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Beyond Tech Innovation: How BECU is Reimagining Philanthropy

Katie Stone
Published:

These days, most people automatically think of technology when they think of innovation, but innovation doesn’t require fancy digital bells and whistles. In fact, sometimes the most impactful innovations aren’t about dramatic invention, but rather incremental iteration. 

Philanthropy is a field that’s rife with opportunities for iteration, and Gloria Dixon, BECU’s Director of Philanthropy and the Executive Director of the BECU Foundation, isn’t afraid to challenge the status quo. As one of the top five largest credit unions in the United States, BECU is known for its massive breadth, but what’s remarkable about the credit union’s community development work is that its impact runs both wide and deep. 

In this month’s episode, we talk to Gloria about how she’s steering the credit union’s philanthropic efforts and iterating as she goes. We also address our BIG question:

How can credit unions be more involved in meaningful systems change, particularly when it comes to economic inequality?


Key takeaways:

  • Listen and share before taking action. When we don’t start by listening and sharing, we may make faulty assumptions or simply miss opportunities to learn. This holds true when building community partnerships following the trust-based philanthropy model,  and also applies to how teams work together — for example, philanthropy and marketing — within a credit union.

  • Financial education is important, but we need a broader approach to addressing economic inequality. BECU’s multi-pronged strategy encompasses financial literacy, but also financial barriers in education, workforce development, support for entrepreneurs, and housing stability. This more robust approach equips them to create lasting economic resilience within communities.

  • Philanthropy can be a driver of growth. We tend to think of growth in terms of asset size, revenue, or branch footprints, but no credit union can grow effectively without fostering trust in the communities they serve. As BECU enters new communities, philanthropy follows, aiming to understand and support the local needs. That, of course, goes back to listening, and to ensuring that the credit union is an active, contributing member of that community.


Resources & links:

 

Read the transcript:

Katie:
Welcome to another episode of The Remarkable Credit Union podcast. We created our podcast to help credit union leaders think outside of the box about marketing, technology, and community impact.

The Remarkable Credit Union is brought to you by PixelSpoke, a digital marketing agency that works with credit unions to create user-friendly, high-converting, award-winning websites. As a B Corp and an employee-owned cooperative, we believe that business can and should be a force for good.

Each episode we bring on expert guests from the credit union and broader cooperative movement for conversations about the intersection of marketing and social impact.

Our goal is to challenge your preconceptions about business as usual, and provide you with actionable takeaways that you can use to grow your membership, improve the financial health of your cooperative, and better serve your community.
I'm Katie Stone, CEO, and a co-owner here at PixelSpoke.

Kerala:
And I'm Kerala Taylor, also a co-owner at PixelSpoke and the director of marketing and impact.
And today I am excited to delve into our big question, which is, how can credit unions be more involved in meaningful systems change, particularly when it comes to economic inequality?

And we are thrilled to be joined today by Gloria Dixon, who's the director of philanthropy at BECU and executive director of the BECU Foundation. She began her career at the credit union back in 2017 and was the credit union's first employee dedicated to philanthropy.

And BECU has long been known for giving back, but Gloria's strategic focus on financial health and economic resilience has really helped to grow the credit union's impact. That's what attracted our attention. And with their leadership, BECU's donations totaled a whopping $9.2 million in 2024.
Gloria, thank you so much for joining us.

Gloria:
Thank you for having me.

Kerala:
So it was a little hard for me to know where to start here, BECU is involved in a lot of community initiatives, and I doubt we're going to have time to talk about each and every one here today. But I'd like to start with your general approach to philanthropy and community impact.

I was looking through some of your LinkedIn posts and you made some references to trust-based philanthropy. I was in the nonprofit world actually for about 20 years before joining PixelSpoke, and I was really intrigued by this. And was hoping you could start by just telling us a bit about that framework, what it means, and how it informs your philanthropic efforts.

Gloria:
Thank you. So first I will say that I was introduced to trust-based philanthropy, probably a little bit before I moved into the director role. So it was a new concept for me as well. And I would say that philanthropy in general is still a very new concept to a lot of people.

So trust-based philanthropy is really a shift on power. So a lot of times people think when you hear about all these dollars that philanthropic organizations are giving out, that we came up with the ideas, we designed the work, that we're running the programs. And we're not. We're funding organizations who are working in the community every single day and supporting the communities across a number of different areas.

