Our Services
Community
Development
Summits
Understand your community, build the partnerships that deepen your impact, and grow your loan portfolio.
Your credit union is well positioned to be an anchor of economic vitality in your community. But in order to grow, you need to truly understand the challenges facing the people you serve and build relationships with the organizations already working to address them.
A Community Development Summit is a facilitated, participatory research event that brings your credit union together with local nonprofits, public agencies, workforce development groups, and community leaders. It’s not a focus group or market research. Participants are community leaders who will share their programs and the barriers they face, and who will leave understanding exactly how your credit union can help.
We work with you to identify, invite, and convene the right organizations. We facilitate the half-day event and deliver a post-summit report with documented needs, partner profiles, and easily executable next steps.
What a Community Development Summit Delivers
Organic lending pipelines.
Community partners who understand your mission send you members because you identify lending products that fit their needs.
New products built on real community needs.
The summit surfaces the gaps that your credit union is uniquely positioned to fill by developing products unique to your community.
Stronger positioning for CDFI certification and grant funding.
If you’re a CDFI or seeking certification, documented community needs and formal coalitions demonstrate that your credit union does the community development work that wins grants.
Greater awareness of the credit union difference.
Nonprofits and government partners leave knowing who you are and what you offer.
A post-summit report.
Findings, partner profiles, and actionable next steps, prepared by our team.
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 we can facilitate an event in your community that creates organic lending and membership growth.