For Charles Pratt, a society could morally improve only if its young were taught to be economically efficient. He was himself known as the richest man of Brooklyn, but he placed little value in money. He thought that money came secondary to success; it could not and should not be the primary goal of a man or a woman who belonged to a healthy society. Only someone who could be taught economic efficiency to manage his monies satisfactorily could ever even be successful.

Economic efficiency was such a complicit aspect of Pratt Institute that the idea of it was a separate department in itself. He believed that thrift was something that had to be practically taught to his students. For this, he developed the Thrift, a loan bank that would aid settlement workers obtain a home and would also help aid them in educating their children. It was his intent that this loan bank be operated by his students.