Dear credit union volunteers and professionals, As we all adjust to the widespread implications of COVID-19, better known as the coronavirus, CU Strategic Planning's owners want you to know that we are still here for you and your credit unions. We have implemented remote work policies for our employees, and we are continuing to work on projects we have in the pipeline to ensure your credit unions get the best possible outcomes for your product, policy and procedure reviews and Community Development Financial Institution certification and grant applications. CDFIs are critical to many who are particularly likely to come in proximity of those who've contracted coronavirus, whether first responders, healthcare workers, or the elderly and the poor. In response to the impact of COVID-19, CU Strategic Planning, along with CUNA, NAFCU, the Opportunity Finance Network and others, have independently written Congress, requesting additional funding for CDFI grants and the NCUA's Community Development Revolving Loan Fund. In our request specifically, CU Strategic Planning requested immediately funding an: Increase from $262 million to $600 million for the April 21 grant funding program Extra Emergency Round of CDFI Funding of $500 million Additional $5 million for the CDRLF CU Strategic Planning strongly feels these funds will help our credit union family continue the amazing work they are accomplishing during this extraordinary time. In recent virtual contacts with clients, we've heard from credit unions that are working with members and staff to ensure member service, while maintaining employee health. From remote work locations to member loan forbearance to boosting capitalization, we are very proud to work with many awesome credit unions. And that is why we are making sure we continue working for you and your members. Know that we understand your challenges and will stand behind you and your credit union to serve members as we face the coronavirus pandemic together. With humanity,

Consumers are in shock; we all are. They are looking for help. Credit unions and CDFIs are needed now more than ever before. As consumer advocates, credit union and CDFI champions, CU Strategic Planning's staff decided to use their research and knowledge to help struggling families find solid ground. This guide provides practical tips to help good people weather the storm. Credit unions and CDFIs may request the document as a template to create their own materials for consumers. Tips for Consumers in the Guide: What to do about difficulty paying rent Access to emergency cash Holding on to the cash you have Protecting your credit Essential Lessons: What is predatory lending? How to ensure missed payments aren't reported to the credit bureau improperly. Why a not-for-profit credit union will help. What is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDF)? Where to find credit unions and CDFIs.

CU STRATEGIC PLANNING RELEASES RESULTS OF CDFI COVID-19 SURVEY CU Strategic Planning, the CDFI thought leader and developer of more than $120 million in CDFI grant awards for credit unions released the results of a survey conducted March 12 to 20 of CDFI credit unions submitting CDFI applications before April 21, 2020 for funding. The findings include: 100% of the CDFI credit unions consider COVOD-19 as a trigger for their disaster planning 100% have adjusted policies and procedures in the last two weeks to meet the current and anticipated financial needs of members 32% of the CDFI credit unions are concerned that NCUA examiners will not follow the NCUA Board’s notice that “prudent efforts that are consistent with safe and sound lending practices should not be subject to examiner criticism.” The 2020 CDFI credit unions identified potential risks: Concerns over members experiencing unemployment and lost wages Quarantine of staff and staff experiencing child care challenges that impact service to members Liquidity risks, with some CDFI’s reporting experiences with older members withdrawing large or all balances Earnings and increased delinquency The 2020 CDFI credit unions shared their strategies to mitigate risk, including: Workplace flexibility – allowing staff to work from home Shifting members to drive throughs, ATMS, on-line banking and digital Docu-sign options Forbearance programs for member loans, with more than 85% indicating these options exist in current policies Small dollar loan programs and promotions designed to meet immediate member challenges High capitalization designed for economic challenges. The 2020 CDFI credit unions also shared the following enhancements to product underwriting, features, collections or payment terms: Allowing members to skip a payment Fee waivers on all access points to encourage access that avoids branch closings Deferments for loan payments, initially for 90 days, and potentially for another 90 days (adding to the end of the loan period) Modifications for mortgage payments for mortgages held in portfolio Assisting members in applying for unemployment benefits, SNAP (food assistance) and/or unemployment insurance for loans Relief loans – no initial payments for 60 days/30days 12-month emergency loans One credit union is paying for all sick/time and PTO that any staff member needs to take during the COVOID-19 crisis due to illness or due to child care issues. The survey was conducted of credit unions applying for CDFI grant funding before the April 21, 2020 deadline. Congressional action on supplemental appropriations for CDFI and NCUA’s Community Development Revolving Loan Fund could come up within the next two weeks. CU Strategic Planning has advocated for more than doubling the 2020 CDFI appropriation, adding rolling funding for an additional $500 million and nearly tripling the CDRLF to $5 million.

