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CU Strategic Planning, A Callahan Company

Our Services

Lending Growth Blueprint

Where community opportunity meets organic loan growth.
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Across the country, nearly half of all households live with little financial cushion. These low- to moderate-income families are the everyday Americans credit unions have always served, and they need the same access to fair, responsibly structured loans as everyone else. Many are already your members; others are waiting to be reached.

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The Lending Growth Blueprint helps you grow your lending responsibly by finding the greatest unmet needs in your market and building the products, partnerships, and pathways to meet them. It shows you where opportunity exists, where your current products do and don't meet it, and what to do about it.

Who It's For

Credit unions that:

  • Want loan growth but struggle to find sustainable, organic channels
     

  • Believe they serve underserved markets but lack precise data to serve them best
     

  • Have strong products but suspect hidden barriers in underwriting or pricing
     

  • Identify community partners but struggle to activate them
     

  • Want to meet target-market lending goals for CDFI certification or complianc

What It Delivers

The Blueprint translates your market and lending data into prioritized growth opportunities, segmented into near-, mid-, and long-term actions. It includes:

  • A market opportunity analysis of community needs, challenges, and product gaps in your market.
     

  • A lending distribution snapshot showing where you already reach underserved and LMI borrowers — and where there's room to grow.
     

  • A lending barrier analysis comparing your current products against market opportunity, with recommendations.
     

  • A community partnership review with scored, prioritized partners, facilitated introductions, and a referral-pipeline roadmap.
     

  • An executive discussion session to review the Blueprint and answer questions.

Organic lending growth, grounded in your own data and your community.

Actionable, not theoretical.

  • You get a prioritized plan with specific next steps — not just information.
     

Grounded in your own data.

  • Every recommendation is based on your actual lending and denial data and your specific market.
     

Mission and margin together.

  • Each opportunity is tied to both lending growth and community impact.

Terri Hendrix, Vice President Business Development & Community Engagement, Carolina Foothills Federal Credit Union

"Their foresight and vision have reframed how credit unions think about community development – that it is the catalyst to improving lives."

Jeff Conrad, CEO/President, Pelican State Credit Union

“Pelican has benefitted from their exceptional grant writing and program creation skills in winning over $11 Million in CDFI Financial Assistance grants since 2010. …Without these funds, Pelican and many other CDFI credit unions would be limited in our ability to serve members in dire need.”

Michael Abernathy, President/CEO, Buckeye State Credit Union

“[CU Strategic Planning] has been a vital partner to us and the success we have had in changing the financial lives of thousands of people in distressed northeast Ohio communities.”

Jon Jeffreys, President & CEO, Callahan and Associates

“The leaders at CU Strategic Planning are “credit union people.” They come from credit unions, corporate credit unions, or trade associations. The values they lead with are fueling credit union impact.”

Connect With Us

Get in touch to learn more about how how the Lending Growth Blueprint can turn your community's needs into measurable, organic lending growth.

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