And so it makes more sense then, that the people who are actually running the programs, should be the people designing and telling philanthropy, who's just the folks with purse that could fund it, how to do the work. And so that's exactly what it is. It's a flip on power where the community leads the work and philanthropy, with our philanthropic dollars, follow.

And for BECU, it's not just how we do our philanthropy, it's how we engage with our partners. It's how we engage with other credit unions. It's how we engage our employees to give their time and their volunteerism to the community.

It really is centered in how credit unions are formed in general. Credit unions have a mission of people helping people and that's exactly what trust-based philanthropy is. It's just people helping people meet whatever that it is they need to be met.

Kerala:
Yeah, I have many memories of writing grant applications and trying to tailor our own initiatives to all the requirements that were laid out into the grant application. And often thinking, "Is this even worth it? It's not really what we set out to do." So I love this idea of the shift in power.

Gloria:
And I also say that most philanthropic organizations, as you know, we're not huge just like nonprofits. And the thought of us reading a 20-page report from ... BECU gave out 250 organizations last year. I don't know if we have the capacity to do that.

So I'd rather us spend time really learning the organization talking to them rather than this huge report that doesn't make you feel that you know who the organization is and who they're really trying to support. So we are very close to our partners and that's intentional on how we do our work.

Kerala:
I love it. And I know that you guys very recently released your 2024 annual report, which I was almost drooling over. And just saw there's so much that you include in your philanthropy efforts, but one area is addressing systems of economic inequity, which gets to our big question.

And this particularly caught my attention, because I've been saying for years that I'd like to see credit unions be more proactive about systems change if they really want to achieve financial wellness for their communities.

I've talked about credit unions, making sure they're offering a living wage to their own employees and really having a seat at the table when it comes to that systems change. Education's great, but telling someone that they shouldn't buy as many lattes out in the world, it's just not the best advice if someone really isn't making enough money to just pay their bills.

So I'm wondering if you can just talk a bit about how you're tackling economic inequality at that systemic level?

Gloria:
Credit unions really are designed to do this work in the community. We were birthed just from the needs of our communities. Our mission of people helping people is why credit unions exist.
And for us meeting the need really runs across a number of different areas. And if you give me a moment, I'll just talk about the six areas we really hone in and then I'll talk about how they speak to that larger issue of how we solve for economic inequities.

So we have six key strategies that we focus on. The first is safe and affordable access to financial services. And that just basically means, we want to see an individual or a family actually building some credit or buying a home or getting access to loans or whatever. To save for college or a car, whatever they're dreaming about.

But they can't do that in a lot of places because there's a lot of banking deserts. There are a lot of people, they don't have access to a good credit union. And so they're going to places like check cashing, loan centers, pawn shops, those places where there's no possibility for you to actually build upon anything.

And so our strategy around safe, affordable access to financial services, is just that. Make sure you're going to a reputable, accredited, regulated financial institution. BECU, or whatever credit union of your choice, just make sure you're doing that.

And we have one partner that we focus in on that, a very small credit union called Express Credit Union, which is located in Seattle. And they do an amazing job of the work that they do where they're not only just working with people who need more of an entry into their banking system. They're also working with people who maybe they've had some issues in the past, maybe they've had too many overdrafts or maybe they defaulted on a loan.

They provide access to that person to get back into a regulated credit union and they help them. They have a ton of wraparound services. They help them build themselves to a place where they're ready to start going into a larger institution like BECU or whomever, to start possibly getting a mortgage, getting a loan to grow their small business.

And we also have a very unique partnership with them we call Bridge Program. Bridge Program, and there's a traveling express teller that goes to different BECU locations and it helps those folks that maybe they can't open an account right then and there with BECU or anyone else. But they're there to say,

"Okay, here we are. Let's help you. Let's get you some support."

And even that itself is trying to focus on that bigger question of economic inequalities because we don't want to turn people away. No credit union wants to do that, but we know sometimes it happens. And so we want to solve for, "Well, if we can't help them, then who can? How can we solve for that issue?"

The next is financial literacy and education. And that could come all kinds of way, whether someone is actually going to a place to learn how to balance their checking account. They're trying to figure out how do I save? They're trying to figure out, I'm ready to start a business, but I have this one salary, how can I do that? We partner with a number of different non-profit organizations that are solving for those questions for those individuals that need it.