The following is a letter sent from CU Strategic Planning to the House and Senate appropriations committees on March 18, 2020, with recommendations for implementing emergency appropriations in response to the COVID-19 crisis. CU Strategic Planning is the small business consultancy that credit unions turn to to advise them and has written more CDFI award-winning grants than anyone else in the CDFI industry. We recommend the following “ready to implement” ideas. Congress needs to fund emergency dollars to help CDFI credit unions continue to lend during these times of Coronavirus crisis. April 21, 2020 is the current deadline for submission for CDFI’s for grant applications for funding. In advance of that deadline, Congress should: 1. Immediately more than double CDFI funding from $262 million to $600 million for the April 21 grant funding program. This funding program is already in process, and in the interest of making the program as useful as it could be during this time of economic distress, the higher allocation should lead to: Higher awards for CDFI’s applying on April 21 from $1 million back to $2 million which would significantly increase CDFI credit union’s ability to fund small dollar consumer, transportation, home ownership, and micro and small business lending to low to moderate income families; and, Larger numbers of CDFI credit union winners, increasing the capacity of credit unions lending into rural, suburban and urban communities, breaking through the artificial ceiling for credit unions in this vital program. 2. Immediately fund a special Emergency Round of CDFI Funding of $500 million targeted to lending institutions that can demonstrate the capacity to increase small dollar consumer, transportation, small business and home mortgage lending. This program should target CDFI’s and specifically CDFI credit unions that have immediate capacity and implementation ready programs and initiatives on a rolling basis over the next 6 months. 3. Immediately fund $5 million for the National Credit Union Administration’s (NCUA) Community Development Revolving Loan Fund. Immediately help credit union’s with initiatives for lending as well as provide a source of liquidity to smaller credit unions. CU Strategic Planning has written more than $120 million dollars in winning grants for CDFI credit unions to implement all over the nation, and has the ability to help CDFI credit unions get immediate help for low to moderate working families in the form of small consumer loans, auto loans, home mortgages and micro and small business loans. CU Strategic Planning stands ready to help hundreds of credit unions restore consumer confidence, create and recreate lost jobs and get the economy moving again with two small yet vital programs. I encourage you to contact me directly if you have any questions or suggestions at 202.802.0036 or mike@creditunionstrategicplanning.com Respectfully, Michael V. Beall, Esq. Chief Strategic and Advocacy Officer CU Strategic Planning

CU Strategic Planning Confident of Full Funding in 2020 CU Strategic Planning’s Efforts to Educate Congressional Appropriators Have Paved Way for Record Funding Levels As in previous years, President Trump opened the appropriation’s process with his budget. Presidential budgets reflect the view of the administration, but have been virtually ignored by the House and Senate as they set the actual appropriations process. “Our work has already begun with appropriators of both parties to set funding at or above the current level of $260 million for CDFI funding to support the work credit unions do in their communities that benefit millions of working families” said Michael Beall, Chief Strategic and Advocacy Officer at CU Strategic Planning. In 2019 the administration budget also called for near zero funding for the vital community development grant program, Republicans and Democrats in Congress saw value in the programs that credit unions and other CDFIs develop to serve low to moderate income families in their markets. Last year, NCUA even failed to make its appropriation request. CU Strategic Planning has used a pinpoint strategy to make appropriators aware of the importance of CDFI funding, allowing credit unions to make innovative loans to low income consumers while using the CDFI grant funds to mitigate potential losses in their Allowance for Loan Loss (ALL) accounts or to increase net worth as they take on additional risk while balancing the pricing of loans to meet consumer demand. CDFIs and their programs help consumers avoid predatory lenders of all varieties. “Our message is simple: every CDFI credit union needs to engage with Congress to ensure this appropriations process ends in a very different place than it begins every year, full funding for CDFI above $260 million and $2 million for NCUA’s CDRLF programs.” said Beall. CU Strategic Planning is the leader in winning CDFI grant funding for credit unions, having won more than $120,000,000 for credit unions throughout the U.S.

In his role as the Call to Action speaker at the NCUA's inaugural Credit Union Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Summit, CU Strategic Planning's Ronaldo Hardy joined Chairman Rodney Hood in calling financial inclusion a civil rights issue. “Whether you like to recognize it or not, we are in a modern day civil rights movement," said Hardy. "I don’t know what name history will give this time, but what we are hearing from different groups elevating their voices is very reminiscent of the civil rights movement. In the civil rights movement money was withheld whenever an organization was not performing. It’s the very same thing happening today.” DEI is also a “moral issue” for the credit union movement's business model of people helping people according to Hardy. “We should be doing this for all aspects of the community so we create the financial inclusion and equity we all believe in.” Hardy shared his personal story of coming to credit unions as a young, black man with poor credit, "a product of growing up in poverty." Adding, "Ultimately I got hired [at a credit union] because of my honesty. But there were not a lot of people who looked like me.” Mike Beall joined Hardy in speaking about his personal story volunteering to lead the LGBTQ Issues discussion, "I am a gay man and I am a credit union leader and this is the first time I have ever said that at a conference like this." In response to tearful reception he added, "We are your board members, staff members and credit union members." Hardy closed the Call to Action, "There are people in your organization who can move the needle for your organization and maybe for our industry as a whole. But they need to be seen and heard.” CU Strategic Planning provides DEI consulting to credit unions to improve culture, productivity, morale and profitability.

