Activating members and staff in grassroots advocacy is a challenge faced by credit unions everywhere. Credit unions serving members in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas shared their successful engagement efforts in breakout sessions led by America’s Credit Unions Head of Grassroots Andy Dennis during the 2024 Congressional Caucus Monday and Tuesday.
Visions Federal Credit Union makes credit union advocacy outreach part of its onboarding process, with a video explaining how it works and introducing the credit union’s government affairs team. The credit union follows up with regular lunch events that share lessons on civics, the electoral college, and other advocacy-related topics.
“From an employee standpoint, they don’t realize they’re an advocate and they’ll ask, ‘why should I get involved?’,” pointed out Visions Federal Credit Union Director of Government Affairs Trish Shermot during the session. “What we tell them is that credit unions are different, and you are a voice of change. Every time you refund a fee, lower a members’ rate, or help them understand a credit report, you’re an advocate for them and so you’re already part of their advocacy journey. Helping them to understand what we do, and they already do this, we just need to go into more policy detail when we tell their story, that’s become so important.”
With branches in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, Visions also makes sure staff are aware of the credit union’s political activity. Its most recent “roadshow” had the government affairs team visiting 47 branches and nearly 260 employees in all three states. These events brought employees together with 16 different elected officials.
Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union also conducts a similar road show. Vice President of Communications and Public Relations Sal Guerrero said one of the first thing his credit unions do for new hires is to make sure they are fully aware of the credit union difference.
“You’d be surprised how many young people don’t know the difference between credit union and a bank. So that’s when we focus on that, what our industry is about, how we give back to the community,” he said. “San Antonio is Credit Union USA, we have the most credit unions per capita than any other major city in the U.S. But even with that, young people are so behind on it.”
As part of the credit union’s advocacy efforts, Guerrero aims to have an elected official visit a branch at least once per quarter. He emphasized that policymakers are interested in hearing directly from credit unions and members about challenges they face.
In addition to the experiences shared by the panel, Dennis encouraged credit unions to take advantage of America’s Credit Unions grassroots and advocacy programs. Some of those include the Member Activation Program (MAP), which helps credit unions activate members on advocacy priorities, and Project ZIP Code – a program that helps calculate how many credit union members live in legislative districts and states.
