The Remarkable Credit Union

Credit unions have long been enthusiastic champions of their communities, but can they be doing more? How can they think outside the box to catalyze social change?

Sharee Adkins, GoWest Credit Union Association Chief Impact Officer and Foundation Executive Director, joins us on this month's episode of The Remarkable Credit Union podcast to share examples of how credit unions in her region are joining forces and tapping into the strengths of their core business competencies to tackle daunting social challenges.

She also addresses this month's BIG question:

How can credit unions leverage grant dollars to proactively tackle the challenges facing their communities, and how can they most effectively market their impact?

Most credit union employees are familiar with the cooperative principles, including Principle #6: Cooperation Among Cooperatives. Yet it seems this principle has yet to be fully realized within the credit union movement. That's why when we saw that Coastal Credit Union had hired a VP of Cooperative Strategies, we took notice. We'd never heard of someone with that job title at a credit union before.

Emily Nail is not only Coastal Credit Union's first VP of Cooperative Strategies, she also serves as Executive Director of the Coastal Credit Union Foundation and previously served as Executive Director of the Cooperative Council of North Carolina (CCNC). We were thrilled to invite her to The Remarkable Credit Union podcast to talk about her new role, her take on North Carolina's rich cooperative history, and this month's BIG question:

How can credit unions collaborate with other local co-ops to work toward building a thriving cooperative economy?

Credit unions are known for the emphasis they place on building authentic human relationships with their members. But at the same time, digital advances are transforming the financial industry, smaller credit unions are getting acquired, and larger credit unions are only getting bigger.

George Hofheimer, former EVP and Chief Research and Development Officer at Filene, returns to The Remarkable Credit Union podcast to discuss his new book, Banking on a Human Scale, and to address this month’s BIG Question: 

How can credit unions operate on a human scale to thrive in a world that worships growth and technology?

Credit unions have always been better cooperators than competitors. The joint investments of five Washington-based credit unions to the Evergreen Impact Housing Fund (EIHF) is a shining example of the "cooperation among cooperatives" principle in action.

The greater Seattle area is one of the country’s most expensive metro regions, and escalating housing costs make it hard for working-class consumers to live in the area. EIHF creates what it calls “catalytic investment opportunities” that make affordable apartment complexes more attractive to developers.

Jen Reed, VP of Public Relations at Sound Credit Union (a PixelSpoke client), joins us to talk about Sound's collaboration with BECU, Washington State Employees Credit Union, Salal Credit Union, and Verity Credit Union to tackle this thorny social issue and magnify impact. We also discuss how this effort has benefited Sound's public image, what lessons Sound has learned from the process, and what future projects are on the horizon.

Credit unions, by their nature, are community oriented, but some are more intentional about their commitment to impact. Community Development Financial Institutions, or CDFIs, are a perfect case in point. Credit unions now represent a third of the CDFI industry, serving more than 16 million predominantly low income consumers and communities of color.

Chriselle Martinez, CDFI Program Director at Inclusiv, joins The Remarkable Credit Union podcast to talk about what it means to be CDFI certified, how CDFIs benefit their communities, and how they themselves benefit from the certification process.

She also tackles this month's BIG question:

What are the most important considerations for a credit union that is considering applying for CDFI certification?

Is the financial industry committed to the common good? If you equate the financial industry with megabanks, the answer would likely be a resounding no. Though millions of Americans are megabank customers, it's doubtful many of us believe that these banks have our best interests at heart.

Here's the good news: The financial industry presents us with many viable alternatives. There are several parallel and overlapping movements that point to a better way to bank: member-owned credit unions, Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), and values-based financial institutions, to name a few. Montana-based Clearwater Credit Union is all three.

This month, President & CEO Jack Lawson joins us to talk about what banking on values looks like in action, how the six principles guide Clearwater's strategy and every operational decision, and why marketing around impact is harder and better than the alternative.

Many credit unions differentiate from banks by pointing out that they are member-owned, but the average consumer doesn't always understand what that means. Though our country tends to idolize entrepreneurs and CEOs, we are less likely to think too much about ownership and its various implications.

Cooperatives — whether worker-owned like PixelSpoke or member-owned like our credit union clients — bring the issue of ownership to the forefront, pushing us to think more deeply about who should have a voice and a stake.

This month, we're excited to welcome our Operations Manager Katie Stone as our guest host to untangle this knotty issue with Rebecca Fisher-McGinty, a worker owner at Round Sky Solutions and a graduate of Saint Mary’s University’s Masters of Cooperative Management program, and McKenzie Jones, an off-grid farmer turned social scientist who brings a deep commitment to service and equity into her work with cooperatives.

Together they tackle this month's BIG question:

How can co-ops help us pave the way to a solidarity economy that bakes diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts directly into ownership structures?

Our podcast is called The Remarkable Credit Union, but what does that mean, exactly? What distinguishes a good credit union from a remarkable one?

Steve Bugg, President and CEO of the award-winning Great Lakes Credit Union (GLCU), joins us to talk about GLCU's own journey from good to remarkable, including how their “standards of greatness” enabled and inspired them to successfully launch numerous innovative impact initiatives. He also addresses this month's BIG question:

How does a credit union develop a strategic vision and corresponding value system that meaningfully guide its day-to-day operations at all levels and across all teams?

At one time, there were over 9,000 Blockbuster Video stores. Today, just one remains. It happens to be in my home state of Oregon, just a few hours away.

If you were born in the 2000s, you might not remember the days when we had to physically transport ourselves to a video rental store if we wanted to watch a movie at home, nor is the name Blockbuster Video likely to mean much to you. But the rest of us associate the name with both astounding success and spectacular failure. Blockbuster was a Fortune 500 company in 2007 and declared bankruptcy in 2010.

So what does all this have to do with crypto and credit unions? Kyle Hauptman, Vice Chairman of the NCUA, joins us on The Remarkable Credit Union podcast to address this month's BIG Question:

How can credit unions be the Netflix, not the Blockbuster Video, of crypto, and what actions is the NCUA taking to encourage innovation in the space?

We talk about how regulators are encouraging innovation in cryptocurrency and blockchain, why credit unions have a head start over banks, and what three areas he would focus on if he were a credit union CEO.

They say that this past summer is one for the record books when it comes to climate-related disasters. Amidst the doom and gloom, however, the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) represents a significant commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the next few decades.

But what does this all have to do with credit unions? Quite a lot, actually. Neda Arabshahi, Vice President of the Inclusiv Center for Resiliency and Clean Energy, joins us to talk about the climate finance revolution, which she sees as both a responsibility and an opportunity for credit unions. We discuss the key obstacles to setting up a climate finance initiative, how to make it successful, and what's entailed in designing and scaling climate-friendly financing solutions that promote affordable and sustainable energy for all people.

This month's BIG question: Considering the recent passage of the United States’ most aggressive climate bill to date, what role can credit unions play to help maximize the impact of this new legislation?