NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Credit Union League and the National Credit Union Foundation are partnering to create America's first statewide disaster relief reserve fund for credit unions.
The league-designated fund will be administered by NCUF and capitalized by the Community Investment Fund. The CIF returns 1% to the state, 1% to NCUF, and the remainder to the investing credit union.
The league and NCUF have been working together for the past five months to encourage Louisiana credit unions to invest in the CIF, in addition to applying for grants that are funded by the CIF. As a result, Louisiana CIF investments have surged from only three credit unions investing $500,000 to 22 credit unions investing $6.5 million.
"Louisiana credit unions want to be able to take care of our own," said league President Anne Cochran. "We truly appreciate all the support from the National Credit Union Foundation and credit unions outside our state, but we don't want to be viewed by the rest of the country as sitting here with our hands out year after year. Now that we are raising CIF investments to form our own state grants committee and make our own grant decisions, we are no longer totally dependent on everyone else's generosity. And we will be able to give something back to the national credit union community that has given us so much."
In Louisiana, the new CIF investments will not only establish the first statewide disaster relief reserve for credit unions, state CIF returns can also be used to fund grants that provide credit union and consumer education, credit union development, service to credit unions' full fields of membership, affordable homeownership, and support for the league's charitable projects. The league will appoint a committee of credit union leaders to vote on all grant decisions.
NCUF has granted more dollars in Louisiana over the past two years than in any other state. The new CIF investments will help NCUF expand its nationwide grant programs, including Innovation Grants that help credit unions offer innovative services, federal grants that attract government dollars for credit unions, and CU Aid that provides relief wherever disasters strike credit union people.
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