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Foundation and MDC collaboration designed to help credit unions advance consumer financial health

MADISON, WI (February 14, 2019) — The National Credit Union Foundation (the Foundation) and Members Development Company (MDC) are collaborating to bring credit unions additional value and resources on consumer financial health. The Foundation and MDC have a joint membership in the Center for Financial Services Innovation’s (CFSI) Financial Health Network.

This collaboration offers credit unions “members-only” pricing through the Foundation and MDC to attend CFSI’s signature EMERGE Forum in May 2019, access to three CFSI-led webinars on consumer financial health topics, and insights through a mutual research project that the Foundation and MDC identify as relevant to credit union financial health work.

“One of the guiding principles of our movement is cooperation amongst cooperatives,” noted Gigi Hyland, the Foundation’s Executive Director. “This collaboration was built in that spirit. We want to provide resources, ideas, best practices and timely research that help credit unions advance the financial health of their members and communities.”

CFSI, the leading authority on consumer financial health, released the inaugural baseline U.S. Financial Health Pulse in 2018, which showed that 72 percent of Americans are either financially coping or vulnerable. This means they lack daily financial systems that allow them to plan, weather financial shocks and be well-positioned to pursue their financial aspirations.

MDC has found great value in working with CFSI, particularly on our Student Debt Project,” said Sarah Lietz, Vice President at MDC. “Through our membership, our owners will gain access to CFSI’s top-notch research and expertise around financial health. And collaborating with the Foundation means we can do that at a lower cost while aligning with another forward-looking credit union organization.”

“Improving consumer financial health requires collaboration, and offering a joint membership is one way to tackle the complexities of financial health together,” said Andrea Galvez, senior director, CFSI. “We’re excited MDC and the Foundation have chosen to leverage the many benefits of our membership to improve the understanding and capability of their members and owners as we work together toward financial health for all.”


About National Credit Union Foundation

The National Credit Union Foundation (the Foundation) is the charitable arm of the U.S. credit union movement and works as a catalyst to improve people’s financial lives through credit unions. Through grants and programs, the Foundation is strengthening financial well-being, igniting passion, and instilling knowledge about the credit union difference, and uniting resources to help credit union people during disaster. Donations to the Foundation ultimately enable credit unions to help their members reach life-changing goals and achieve financial freedom.

About Members Development Company

Members Development Company (www.membersdevelopment.com) is a network of almost 70 industry-leading credit unions that conduct R&D initiatives focused on delivering meaningful solutions to the challenging demands of consumers. MDC Owners pool their resources to perform relevant research, develop innovative products and services, create valuable vendor relationships, share knowledge, provide economies of scale and keep a consistent focus on the horizon. At MDC, we believe our research must be driven by our owners for our owners. While we do the heavy lifting for them, our credit union owners both advise and participate in our work, making them not just investors but also partners.

Links
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Contacts

Danielle Brown
608-231-4353
dbrown@ncuf.coop

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