What are other creative ways credit unions can drive business relationships in the local community?

Talk to other credit unions who are doing this. There are about 1800 credit unions that offer Member Business Loans today. Engage with your friends and work associates and ask for their tips and tricks. For example, St. Helens Community CU engaged with local businesses in a different way. They recorded micro videos highlighting small business and feature them on their social media channels. It raised awareness of local businesses, and reinforced the credit union's support of the community. In the Filene report "Room to Grow: Credit Union Business Lending" (Walker, 2015) the author provides this conclusion: "Small business has been a major source of increased employment and the source of much innovation in the United States for several decades. Thus, credit unions should find it imperative to enhance their business lending services and offerings."
Consider a mobile engagement platform like Larky. With more than 40 credit union clients in the U.S., Larky has the engine and deep experience in our space. Two pilot participants in particular, United Teletech Financial Federal Credit Union in New Jersey and Christian Financial in Michigan, have continued to use Larky with particular success among small businesses. The pilot studies Filene conducted examined the very real tension credit unions face in needing to increase non-interest income without alienating members or compromising their credit union difference. Testing showed that loyalty programs with local business could be a strong strategy for growing engagement, brand awareness, and non-interest income that provides value to members, is cost-effective, uses a member-preferred channel, engages the next generation, and grows community and business relationships.
Embrace Principle 6. As a financial cooperative, credit unions should be keeping the 7 Cooperative Principles on their radar and looking to walk the talk of their cooperative nature whenever possible. The Filene report "Cooperation among Cooperatives: Quantifying the Business Case for Credit Unions and Other Cooperatives" (Dopico, Rogers, 2015) explained that "beyond the quantifiable interest-rate benefits that cooperatives could obtain from shifting deposits, investments, and loans to credit unions, cooperatives would benefit from obtaining financial services from a broader range of participants in financial markets. Examples of cross sector cooperative collaboration are many, and include cross-promoting membership, locating credit union branches and ATMs in non-financial cooperatives, and cross-marketing initiatives such as co-branded credit cards." On the purely quantitative side, the report concluded that if cooperatives shifted a large fraction of their deposits (50% or $37.5 billion) from commercial banks to credit unions, they could earn an additional $2.2 billion in interest over 10 years. Those shifts could help both credit unions and cooperatives, significantly.
Join a small business collective. Keep Saint Petersburg Local is part of the American Independent Business Alliance. More than 85 local communities across America leverage the work of AIBA today. Check them out and search for local businesses near you at https://www.amiba.net/.

Engaging with local businesses offers a whole range of benefits, and it offers the magic win-win-win combination: for your members, for local businesses and the economy, and for you. Let me know how you are keeping it local at @erinc_filene or erinc@filene.org.

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Keeping It Local: Growing Business Streams in Your Community

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