On March 8, 2019, the CDFI Fund issued a Request for Public Comment on the fiscal year (FY) 2020-2022 Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program) Application. After reviewing the comments received, the CDFI Fund has decided to proceed with updating the certification requirements to apply for a CDFI Program or NACA Program Financial Assistance award. The Change Beginning with the FY 2020 application round, all CDFI Program and NACA Program Financial Assistance applicants must be certified CDFIs as of the date the Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) is published in the Federal Register. This means that the CDFI Fund will no longer process funding applications and CDFI certification applications simultaneously for CDFI Program and NACA Program Financial Assistance award round applicants. Any organization that is not a certified CDFI as of the date the NOFA is published in the Federal Register that applies for a CDFI Program or NACA Program Financial Assistance award will be found ineligible for that funding round. My organization is currently not certified. What do I need to do? This change only affects your organization if you are currently not certified and you are planning to apply for a CDFI Program or NACA Program Financial Assistance award for the FY 2020 funding round. The CDFI Fund strongly recommends that any non-certified organization that wishes to apply for a FY 2020 Financial Assistance award submit a CDFI Certification application as soon as possible. The CDFI Fund is tentatively planning to publish the NOFA for the FY 2020 CDFI Program and NACA Program application round in early 2020, and it may take up to 90 days to process your organization’s CDFI Certification application. As a reminder, non-certified organizations are still eligible to apply for Technical Assistance awards. My organization is a certified CDFI. Do I need to do anything? If your organization is currently certified, there are steps you should take to make sure your certification remains in good standing. All certified CDFIs are required to submit the Annual Certification and Data Collection Report in order to maintain their certification status. The report submission deadline is based upon your organization’s fiscal year end date. View the CDFI Certification website for more information. Is there anything else I can do now to prepare to apply for a FY 2020 CDFI Program or NACA Program award? Yes. If you are applying for a Financial Assistance or a Technical Assistance award, you should make sure that you have your organization’s correct DUNS and EIN numbers, and that your SAM.gov and Grants.gov accounts are active and accurate. The steps to set up these accounts can be time consuming, and past applicants have been found ineligible for not finalizing these accounts by the CDFI Fund’s program application deadlines. The CDFI Fund does not manage those systems, and is unable to assist organizations having difficulty processing those accounts. For detailed information about steps you can take now, please review last year’s Getting Ready to Apply blog post, which is still relevant for the upcoming FY 2020 round. Registering in SAM.gov and Grants.gov is not dependent upon a specific CDFI Fund application round being open, and can be done at any time. I have questions about my certification status. Who can I talk to? If you are unsure about your organization’s certification status, or if you have any other questions, please reach out to the Certification, Compliance Monitoring and Evaluation team via an AMIS Service Request; by e-mail to ccme@cdfi.treas.gov; or by phone to (202) 653-0423. Please note this is not a toll free number. The Certification team also holds monthly conference calls to address questions about applying for, and maintaining, CDFI certification. View the schedule of upcoming calls here. To learn more about the CDFI Program and NACA Program, please visit www.cdfifund.gov/cdfi and www.cdfifund.gov/native.

Tacoma, WA – July 10, 2019– Notable credit union speaker and thought leader, Ronaldo Hardy, is poised to make a big impact in financial empowerment in the next phase of his career at national credit union consultancy, CU Strategic Planning. A purpose driven CEO, Hardy’s career is guided by a personal mission, “to change the world by building people who will change the world.” He will be implementing that mission with the backing of CU Strategic Planning, which has garnered over $100 million in CDFI grant funding for credit unions resulting in the disbursement of $5 billion in loans to low to moderate income people, communities of color and distressed communities for financial inclusion. “CU Strategic Planning is the natural place for me to fully launch a diversity and inclusion consulting practice,” said Hardy. “The fit for helping credit unions lead efforts at financial inclusion and equitable community building at the firm is perfect.” Hardy’s new role as Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer starts Monday August 5, 2019. Hardy will lead CU Strategic Planning’s efforts to launch training and certification for Diversity and Inclusion with Mike Beall, who has initiated high profile efforts connected to increasing the inclusion of LGBTQ credit union staff and members. Additionally, Hardy will utilize his national industry connections to disrupt the traditional search firm practices to help dynamic, emerging talent find opportunities as CEOs and other C-suite positions. “Next generation credit union leaders don’t always find the chance to take on CEO and other leadership positions, and our search practice intends to help change the way credit unions seek and connect to new and emerging talent” said Hardy. CU Strategic Planning is the leading consultancy to credit unions engaged in community development. Hardy is joining its five-person ownership team of founder Jamie Strayer, CDFI expert and one of the talents behind Biz Kids, Stacy Augustine, former general counsel and SVP of NWCUA; Sharon Hall, Executive Director of the firm’s non-profit affiliate, National Council for Financial Opportunity, and former CDFI CEO of Express CU; Shirley Senn, nationally recognized field of membership expansion consultant, and former Corporate CU executive and Mike Beall, former league CEO of Maryland/DC and Missouri Leagues and turn-around CEO of the National Cooperative Business Association. Hardy will be implementing a transition plan with $104 million Southwest Louisiana FCU, where as CEO he has led the CDFI certified credit union to a CDFI grant win in 2018, written by CU Strategic Planning. The credit union has peer leading 1.28 return on assets, 7% yield on average loans and more than 10% annual loan growth.

