Community Development Summits Are Back

CU Strategic Planning is excited to re-launch a program that dozens of credit unions across the country have found success with: Community Development Summits. These are facilitated events that brings a credit union together with the nonprofits, public agencies, workforce development groups, and economic development organizations already serving the people in their area.

As part of these summits, organizations that had never been in the same room together mapped shared challenges, introduced each other to the populations they served, and left with a clearer picture of what a coordinated approach could accomplish. Some of those credit unions are still working with the partners they met that day. As one credit union CEO described it, “[the summit] allowed us to learn first-hand the struggles members of our community face on a daily basis.  This type of information is invaluable in that it has allowed us to prioritize and create programs based around these needs.”

The relationships are lasting ones: some of the partnerships that started at those summits have turned into years-long referral agreements, new lending products, and joint grant strategies. Here’s a little about what makes these summits work.

What a Community Development Summit Is... and Does

A Community Development Summit brings your credit union together with the nonprofits, public agencies, workforce development groups, and economic development organizations already serving the people in your market. Our team handles the advance work; we identify the right organizations, facilitate the half-day event, and deliver a post-summit report with documented community needs, partner profiles, and concrete next steps.

The conversation in the room is structured but not scripted. Community leaders share the focus and programs of their organizations, along with the barriers that limit their impact. We guide the discussion to uncover where the shared needs are, and where a credit union's products and services can be a good fit. By the time the credit union's lending team presents available solutions, the room is already thinking in terms of partnership and collaboration.

Why the Relationships Last

The summits that generated active partnerships years later had something in common: the organizations in the room genuinely needed each other. A housing agency whose clients couldn't access credit to sustain a home purchase. A career center whose graduates needed short-term financing to bridge from training to employment. A sober living organization whose residents were trying to rebuild financial lives that traditional lenders wouldn't touch.

There are plenty of specific, documentable needs that a credit union is well-positioned to address, but only if the right organizations know the credit union exists and understand what it can offer. The summit creates that understanding in a few hours. The relationships it generates can last much longer.

Credit union staff who care about community development are often already connected to some of these organizations but don’t know if they’re making the most of the relationship. A summit allows all of the groups involved to come together in the same room with a structure that lets them speak to and listen to each other in a manner that’s beneficial for all involved.

Who Should Consider Hosting One

Community Development Summits work for credit unions that want a clearer, more direct line to the communities they serve. That could mean identifying new product opportunities, building the documented coalitions that strengthen a CDFI grant application, or simply getting the right organizations in a room together for the first time. But they’re not by any means limited to CDFIs; any credit union committed to genuine community development can benefit from hearing directly from the organizations already working with its members and its potential members.

If your credit union has been thinking about how to deepen its community presence and build organic loan and membership growth, this is a good time to have that conversation.

To learn more or schedule discussion about hosting a Community Development Summit for your credit union, see the website page or email summits@custrategicplanning.com.