WASHINGTON–CUNA Strategic Services (CSS) is reporting it has entered into an alliance with CNote, the women-led social enterprise and impact investment platform, to bring its member credit unions a flow of new “socially conscious deposits” that are long-term, flexible and community-focused.
According to CSS, the capital commitments will promote diversity and inclusion by prioritizing mission-driven credit unions that have the greatest capital needs, enabling them to expand lending, credit building and other support and educational services to members.
“Credit unions have been community-first leaders for years. Our work with CNote and its diverse base of corporate impact investors means that credit unions can dramatically expand their economic mobility work and gain access, for free, to a new base of impact-first deposits,” said Barb Lowman, president, CUNA Strategic Services. “This new alliance with CNote will create greater financial inclusion across the country that far surpasses any monetary value – it’s just the right thing to do for our movement.”
According to the organizations, CNote helps socially conscious institutional and corporate investors, including PayPal and Mastercard, move capital into underserved communities.
Knowing When & Where
“Corporations have made significant commitments to support underserved communities in response to the growing movement for racial justice,” CSS stated. “But knowing when and where to deploy capital can be a challenge and has resulted in some community organizations turning away cash while others face great need.”
CSS said CNote’s technology solves that problem by dynamically flowing capital to community financial institutions that need it most, streamlining the process for both investors and credit unions.
‘Key to Closing Gap’
“We believe credit unions are key to closing the wealth gap in the United States, and we are looking forward to connecting with these inspiring mission-driven institutions on multiple fronts,” said Catherine Berman, CEO of CNote.
Since its founding more than five years ago, CNote reported it has driven more than $100 million to underserved communities across America.
CNote said it charges no fees to participating credit unions and works directly with them to provide capital when it is needed, where it is needed, with maximum community impact.