 Most credit unions recognize that they have a stake in the vitality of the communities in which they reside. By virtue of their service-oriented nature, the majority of credit unions already actively play a part in philanthropic activities, supporting various charities and activities.
Yet many credit unions have never considered making activities directed at benefiting the stakeholders in their community part of a strategic plan. Encouraging credit unions to do that is a fundamental goal of the MCUL's Community Reinvestment Initiative (CRI), which seeks to focus the historical credit union commitment to community service and promote public awareness of these efforts.
Every Michigan credit union that decides to make these activities part of its strategic plan will not only create a great deal of social benefit — they'll also be strengthening the credit union movement.
To be truly effective, a social mission must take the good deeds that a credit union engages in and raise them to the strategic level. These activities must be specific and measurable, and should be targeted in their approach. Like any good strategic plan, your approach to a social mission should be focused on taking advantage of the strengths of the credit union and the needs of your membership, potential membership, or community — or any specific area your credit union may feel particularly passionate about.
Also, as in any good strategic plan, credit unions must be able to recognize their limitations, which might mean saying "no" to some of the community organizations seeking support. As the adage goes, "You can't be all things to all people." This frequently means starting small and targeting your services at select groups, or limiting your resources to select social activities.
Some Questions to Ask
So you've decided that you'd like to proceed with developing a social mission and would like to discuss it at your next board meeting. How to proceed? Below are some questions you might use to stimulate ideas about your social mission:
- What are the opportunities to improve service to your member-ship and potential membership?
- What are the needs of your community, communities or membership groups?
- Does your credit union have any causes you feel particularly passionate about?
- What are the special strengths of the credit union? Does your staff have any special skills?
- How can you create a social mission that defines who you are and demonstrates your key products and services?
- Does the credit union currently partner with any particular com-munity or social organizations?
- Are there opportunities to partner with any of these organizations in your area?
- What was the original group or purpose for which the credit union was founded, and are there any opportunities to use your social mission to support these roots?
- What are other credit unions in your area doing in terms of special services to meet the needs of the community?
- Do you have any minority/ ethnic communities or low-income groups that you could reach out to?
- Should you have a social mission statement? If so, how will you define it?
Product and Service Review
Once you've established a social mission for your organization that fits within your strategic plan, you should assess how well your products and services support your social mission. You can do this by assessing the following:
- What are the products and services currently offered which help support your social mission?
- What new products and services may be necessary to support your social mission?
- Do your product and service offerings meet the needs of your membership? (Multi-lingual products, special services to peoplewith disabilities, etc.)
- Do you offer any member financial education?
- How can you leverage your branches better to reach people within your community?
- Does your credit union have programs and services to help improve the economic standing of your membership?
- How well are your services meeting the needs of your membership?
- Do your marketing activities support your social mission, as well as your business plan?
After going through this process, you'll likely find both opportunities to improve your service and limitations of what you can offer — but don't become discouraged. Every credit union will face constraints. It's better to focus on what you can do rather than what you can't.
This may mean trying to leverage CUSOs to offer some services that you don't independently have the expertise to offer, or even referring members whom you can't serve to institutions that can. It means starting small with focused outreach and attainable goals. The important thing is that you put these goals down in writing and communicate them to staff.
It also means that your board begins reviewing how successful you are at reaching your goals on a regular basis. There is nothing truer than the statement, "What gets measured, gets done."
If each credit union makes an effort to make social outreach part of their strategic plan, then the sky is the limit in what credit unions can accomplish. This would go a long way towards serving communities, meeting the needs of the disadvantaged — and protecting the credit union tax exemption.
As someone once pointed out, "Credit unions should not only want to do well, they should want to do good." In other words, they seek to achieve more than financial success — they should also want to do good for their communities and stakeholders.
That is the essence of what a good credit union is about.
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