"When I think of community outreach, I think of philanthropy … for-profit terminology," John Korber, SVP, strategy and innovation for the $526 million, Rocky Hill, Conn.-based Nutmeg State Financial Credit Union, explained. "Outreach means I have enough money to give away a few turkeys!"
Edward Filene, father of the American credit union movement, pioneered a vision of cooperative community financial services, which promoted equity and sustainability for the engaged workers of early 20th Century America. From the very beginning, credit unions sought to advance the well-being of members and communities they served. Today, our industry faces the challenge and the historical call to innovate and rejuvenate sustainable, relevant, revenue-generating community connection in a challenging financial climate approaching levels of uncertainty rivaled only by (and proving daily to be more precarious than) events like the Great Recession and Great Depression – which, for many professionals today, are primarily ancient events in history books.
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The streaming money phenomena – the rapidly materializing merger of money with the internet – and digital evolution of community, demand that credit unions extend their value to create diverse, equitable and inclusive ecospheres of engagement. These inclusive ecospheres of engagement or "digital fields of membership" are powerful opportunities untethered to your physical communities and unencumbered by the limitations of traditional fields of membership. They offer credit unions new ways to engage the public to promote and protect the financial wealth and health of communities.
Korber jumped back into credit union history to illustrate the point: "Ed Filene said, 'Listen, I'm not trying to run another bank! I'm trying to protect people … to protect this society that I am a part of.' That was never about philanthropy. It was about strengthening the fabric that stitches together the actual community."
Industrywide current events indicate the de facto dominance of the electronic dollar-exclusive networks like SWIFT/ACH/NACHA are (for the first time since the 1930s) being challenged by decentralized networks providing private and local storehouses for the fruits of individual and community labor. Innovations like blockchain, crypto and DeFi are creating more secure and cost-effective networks for your members. This is a generational opportunity for credit unions to weave together diverse, equitable, inclusive communities in the internet money era through decentralized financial products and services. It's well established in contemporary independent polling and research data that local businesses will be (and already are) the last bastions of institutional trust. This climate demonstrates that consumers will ultimately value their local financial institution in the modern money world. As money continues to morph beyond the electronic SWIFT/ACH dollar, how will your institution steward local wealth, offer local and democratic financial services, foster financial literacy and advance local economies?
Korber described this moment in history as "the opportunity to move from a very crowded space of high-tech driven banks to a data connected fabric stitcher that weaves together vibrant, flourishing community; not another entity that should periodically [engage in] outreach."
As the dust of digital disruption is swept away by credit unions that seized the moment, it will be the institutions that focused on mapping strategies and building operations that use core data to connect to community, support community commerce, and keep business and money local that thrive. These institutions will remain the nexus of modern money and community. Relevance in the modern world means building digital operations, and using data to think beyond software and elegantly weave together digital ecospheres that strengthen the fabric of community, without outsourcing member relationships and losing direct control of member data.
Korber explained, "The purpose of the credit union is to make the community work better for its participants, not simply to act as another financial institution offering competitive rates. We're supposed to make the whole ecosystem work better."
Today, accessible financial services for all and the financial well-being of your members and community looks different. With money becoming a streaming reality the way that movies, travel, music and transportation all fused with the internet, the primary way consumers derive value from their financial institutions and how your credit union will build sustainable, relevant, revenue-generating connections to community is a matter of digital engagement, value creation and exchange.
Korber described community connection as not just competing directly over products, services and technology, but building strategies and digital operations that facilitate "meaningful social and economic relationships" that drive "multi-generational prosperity for all through education, collaboration and support of local commerce."
This is a pivotal moment in our industry, where credit unions have the opportunity to stimulate local economies, and serve as an irreplaceable catalyst for thriving in communities. Who are you partnering with to drive your strategy and build operations that digitally anchor your credit union as the nexus of modern money and community?
Jessica Fongemie Jessica Fongemie Director of Communications DaLand CUSO Rocky Hill, Conn.
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