While most businesses are cutting back on expenses, many creditunions are still giving and giving in a way that will help buildthe future. They're giving to Gen Y. Those credit unions are stillawarding scholarships, and some are giving more this year thanprevious years.

Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union handed out $350,000 inscholarships this year to more than 315 students from the highschool to post-graduate level. The credit union increased itsscholarship giving by $50,000 over the last year.

Since offering the scholarships, CEO Bogdan Chmielewski saidthat the credit union has seen a 4% increase in young membershipand has also seen an increase in overall membership. Chmielewskisaid that the credit union typically sees an increase in youngpeople signing up for membership in the months before thescholarships are offered.

“We're not only a financial institution but also a leader of thecommunity. We do these things because members come to us and knowthe benefit goes back to the community.”

The money to fund the scholarships comes from profit capital,and Chmielewsi said that Polish & Slavic has been lucky to havea very strong capital ratio of 11%.

“We're still making money, and we're going to prove to ourmembers that we stand behind them in difficult times,” he said.

The credit union also funded a stay for 20 gifted students at ascience camp at Copernicus Observatory in Vestal, N.Y., prior togiving out the scholarships. It also added a new scholarshipprogram. A $5,000 scholarship will be awarded to a member who isadmitted to study at the Institute of World Politics in Washington.Polish & Slavic also provided a $10,000 donation for theKosciuszko chair at the institute.

The Credit Union Foundation of Maryland and the District ofColumbia introduced a new addition to its scholarship program aswell-a video application category.

The foundation provides $11,000 in scholarships to members ofparticipating credit unions. A few years ago, Executive DirectorKyle Swisher said that it restructured the program so that creditunions could adopt the scholarship program as their own. Creditunions can now call the scholarship their own without referring tothe foundation, and the foundation provides them with artwork,posters and articles to promote the program.

“My relationship with the member is irrelevant. We wanted togive most of the spotlight to the credit unions so they can buildon existing Gen Y relationships and build new ones,” Swisherexplained about the need to restructure.

Though he didn't have any numbers, Swisher said that he knowsmembers have joined the participating credit unions just to takeadvantage of the scholarship because the foundation handles allquestions related to the scholarship program. Students have to be amember of a credit union to apply for the scholarship, but itdoesn't matter how long ago they became a member.

This year the foundation awarded scholarships to the top 10essay applicants and the top video applicant. The winning video isup on the foundation's Web site, www.cufound.org/scholarship.htm.The winning video featured a superhero called Credit Union Man whostops a young girl from giving her money to a bank and persuadesher to put it into a credit union. Members were asked to eitheranswer an essay question on how they envision credit unions run bystaff and volunteers under the age of 30 or produce a one-minutevideo on how banks and credit unions are different. The foundationhad over 200 essay and eight video applications to choose from.

The foundation posted all eight video applications on YouTubefor credit union members, employees and foundation judges to rate.The top-rated video was awarded the scholarship.

Loren Llanes, public relations specialist at South FloridaEducational Federal Credit Union, said that the credit union awardsits scholarships based on a random lottery rather than judgingessays, which gives students who are not as academically inclined achance to win as well.

South Florida Educational awards 15 Florida state four-year,full-tuition scholarships every year. If the student chooses to gooutside of the state or go to a private college, the credit unionawards the value of a state school tuition that can be appliedtoward out of state or private college tuition. A student must be amember at the credit union for a year in order to qualify.

“Members are surprised when they find out that it isfull-tuition. Even though ours has to be used for tuition, otherscholarships aren't, so they can be combined with ours and usedtoward things like room and board,” Llanes said.

Llanes does outreach in the community to make sure members areaware of the scholarship and can open up accounts in enough time toqualify.

The credit union has a summer intern program under which the CUsets up youth in low-income areas with jobs at localbusinesses.

When the students come to apply for the program, Llanes sitsdown with them one-on-one to explain the difference between a bankand a credit union, open their credit union account and talk tothem and their parents about the scholarship program.

“Some of the kids said that they had already heard about thescholarship program and some parents were already members.”

The funds for the scholarships come from the credit union'smarketing budget, and Llanes said that fortunately the credit unionhas not had to cut back on anything.

Funds for the Credit Union Foundation scholarships come fromdonations from credit unions, individuals, businesses and otherfoundations. And Swisher said that he is seeing more people step upand donate in spite of the recession.–[email protected]