Given the challenges faced during this tough economy, somecredit unions are taking another look at their community outreachefforts.

At Pasadena Federal Credit Union, an emphasis on reaching out toexisting select employee groups has proven successful, said JohnSchaefer, director of marketing/business development at the $134million credit union.

Since he joined PFCU a little more than two years ago, Schaeferhas worked hard to reestablish connections with the credit union's100 community SEGs and open a dialogue about their needs.

“A lot of our existing SEGs are nonprofit, so there's anopportunity there. And one of the main goals of the initialmeetings were to reintroduce ourselves to the human resourcescontact and find out how we can help and serve them better movingforward,” Schaefer said. “It's not about pushing yourself as yetanother salesperson but really talking to them to get a better ideaof who they are and exploring together how we can help.”

He said the strategy of building real personal connections hashelped reinforce the credit union's position as a true communitypartner.

“We emphasize how as a credit union we share similar goals andwe understand where they are coming from,” Schaefer said. “We focuson the individual, stressing that membership is an added benefitfor businesses to offer employees free of charge.”

In keeping with PFCU's role as a community partner, Schaefersaid he also tries to help local small businesses connect with oneanother as a way to form a synergy among the SEGs the credit unionserves.

For example, to celebrate its 75th anniversary, PFCU sponsored aroller-skating party in Glendale at the Moonlight Rollerway skatingrink owned by Dominic Cangelosi, a PFCU member and credit unionadvocate for more than three decades. The party also benefited oneof the credit union's SEGs: Rosemary Children's Services, a charitythat helps more than 400 abused, abandoned and neglected childreneach year. The Pasadena and San Gabriel chambers of commerce helpedpromote the event.

“Many movies and television shows, including a recent episode of“Glee,” have filmed at [Cangelosi's] historic rink, so to us it wasthe perfect venue to raise money for an essential organization likeRosemary Children's Services,” Schaefer said.

As PFCU is the credit union for Art Center College of Design, headded that it also made sense to commission one of its alumni topaint a 90-square-foot mural to commemorate the credit union'smilestone anniversary. Inspired by the theme of “BuildingPasadena,” the mural will feature iconic images from around thecity and depict individuals who represent PFCU members. The muralis slated to be installed in the PFCU lobby on Sept. 23 andunveiled by the mayor of Pasadena and Supervisor Mike Antonovich,who is also a longtime member. In addition, artwork by Art Centerstudents will be on display.

“It's going to be a great way to wave the flag for PFCU andhighlight our community involvement,” Schaefer said. “We can't justtalk about the credit union difference-we have to show it.”

Over at Technology Credit Union in San Jose, Calif., communityoutreach has been redefined in the seven months since President/CEOBarbara Kamm came onboard.

With a belief in strengthening the credit union's ties andrelationships with local Silicon Valley businesses, Kamm hasfocused on education, job creation and basic needs as a way to helpmaintain the local quality of life and economic stability. Todemonstrate that belief, she created the position of vice presidentof community relations and tapped Kim Vu, assistant vice presidentof private banking, to step into the new role. Kamm said the morethan $1.3 billion credit union has taken steps to identifycommunity outreach opportunities that align with its corevalues.

“It's in our DNA as a credit union to be very involved in thecommunity and support the people who are doing good work,” Kammsaid. “The difference between what we're doing now, as opposed towhat we've done in the past, is that we now have a dedicated personwho will focus our outreach in the areas that make the most sensefor Tech CU as a company and for the technology community in theBay Area, identifying community outreach areas that Tech CU can getinvolved in where there is synergy with our values and the valuesof our member companies.”

Tech CU's plans include concentrating on supporting nonprofitorganizations and programs that focus on education in the areas ofinnovation, science, technology, engineering and math. To that end,Tech CU has searched for opportunities that will have a big impact,from working with Intel Math to help teachers improve theirinstruction through having a better understanding of and foundationin mathematics, to joining forces with Singularity University, alocal graduate-level organization supported by NASA that aims tonurture future leaders who will address the world's challenges.

“If Silicon Valley is to maintain its competitive advantage inthe global market, students have to be better educated and preparedto succeed in college and compete in the workforce and it startswith the teachers,” Vu said. “We want to help them become theleaders of tomorrow and the work being done at SingularityUniversity is phenomenal. “They look for students and executives atthe top of their industry and during a 10-week summer program theychallenge them with the big question of, 'How do we change theworld and impact the most people to improve society?' It'sinterdisciplinary work being done to create new solutions andinterestingly two of the ideas out of last summer's program gotventure capital support.”

With the health and vitality of the economy in the Bay Area andCalifornia directly connected to job creation and growth, Tech CUalso supports such programs and has become more involved inadvocating for public policies that create high tech jobs in theregion-especially those that contribute to the new, clean energyeconomy.

“We want to create an ecosystem of support and advisers forentrepreneurs, not just loans,” Kamm said. “Even if they can'tqualify for a member business loan they do need advice, counselingand to network with people who know what to do. That's what we tryto do in our community-develop member-company relationships thatcreate a credit union network connection to small businesses tocome work with us.”

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