We have post-secondary education and college access, which is two-pronged. We focus in the post-secondary area where we're focused on helping students stay in college. So sometimes a student can run into a personal expense like their car breaks down and they need their car to get to school. Or maybe they need help with food or maybe they can't pay for child care. And all those things gets called someone to say, "I can't pay tuition, I can't afford to go, I can't get there." And they drop out of school.

We provide dollars to the foundations of different colleges and universities across Washington. And they're able to go to their foundation and apply for those emergency funds, and the school will pay that so they don't drop out of school. So we want to make sure students stay in school and complete their education.

And the other half of that is college access, where we're working with non-profits like College Success Foundation College Possible Washington, where they work in the schools to get students ready to go to college, particularly students who maybe they didn't see college was an option for them. Or maybe they didn't see themselves as a college student.

And those individuals that work in the schools with the students, just as a teacher would, that they're encouraging them, mentoring them, showing them what their options are, helping them complete their FAFSA, helping them apply for scholarships. And even some of them provide after support, through the years they're in college and alumni associations, to help them get a job.

The third area we support is workforce development. And that really gets to the pros of helping people grow their ability to maintain their current job, get a new job. And again, that could be anywhere from the school level where they're getting education to on the job.

We have a partnership actually with Spokane Colleges and they do multi-prong, we support their post-secondary work. But we also support a program they have in partnership with another one of our partners in Spokane that's actually providing on-the-job training for them at a manufacturing company.

But these kids needed help with buying the things they need to work in a manufacturing. Steel-toed, boots, the helmet, the safety goggles, all those things, and that can be pretty expensive. Tools. And so we actually provide the funding to purchase those items so the young people can be on this workforce development training program.

Fourth, we have entrepreneurial access and development. And that's really our small business strategy really that focuses in on, we work with CDFIs, we work with organizations that provide growth and development around building a business plan, scaling your business, hiring more employees.

We have a great partnership with Business Impact Northwest, with Seattle Good. Just working on helping those small businesses across a number of different communities and whatever they need to be more stable and grow their small business.

And then finally, we have housing stability and homeownership. And so housing stability for us is focusing in on keeping people housed. So it's an anti-homelessness strategy. So we focus on foreclosure prevention, eviction prevention, but we go further and we also support individuals that need some repairs, particularly veterans or seniors, that if not for someone doing those repairs, they could be fined and they might lose their home.

We support mediation between landlords and tenants. We support particular fines if someone could have that could cause them to lose their home. We've heard of stories where people have lost their home of less than $200 because they couldn't pay a fine. They won their case to keep their home, but they couldn't pay the fine because they used all their money to pay for that.

And so we provide dollars to our nonprofit partners to help those families not lose their home and stay stable. So that they can either continue to grow their family and the beautiful home they have. Or they're in a rental unit where they're like, "I just need to stabilize, but five years from now I want to be a homeowner."

And that runs to the other half of the strategy, which is homeownership, which we know is the only way someone can prove their economic growth or to increase their wealth building is to actually own a home, which is equity that a family needs.

All of those things, as I talked through, really talk about that we are in real time working with partners that are helping people find security in and across all those different areas on how do we combat financial inequities. We can't solve for the fact that people are not making enough money to possibly grow their finances, but we can help them stay stable until they're at a place where they're ready to do that.
So a lot of our strategies are focused on that stability stance where people can just maintain until they're able to get to a place where, it's through education, growing another job, securing their home, they can start building toward lasting economic resilience.

Kerala:
It's people helping people, but taken to a new level of people helping people help themselves.

Gloria:
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Kerala:
It's all about, it seems to be just filling in those gaps for people who are really trying, but they're just falling short for reasons that might be beyond their control. It's really great.

We had Elizabeth Escobar from Express Credit Union on our podcast a little while back. So that partnership, I actually reference it a lot as to how smaller and larger credit unions can meaningfully partner. I hope it's inspired some other credit unions to explore similar partnerships.

Gloria:
We might have to redo this. There is a growing movement around that I can't talk about because it's still very new. Not that I can talk about it, but it's not just BECU. It's looking at all credit unions support the smaller credit unions, so there's more stuff to come in the coming years.

Kerala:
Great.

Katie:
Well, speaking of inspiring work, getting ready for this podcast, I was doing my homework. I came across the BECU Black Community Development Project and was just blown away by the breadth of the scope of that work.

So I'd love it if you could just tell us a little bit more about how this came about and what's the impact you all have seen so far?

