and Brown kids to be savers and investors. Financial education is a necessary and critical component of creating an equal America.”

Individuals from the National Basketball Players Association, the WNBA, Major League Baseball and National Hockey League will also be asked to support the campaign.

Goalsetter is a mobile banking app that offers peer-to-peer banking transactions. Users can also put funds on its Cashola debit card, which is backed by Mastercard.

The firm announced a $3.9 million seeding round last month. Paul is one of the investors. Former Nickelodeon executive Tanya Van Court is the founder and CEO of Goalsetter.

In an interview with CNBC discussing its fundraising, Van Court said the app can help combat wealth inequality. The app offers saving lessons through financial literacy quizzes. Parents can set the debit card to lock on Sundays if younger users haven’t completed the weekly tests.

The campaign is dedicated to the “40 acres and a mule” resolution in 1865, which promised newly freed slaves land. Then-President Andrew Johnson later overturned the order.

“Every kid in America needs financial education to achieve success,” said Van Court. “Goalsetter’s smart banking app puts financial education front and center, and the NBPA’s players are bringing that financial education to families on their home courts all across the country.”

Goalsetter said accounts with the $40 deposits are FDIC insured. The campaign is aiming to reach 1 million kids.

“Our players have already started engaging with Goalsetter and using it with their own families,” said Que Gaskins, the NBPA’s chief brand and innovation officer. “We are excited about this opportunity to support them and working with Goalsetter to spark this movement around financial literacy for kids all over the country.”