The National Credit Union Foundation (the Foundation) and Members Development Company (MDC) are collaborating to bring credit unions additional value and resources on consumer financial health. The Foundation and MDC have a joint membership in the Center for Financial Services Innovation’s (CFSI) Financial Health Network.
This collaboration offers credit unions “members-only” pricing through the Foundation and MDC to attend CFSI’s signature EMERGE Forum in May 2019, access to three CFSI-led webinars on consumer financial health topics, and insights through a mutual research project that the Foundation and MDC identify as relevant to credit union financial health work.
“One of the guiding principles of our movement is cooperation amongst cooperatives,” noted Gigi Hyland, the Foundation’s Executive Director. “This collaboration was built in that spirit. We want to provide resources, ideas, best practices and timely research that help credit unions advance the financial health of their members and communities.”
CFSI, the leading authority on consumer financial health, released the inaugural baseline U.S. Financial Health Pulse in 2018, which showed that 72 percent of Americans are either financially coping or vulnerable. This means they lack daily financial systems that allow them to plan, weather financial shocks and be well-positioned to pursue their financial aspirations.
MDC has found great value in working with CFSI, particularly on our Student Debt Project,” said Sarah Lietz, Vice President at MDC. “Through our membership, our owners will gain access to CFSI’s top-notch research and expertise around financial health. And collaborating with the Foundation means we can do that at a lower cost while aligning with another forward-looking credit union organization.”
“Improving consumer financial health requires collaboration, and offering a joint membership is one way to tackle the complexities of financial health together,” said Andrea Galvez, senior director, CFSI. “We’re excited MDC and the Foundation have chosen to leverage the many benefits of our membership to improve the understanding and capability of their members and owners as we work together toward financial health for all.”