Gloria:
Yeah, so that grant or that strategy came about following the murder of George Floyd, and there were a lot of corporations that put their support around the Black community. For BECU, as a credit union, as a cooperative, our support had to look like what we are a credit union, a cooperative.

And so for us, we committed one million per year over five years to support the financial well-being of the Black community. So we honed our dollars to focus in on those areas that grow the financial resilience, solve systems inequity, and really in the Black community and a number of the partners.

And I will say this, which is interesting, when you work in low-income communities or communities that have historically struggled financially, you tend to raise all ships that many of the organizations we funded out of this were serving everyone in the community, not just the Black community.

So really our main goal was that they were led by or had at least 50% of their leadership that were Black. And we do know that a lot of Black nonprofits tend to get less funding in comparison to white nonprofits. So it was really a way for BECU to shine on, and I don't want to get too far ahead because it talks about marketing, that sometimes when you have a big name like BECU step into a partnership that organic marketing makes other folks jump in.

Case in point is our partnership with the African American Credit Union Coalition, which is a credit union membership organization that is national. BECU became a member in 2020. They had been around for many years, so we didn't start the work at all, but they were at a space where they weren't getting as much growth as they would like to have seen at that time.

But when BECU stepped in, there was this domino effect of all these other credit unions also throwing in their support, and they could have been doing it even before BECU jumped in. But we do know, based on our conversations with the organization, there were some credit unions that did jump in because BECU did. That local recognition is that organic marketing that happens when you take someone like BECU who does a lot of work in the community and others like, "Oh, I see BECU is doing it. I respect that. I respect BECU. Let me jump in."

But our goal, again, for the Black Community Development Project was to really think through how do we support those historical inequities and systems that are keeping many in the community from growing. Well, one of the partnerships I just talked about was AUCUC. The other one is the Black Home Initiative, which right now we are continuing to support, which is really focusing in on increasing the number of Black people that own their home.

Again, homeownership is the number one way that you can increase your overall economic output or your economic ability to grow and save for college and buy a second home, or save for whatever you're trying to do for your family. So that was really important to us to provide that support. That ran from 2020 through 2024.

Katie:
Great. Yeah, I really appreciated what you said about when BECU steps up, other credit unions follow suit. We've thought about that a lot at PixelSpoke in our cooperative journey, and as we made that conversion to become a worker-owned cooperative, we hope that we would blaze the trail for others as well. So it's really inspiring to see that domino effect.

A lot of our podcast listeners are credit union marketers, so I'm curious where you see opportunities for philanthropy and marketing to better align their efforts. We often see that marketers get tasked with promoting products, and we often wonder if there are untapped opportunities to more meaningfully engage members around the credit union difference and the credit union impact.

Do you have any advice for credit union marketers or anything you'd like to see highlighted more prominently in credit union marketing efforts?

Gloria:
Well, really quickly, I will say talk to us because philanthropy can be quiet. Because we're in the business to do good. We are not thinking about how we're marketing it or how we're communicating it.
So marketers come forward with this unique brainchild of these imaginative ways of telling the story. And it's important because if they're not telling the story, if they're not marketing, how are people going to know all the great work that's happening?

For BECU, case in point, we just started a partnership with the organization in Spokane called Spokane Center District. They've opened a market called Scale House Market inside of a quarry. Very interesting.
This market is the first ever indoor outdoor 24/7 market that Spokane will have. And it's a really big deal for Spokane, particularly in an area where it's situated because it's in this highly residential area, tens of thousands of families live nearby, but it's a food desert. There's no grocery store very close by.

The market solves for that, solves that issue of food insecurity because people will be able to shop there. They'll have a fish mart there with the Indigenous tribes in the region. They'll have the local farmers in the region there selling their wares, and they'll have all kinds of other butchers and other food items there, including food trucks.

But at the same time as solving that problem for the food desert, they're also solving the problem for small businesses who are trying to figure out where do I go and test and grow my small business? I can't get a brick and mortar because that's very expensive. How do I do that?

And so the market will have about 30 booths available, stalls or spaces available for small businesses to be there year round. Well year round for indoor, but outdoor they'll have some seasonal markets, but it'll offer that opportunity to be there.

And then at the same time, they're going to have food trucks there. And those food trucks will give folks who aren't there permanently, but maybe they have a 30-day lease to test their product and see if it's ripe and ready to go to market.

