MADISON, Wis.—The personal balance sheet of many people has not been improving at the same pace as the economy, and that has the National Credit Union Foundation this year focused on helping CUs “look through their members’ eyes.”
Foundation Executive Director Gigi Hyland emphasized the importance of credit unions recognizing the struggles consumers still face, of not being misled into thinking everyone’s personal finances have improved like the economy, and of providing financial education programs.
“Year after year, post-recession, we are not seeing year-by-year improvement in people’s financial lives,” said Hyland, citing Federal Reserve data that shows a signficant percentage of consumers are living paycheck to paycheck. “A large number of people are still struggling, so we are not seeing that bounce-back from the recession. Credit unions have to look through their members’ eyes, meet them where they are in life, and work their products and financial education around that.”
Hyland said credit unions can lose sight of the work they did during the recession, helping members overcome their financial struggles and achieve common goals, like saving for their child’s college education or setting aside money to take care of an aging family member.
Medical Debt Toolkit
The Foundation this year targeted medical debt, which the organization recognizes leads many households into bankruptcy. Earlier this summer the Foundation released its medical debt toolkit.
The toolkit contains information from a range of sources and provides credit union staff with a framework to identify medical debt issues and h
Gigi Hyland
elp members resolve their medical debt. It also provides information on how staff can help members quickly reduce or at least limit some medical bills.
Hyland said the Foundation has also been working with the Filene Research Institute and the Ford Foundation on a non-prime auto lending program.
“We focused on how you can get people into affordable quality cars so they hold down a better job, or even a job,” said Hyland. “These small things make a profound difference in people’s ability to achieve financial stability.”
Hyland said the Foundation is focused on experiential learning that helps credit union professionals understand the “practicality of the variety of issues around financial education.”
“Think about it, when you are 18 your financial needs are very different than when you are 20 years older,” said Hyland. “So how does the credit union really think about that from the member’s perspective and be responsive as a trusted financial partner to the member through life?”
Reality Fairs
High school reality fairs, as well as retirement fairs, have been some of the Foundation’s most successful programs said Hyland, adding that it is difficult to measure how well educational program really work, as the payoff is often years down the road. Hyland added that the Foundation is currently devising metrics to help measure the true impact of its educational offerings, which can help fine tune what the organization delivers.
“One of the most successful experiential learning programs we have is our life simulation. We spent considerable time recrafting the life simulations so they are much more modern, the family situations are much more real,” said Hyland, who said the new simulations will roll out soon. “So as a credit union professional you go through these and really live in the shoes of their members.”