BATON ROUGE, La. – Through CUAid and other channels, the National Credit Union Foundation reported that it and the Louisiana Credit Union Foundation have raised over $300,000 to help 430 credit union employees affected by the devastating flooding in late August.
“In my 33-year credit union career I have seen and worked through many natural disasters,” said R. Keith Cranfield, chief risk officer at EFCU Financial FCU in Baton Rouge, La. “I am always impressed with the resilience of the people of Southern Louisiana, but I’m most impressed with the generosity of those individuals not affected. I want to personally thank the Louisiana Credit Union League, the Foundation, and all of the credit unions and employees for their generosity in this time of need. I lost nearly all of my appliances and furniture as well as many of our family memories and treasures. When someone thinks of you in your time of need, it is priceless. The funds provided to me and all of our other employees are greatly appreciated.”
Following the flooding, in an effort to assist with the relief efforts in Southeast Louisiana, the Louisiana Credit Union League also issued a national challenge, the Louisiana CU Strong Challenge, to encourage friendly competition amongst Louisiana credit unions to match or beat each other in donations to the Louisiana Credit Union Foundation. Credit unions participated by posting a video or their official "challenge accepted" photo using the hashtag #LACUStrong on Twitter, helping raise more than $67,000 ultimately.
“The #LACUStrong Challenge was created to help bring awareness and financial assistance to the victims of the great August flood,” said Lacey Hyer, LCUL VP of communications and public relations. “However, we weren’t expecting the emotional strength and support that it provided to so many. For the credit union community to step up the way they did was so humbling. It helped lift so many spirits and reminded us all that there is no better place to work than credit unions. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
According to the Foundation, affected credit unions in Louisiana offered – and continue to offer - support to staff, such as:
- Paid time off to handle flood recovery insurance appointments;
- Dress-down days;
- Free grief counseling sessions;
- Donations of cleaning supplies, clothing, toiletries from non-affected staff;
- Extensions on loan payments to employees/members;
- Flexible work schedules to coincide with children's school schedule (for those employees whose children's schools had adopted a platoon schedule, or for those who were having to drive further to get their child to a different school);
- Once the Louisiana CU Foundation distributed quick cash grants of up to $500 to affected CU staff, many CUs matched the grant amount;
- Staff were allowed to bring their children to work for two weeks;
- Credit unions fed their staff lunch for the first two weeks; and
- One CU staff member was letting another employee borrow her car.
During the campaign, as donations were posted through CUAid.coop, the National Credit Union Foundation coordinated with the Louisiana Credit Union Foundation to distribute money efficiently to affected credit union employees. One hundred percent of the donations through CUAid goes to credit union disaster relief. In the event that all donations are not used for Louisiana flooding relief, the National Credit Union Foundation said it will transfer any and all unused funds to its "General Disaster Relief fund" for future disaster relief efforts.