They'll have a commercial kitchen there that will provide training and development. They have a number of business development governmental agencies that will be on site to offer more wraparound services. And I went in as philanthropy like, "Yay, this is good. Let's do this." Marketing came in, it was like, "Okay, let's talk about it now. Let's share all this good."

So those are the situations, a perfect example of how philanthropy is doing good, but marketing can share how vast and important it is. And how it reaches all these different communities so more folks will know, like, "Oh wow, there's this great opportunity happening in Spokane. Let me connect with them. Let me go shopping there or let me get my small business there." Or any number of reasons that they can engage with the market.

So it's really opportunity for philanthropy and marketing to become friends. The best way, but become friends and realize that they're really just supporting each other. One builds off of the other.

Katie:
Credit unions do a lot of things really well, but tuning their own horns isn't always one of them. So I love that. But yeah, let's tell the stories.

Kerala:
When I stepped into the marketing role at PixelSpoke, my number one thing was we need to talk more about all the things that we do. We're way too humble. We need to brag a lot more.

Gloria:
Absolutely.

Kerala:
Also, I love that BECU talks a lot about what it means to be a financial cooperative. I noticed a lot of credit unions don't frequently refer to themselves as cooperatives. And I think there's a disconnect of understanding, but even people who are members of credit unions don't necessarily understand what it means to be part of a cooperative or to be a member owner.

And regular listeners of this podcast know that I will never shut up about co-ops. I'm a huge co-op advocate. I'm so excited. We ourselves are an employee-owned co-op, and I would love to see more credit unions just leaning more heavily into that cooperative identity.

So I also notice that some of your giving funds, I think you mentioned this earlier, are specifically allocated toward credit union and cooperative development. But I'm just curious if you can give a few examples of what that looks like in practice?

Gloria:
Well, first, I will give credit to Debbie Wege, who works at BECU, who is our credit union cooperative advocate. She's been in the credit union for over 30 years at BECU.

Kerala:
That's amazing.

Gloria:
30 years at BECU. She just won the Herb Wagner Award, which is the highest honor that a credit union employee can receive. She also sits on the board for the National Cooperative Business Association, which is a bunch of cooperatives.
I've had the privilege of attending one of those meetings where they pull all these cooperatives in. There are some absolutely mind-blowing amazing cooperatives across this country that are doing really, really important work. They are vast, they're different, and they are strong. So I'm like you, I am a big fan of cooperatives. Not just because I work at one, but I've always believed in them as well.
But for BECU, again, our partnership with African-American Creighton Coalition, we also partner with a number of different associations who really lean into the cooperative spirit, like CU Pride, National Latino Professionals Association, Worldwide Foundation. They all lean into that, "We are better together," and that cooperative spirit.
For us, being a cooperative is just baked and sewn into who we are. We came together because of seven Boeing employees who want to help each other get tools and maintain their job. They cooperated together, and that's still how we feel we are.
And then we also come from a land here in the Pacific Northwest where cooperatives are a big thing in the Pacific Northwest with REI in our backyard. We have a great partnership, by the way, also with REI. We model what we already know, what we've always done.

Katie:
Well, changing gears a little bit, we are living in a time of widespread uncertainty. You certainly do not need me to tell you that, but it's having a big impact on individuals, on businesses, on nonprofits. From your perspective, what are some ways that credit unions can show up for their partners in this challenging time?
What I really love about, and I think the common theme about everything you've shared so far is that you're really listening to your communities and meeting their needs. So I'd love to hear what is the work you're doing to address these current times?

Gloria:
Yeah, absolutely. Listen, that would be the very first thing I would've said. Listen to the community. They know what they need and you have to listen to them. And it doesn't look the same for every community. You can start a strategy here in Seattle, but it may not be right for Spokane. So you need to listen to Seattle. You need to listen to Spokane. You need to listen to Everett.

Every community has their own needs that they need to be addressed and met, and you have to listen to them. You have to spend time getting to know them. I'm not from Washington, so I've been here about nine years. And one of the first things I did when I started working at BECU is just to sit up, get to know people. I accepted every meeting I could just because I needed to understand what am I getting myself into and what is it like here?

Milwaukee, Wisconsin is not Washington State. And so I spent a lot of time just listening, hearing what the needs are from the community, from their partners, and some of the folks they served because that really helped me to understand how I can best serve my role. Don't just talk, but actually start to support, give and give often. We gave to over 250 organizations last year, and that was purposeful. And a lot of that had to do with BECU's growth and development.