Jamie had the opportunity to sit down with CUES' James Lenz to discuss CDFI status in their latest podcast. Listen below and you'll learn about how even mainstream credit unions may want to consider community development financial institution certification. The show also includes the criteria for CDFI status, info on how CDFI status boosts ROA, the difference between CDFI status and Low Income Designation, and much more.

If you missed the one hour "Secrets to Winning a CDFI Grant" Webinar held on Thursday, May 2, you can still learn the secrets of the #1 CDFI grant writing team in the credit union industry by viewing the archived presentation. Hear directly from Chief Strategic & Advocacy Officer, Mike Beall as he discusses the keys to winning a CDFI award. You'll learn how CU Strategic Planning helped over 200 credit unions obtain CDFI certification, winning over $100 million in grants resulting in a $5 billion increase in lending. Don't let the 527 pages of application materials and federal guidance intimidate you. You'll learn... how to avoid application traps. what the CDFI Fund is most likely to fund. the real scoop on the 527-page application. Even if you've already started your grant, view this valuable discussion and get critical insights before it's too late.

Learn the secrets of the #1 CDFI grant writing team in the credit union industry. Hear directly from Chief Strategic & Advocacy Officer, Mike Beall as he discusses the keys to winning a CDFI award. You'll learn how CU Strategic Planning helped over 200 credit unions obtain CDFI certification, winning over $100 million in grants resulting in a $5 billion increase in lending. Don't let the 527 pages of application materials and federal guidance intimidate you. Ask Mike questions to increase the quality of your application this year—before it's too late. Participate on April 18 at 12:00 pm PDT / 3:00 PDT EST and you'll learn... how to avoid application traps. what the CDFI Fund is most likely to fund. the real scoop on the 527-page application. Even if you've already started your grant, join this interactive discussion and get critical insights before it's too late.

Inspiring trends were presented at CUNA's CDFI Roundtable by Chief Economist, Mike Schenk. CDFI certified credit unions had the direct benefit of $874 million in the communities they serve, equalling $250 per family. The credit unions certified as CDFIs additionally created 82,391 jobs and spurred $18.1 billion in economic impact. This was determined through economic forecasting of (Jobs, Earnings, Operating Expenses + Purchase of Intermediate Goods & Services + Household Spending) following the model of (Direct Effects + Indirect Affects + Induced Effects). Not at all surprising with this benefit, membership growth is outpaced the industry by 430%. Small credit unions in the U.S. experienced membership declines in 2018. As a result, the U.S. median annual growth rate for credit unions was 0.0% at the end of the third quarter 2018. The 2018 membership growth for CDFI certified credit unions was 4.3%, even outpacing population growth of 0.8% The lesson here is that CDFI certified credit unions developing products, partnerships and programs unique to their communities are in high demand. They are investing in job creation and returning money to the households of hard working Americans and helping them to retain their hard earned money. This in-turn is improving the quality of neighborhoods, increasing home ownership, raising wages and reducing unemployment. NCUA and CUNA data also shows that CDFI certified loans are up 70% in the last five years. CU Strategic Planning has monitored the profitability of CDFI credit unions over the past ten years. Our findings are conclusive and have been affirmed by NCUA data. Credit Unions that focus on community development are more profitable, lend more actively and grow faster than their mainstream peers. With all this impact, what are the loans CDFI certified credit unions are generating? In 2018 CDFI Credit Unions originated approximately: • 3 million loans overall • 55,000 first mortgages • 42,000 second mortgages/HELs • 8,000 small business loans • 18,000 payday alternative loans with an average loan size of $625 CU Strategic Planning has been a driver of the credit union CDFI business model for the past ten years, winning $102 million in CDFI grants for credit unions resulting in $5.5 billion in loans. Our clients have four times the ROA of their peers. Learn how to become a CDFI Certified Credit Union by downloading our Comprehensive Guide to CDFI Certification. Sources: CUNA, NCUA and Inclusiv 2019