SAN ANTONIO–A $36,000 credit union has been chosen for a $10,000 prize.
Star Credit Union, the only youth-chartered credit union in the country, was selected for the prize after winning “The Pitch” competition here as part of the CUNA Marketing and Business Development Council meeting. Star CU operates under the umbrella of Summit Credit Union in Madison, Wis.
In The Pitch competition three credit unions present ideas for how they would use the funds if selected. After the pitches are complete, attendees then select the winner for the funds, which are provided by Mills Marketing.
Kristel Renn, CEO of Star CU, pitched expanding its youth outreach with Camp Millionaire, a summer-long camp that would teach financial literacy and entrepreneurship. Star CU currently has 667 kids as members.
“Although we are very tiny, we make a huge impact on our members’ lives,” said Renn.
The other two credit unions in The Pitch were:
- ANECA FCU, Shreveport, La. ANECA’s CEO, Stephanie Sievers, and head of marketing, Amber Free, pitched a product solution they have put in place called Project InvestIn. It was launched to both help members and address an issue the credit union faced: it was more than 90% loaned out and in need of liquidity. It offers a 12-month CD that pays 2% interest, with 1% going to the member and the other 1% dividend going to the charity/cause of the member’s choice. The second part is a “round-up” program on the debit card where purchase amounts are rounded up to the next dollar, and the funds are placed into an account that pays a whopping 12% dividend. Sievers called them “killer products” that it has now taken to the PTA and others in its community to sell for them.
The $105-million ANECA, which uses the slogan “We’re Different That Way,” also has a strong “swag” program that distributes pieces to members to help spread the word about their favorite charity. “No good deed goes unposted,” said Sievers. “We made it super simple to allow them to display their cause of choice.”
At the end of the year members also get a statement showing how much they donated.
- The second pitch came from Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union, which was seeking the funds to help underwrite a Brand Ambassadors program. “In a world where consumers have so many choices of how and where to do their banking, what makes a local credit union compete with the big guys? We believe it’s the sense of community we build with our members,” the credit union said in its pitch. “We also want to help them celebrate their successes and pick them up when things aren’t going so well.”
To do that, Seattle Metro planned to provide its branch reps with up to $100 a quarter to spend in ways that would personally connect with members, often through small deeds.