So we follow how BECU moves. So if BECU goes into a new community, that's our signal for philanthropy where we need to show up. And we need to be part of that community and we need to be given to that community.

So we start talking like, "What are the nonprofits that really mean a lot in that community? How can we best support? Who else should we be talking to? What else should we be considering support? Who should we partner with?" That is how philanthropy moves into a community.

For us, it's not about doing it because we have an NFC there. It's about doing it because our members are there and we always put our members first. And in order to put our members first, we need to make sure we're servicing the needs of our members. Not just on our financial side, but also on how we support the community our members live in.

Katie:
That's great. Thanks so much.

Kerala:
It reminds me of one of our quarterly strategies at PixelSpoke is operation here and steer. I think you came up with that, Katie. It's very clever. But it's similarly just about really listening to our own clients and our own community.

Challenging times are challenging, but it's also a reminder to take a breath and get off autopilot, and really hone in on what the needs are. Because you take for granted that maybe your client's needs, maybe your community's needs. And then when things start to feel upended or volatile and uncertain, it's like, "Wait, wait, wait. We really need to double down on this." So I love to hear that.

Also, we're going to transition to some rapid fire questions in a moment, but I did see that you are DE certified and just had to give a shout-out to a fellow CUDE.

And for our listeners who may not be familiar with this program, it's the National Credit Union Foundation's Credit Union Development Education Program. And I was lucky to graduate from the best class ever in 2023. And if you're DE certified, you'll get that joke because we're all from the best class ever.

We've all appreciated so much about this program. We have two other staff members who are DE certified, one more, who's I think participating in June. And I think what we've all appreciated so much is that it got us out of our silos.

As you guys know, we weren't allowed to say our title or our role. We knew the credit unions or the companies that people are from, but no one knew the titles. And everyone was just encouraged to take a step back and look more holistically at the credit union movement and its potential for systems change, which is what we're talking about today.

So I'm just curious, what did you take back from the program to your role at BECU?

Gloria:
Oh, man, that, everything you said. And it was so nice to be in a room with everyone that feels exactly the same, what you feel. I don't know if I've ever been in that situation before. I've always worked in the nonprofit community space, but that still can be very siloed depending on what you're doing. But it was really nice to be in a room with people from across the country.

Even a couple who were at my table during my training that was from other countries who really just believe in this mission of cooperative, and credit unions, and our membership. And that connection that we all have, that one single mission of people helping people shared around the world is unbeatable. I don't know of any other institution that can say that. That they work for a place that everyone has the exact same mission, no matter where you are, and there's a lot of us. So it was that connection.

But I think what I took back from BECU is, and we've been modeling it before, but I don't think I've felt it the same way until after, is that need to be holistic and always do our work, and how we need to invite others in. And that we're not in this alone.

Even though your respective credit union, you only have your own work that you're doing. But at the end of the day, that need to improve financial wellbeing for our communities is the same. And we can combine together and make ways for us to figure out how do we do this as a group of credit unions.

And so we have a partnership. I don't manage, our VP of social impact manages, is a partnership with other credit unions around affordable housing bills called the Evergreen Impact Housing Fund. And it's really just credit unions joining together to solve the issue, making sure people are housed.

And I love that because that's what uniqueness of credit unions can be. It doesn't matter who our CEO is. We have the same mission. We're all going to do this. We're going to make sure people are housed. And a lot of our philanthropy work is going that same direction where we're like, "Who else can we bring in? Who else can help us solve for this bigger issue?"

We can't do it alone. If we're going to make the biggest impact, if we're going to solve for any qualities, we need more brilliant minds at the table from other credit unions to help us do that. And the CU training, the DE training really, really talks about that at length.

We're the table with these group of people that we don't know who they are really. We don't know their title. And we're like, "Okay, you have a project. What is it? Solve for it." Train together in this very short couple of days to put out this massive project and idea without knowing anything about each other. But we all know we had that same goal and mission and we believed in it. And so we were like, "Okay, let's do this." And so I brought that back.

Kerala:
Bringing back memories. It was such intense experience, but so worthwhile.

Gloria:
You're right, if you're not a DE, you won't understand the language.

Katie:
And I have to say throughout this conversation today, I have heard themes from DE training throughout. So you brought back a lot, definitely.

