Jamie Chase has always looked for the opportunity that adversity provides as a way to help make the world a better place.

“Every bad thing that has happened in my life led to something great,” said the founder and “instigator of goodness” at CU Strategic Planning, a Tacoma, Wash.-based consulting firm. “I'm grateful for the worst things that have happened to me because it's helped shape who I am today and why I stand up for people.”

Having grown up in the historic cooperative village of Zoar, Ohio, provided the latest Women to Watch honoree with a unique perspective on the power and potential cooperatives have to offer.

Built in the early 1800s, Zoar serves as an example of one of the most successful cooperative villages in the history of the United States. Today, it is made up of some 75 families living in homes built from 1817 to the present who work together to promote tourism.

Raised in a family of entrepreneurs, between Chase's grandmother, who used to give tours on cooperatives, and an uncle who was an inventor, one could say it was a matter of time before she landed in the credit union industry.

At a transition point in her career after working for the Public Broadcasting Service television network, a friend and mentor who recognized Chase could do anything next, urged her to write her values down as a mission statement first. Chase ended up applying for a job at the Washington Credit Union League. Before starting, she didn't realize the values were aligned with her own of social responsibility, stability and ongoing education.

Not able to deny the entrepreneurial pull in her blood, Chase eventually founded CU Strategic Planning in 2008 as a way to help credit unions build innovative programs designed to reduce poverty and build on the credit union ideal of economic self-help.

“I'd advise everyone to create their own values-based mission statement. We've only got one life. If you don't love what you are doing now, then take a moment to think about what you might enjoy doing because you aren't doing anyone any favors by staying put,” she said. “It's okay if something doesn't meet our expectations because that creates a fire for the next thing. Every career move I've made, I've revisited that statement and it's clear to me when it's time to do something new.”

Read more: Going beyond basic collaboration …

Chase said she started her business because she wanted to be a solutions creator.

“We're not just grant writers; we are social engineers,” she said. “Our business model is about creating partnerships, exploring needs where credit unions can provide the education and financing to create jobs, reduce poverty, increase assets and really help local communities grow. Credit unions were the first organizations to give loans to women in their own names. What's going on in our time now that could use some economic justice?”

With the belief that the answer is always “no” unless you ask, Chase said sometimes, the industry could get in its own way. For instance, the assumption that low-income means homeless and all the jargon and negative associations that stem from that stereotype can prevent credit unions from better serving the poor.

“With the great income divide, legally when you talk about low-income designation, it's your average blue collar, working American, every single enlisted man or woman, school teachers, city workers running our communities on their backs, and the majority of workers in the hospitals from the nurse's aide to cafeteria worker,” Chase said.

“So, while sometimes we hear from boards concerned that 'low-income members' would scare off existing members, most of the time when we go in and look at the income of all the borrowers at a credit union, they are surprised when a majority are low-income,” she noted.

Once the inaccurate perception of low-income status has shifted, Chase would then like to see the words “financial literacy” eradicated.

“I know I don't want to be called illiterate, that's one of the rudest words in our industry. It does us a great disservice; because that is how budgeting classes are advertised,” she said.

“The people who actually need budgeting classes are very different than those we perceive to need them. Those with lower incomes are some of the best budgeters in our country because they have to track every penny to pay for gas, food, and to keep the electricity on,” Chase explained.

More than overregulation, and some bureaucracy that can stagnate the industry, Chase said the disconnect of aging boards that out of touch with their membership may be one of the greatest credit union challenges ahead. Misunderstanding the needs of members can subsequently lead to a lack of vision and relevance in communities served.

“The company that made the buggy whip recognized its mission to make things go but it didn't change with the times,” she said. “With Apple Pay, new forms of predatory lending always evolving, the credit union industry has the potential to be the buggy whip if we don't identify the opportunities around us and change with the times.”

Pointing out that in the nonprofit arena alone, there are organizations that would welcome a credit union to serve its market.

“Why not have a nationwide Habitat for Humanity credit union? Is there an opportunity to repurpose your existing charter,” Chase asked.

For example, most of the Kansas City, Mo.-based Holy Rosary Credit Union's members were Italian immigrants. Over the years, as first generation Italians moved into new neighborhoods, the $18 million credit union recognized the opportunity to help the new immigrants settling into the community without changing its charter.

“Find any way possible to engage the community. Have a system in place to constantly find out what the community needs and the American people need – that's how the credit union industry will thrive,” she said. “Imagine what we could accomplish if we put as much ieffort into innovating new products and being true to what we were created for as we put into fighting banks?”

She suggested credit unions get community leaders together alongside those in the nonprofit sector to find out what consumer and community needs are as a way to create new lending pipelines, and the next generation of products.

“There is never a point in time where innovation stops or consumer needs don't evolve. Women couldn't get loans in their name 65 years ago,” Chase said. “I see an opportunity evolving in the arena of mental illness. At some point, most families will be impacted by a relative with mental illness, including livable disorders like ADHD. What unique services or account alerts can be developed to mitigate the risk of serving these individuals who are already our members? How can we design account features to increase their financial stability, reduce their vulnerability and prevent losses to the credit union?”

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Cooperative Upbringing Frames Chase's Approach: W2W

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