And I also just want to give some kudos to your Evergreen project. I first learned about that actually at the Feline's big.bright.minds conference back in, I think it was the end of '23. And was just so inspired by what I learned at that conference about the work you all were doing. And came back to PixelSpoke, I think Carolyn and I talked about it, and we're both super excited about the potential for that.

Kerala:
One of our clients, Sound CU, I believe it's involved in that. And it was a while ago, but we talked about it in a previous podcast episode too. I often reference it in sessions at conferences just because it's such a wonderful example of credit unions joining forces to do something that's more impactful than if they were just each trying to do it individually. So I just love it.

Katie:
Great. Well, let's jump into some rapid fire questions. So I'd love to hear if you could have dinner with one historical person, who would it be?

Gloria:
I thought about this. I had a lot of people on my list, but I think Maya Angelou.

Katie:
Oh, great answer. Yep.

Gloria:
Angelou.

Katie:
I would join you guys.
Maybe a nice segue out of that. What is your favorite meal? What would you serve Maya?

Gloria:
I will serve her this, but I love it. I'm a big fan of eggs. I have to have eggs with every breakfast. I absolutely love eggs, but I am also equally, I love donuts. Not together. I wouldn't have them in the same meal together, but I don't know if I would serve Maya Angelou eggs and donuts.

Katie:
I love that.

Kerala:
Eggs followed by donuts. You can't [inaudible 00:33:33].

Katie:
Well, and I think she appreciate the financial investment you made in 2020 to purchasing eggs for her.

Gloria:
Right.

Katie:
Great. And then what would you say is your life slogan?

Gloria:
Be the change you want to see in the world. That's been that forever, probably a long time.

Katie:
Great. Thanks.

Kerala:
We're also a certified B Corp at PixelSpoke, and that's a very familiar slogan in the B Corp movement as well.

Great. Well, let's do our final take. So just as a reminder to our listeners, our big question today was how can credit unions be more involved in meaningful systems change, particularly when it comes to economic inequality?

So we know this is a big question. It probably doesn't have a short answer, but I'm wondering, Gloria, if in just a few sentences you can summarize your thoughts on this?

Gloria:
I'll just echo some things I said. First, listen, listen a lot. And then give, give a lot. Take the time to listen to your community and give back to those important issues and then do it together. You're better together.

Kerala:
Oh, that's perfect. Wonderful. Well, it was so inspiring. I feel like it is often the case with our guests. I could keep talking to you for hours, but we really enjoyed our conversation and thank you so much for joining us.

Gloria:
Thank you.

Katie:
Thank you so much.

Gloria:
Thank you.

Kerala:
All right. It's time for our key takeaways, and I'm going to start by just reiterating what Gloria talked about in response to our last question. It's about the importance of listening and also the importance of sharing before taking action.

Honestly, this sounds like advice I give my kids, but it's good advice for all of us to remember, including me. And sometimes it's really easy to forget, but when we don't listen and share, we make faulty assumptions and we simply miss opportunities to learn.

I'd say this advice holds true when building community partnerships, especially following the trust-based philanthropy model that Gloria talked about.

And it can also apply to how teams work together. For example, philanthropy and marketing within a credit union itself.

Secondly, financial education is important. I think we can all agree on that, but we really need a broader approach to addressing economic inequality.

I really appreciated hearing about BECU's multi-pronged strategy. It encompasses financial literacy, yes, but also financial barriers and education, workforce development, support for entrepreneurs and other cooperatives, and housing stability. And probably some other things I'm forgetting, but such a robust approach. And it really equips BECU to create lasting economic resilience within the communities they serve.

And lastly, I'm really intrigued by the idea of philanthropy as a driver of growth. We tend to think of growth in terms of asset size or revenue or new branches, but no credit union can grow effectively without fostering trust in the communities they serve.

So as BECU enters new communities, philanthropy follows, really aiming to understand and support the local needs. And that of course goes back to the recurring theme of listening, to ensuring that they're not just another financial institution on Main Street, but are really active contributing members of that community.

Well, thanks for joining us today for another great episode.

The Remarkable Credit Union is brought to you by PixelSpoke, a digital marketing agency that works with credit unions to create user-friendly, high-converting award-winning websites. As a B Corp and employee-owned cooperative, we believe that business can and should be of force for good.

You can learn more and check out our work at pixelspoke.coop. That's PixelSpoke, all one word, .coop. Until the next time, I wish you the best of luck in making your credit union remarkable.

 
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