The Five Themes That Got Our Attention in 2024

With the New Year now upon us, it’s a good time to take stock and reflect on the events, opportunities, and challenges that occupied our days (and, sometimes, our sleepless nights!) during the last 12 months.

Looking back at a year’s worth of articles we’ve written for CUInsight, podcast episodes we’ve released, and research we’ve conducted on credit union marketing and the broader cooperative movement, five clear themes emerge:

 

1. Climate finance is the next frontier

As virtually every part of the world dealt with some form of natural disaster, species disappeared, and formerly pristine jungles and forests were turned into housing, roads, and farmland, there was no escaping this reality: Our climate is in trouble. We urged credit unions to get involved in two critical ways.

First, with green lending. Green lending isn’t new—it’s been around in one form or another since the 1970s. Its appeal has grown in recent years given the increasing number and variety of climate-related impacts and disasters, and the size of the global green market is forecast to hit $326 trillion by 2050.

In our CUInsight article, Now it’s easier being green: The why, how, and why now of green lending, we encouraged credit unions to consider adding green lending to their product lineup. There is strong evidence that consumers of all ages and incomes were interested in going green. In our podcast episode, How Your Credit Union Can Reap the Rewards of Green Lending, Cathie Mahon, President and CEO of Inclusiv and Blake Jones, founding board members of Clean Energy Credit Union discussed the broad appeal of green products. In fact, Clean Energy Credit Union inadvertently qualified as a low-income credit union because so many lower income borrowers were attracted to the potential savings made possible by green energy products.

As Mahon shared, credit unions are “committed and connected to our communities, and we deliver the kinds of products and services that people need to improve their lives. And this is our next frontier.”

The second way credit unions can play a role in the climate arena is by being the resource communities can rely on in times of crisis. As we shared in our June article, When disaster strikes: How credit unions are uniquely positioned to respond, by their very nature and structure, credit unions are ready and prepared to effectively react to the dangers their communities and members face.

Why? Credit unions are oriented toward partnerships, are already used to serving the vulnerable, and are quick to deploy funds and support. Because they’re independent, local, and less likely to be bogged down by layers of bureaucracy than other financial institutions, credit unions can quickly step in and get the job done. We saw this in Puerto Rico, where some communities could only get food, water, and electricity at their local cooperativa, and in west coast credit unions that offered gift cards, no- and low-cost loans, deferred loan payments, and basics like food and water for neighbors in contending with wildfires.

 

2. Human-centric digital strategy

AI, chatbots, and algorithms, oh my! It’s no surprise these issues were top-of-mind given all the buzz around ChatGPT and other AI-driven tools. But in our July article, Your digital strategy still requires a human-centric approach, we encouraged credit unions to balance technology with their historical strong suit of a personal touch. After all, technology alone can’t build trusting, long-term relationships.

We recognized that automation saves time and effort, especially on repetitive tasks, but also cautioned against letting reliance on it run amuck. Just because your credit union can send members three emails a day, doesn’t mean you should.

We also loved that automation allows credit unions to easily personalize the content they share with members—something 83% of consumers said they wanted in a 2024 survey from PMNTS.com. But be careful about diving too deeply into marketing based on those personal insights, which can feel downright creepy! Be transparent about why your credit union is reaching out with a special offer—especially if a human contact initially drove the connection—and share your message in a friendly, approachable way.

Using AI to power through your tasks? Yay you for investigating this formidable tool. But recognize AI’s limitations, including the potential for built-in bias and limited transparency, and the sometimes very obvious this-wasn’t-written-by-a-human tone. Instead, consider AI a jumping-off point when developing strategies, copy, and more, then lean into your humanness to create something members can relate and respond to.

As we cautioned in our May article, Does your credit union suffer from shiny object syndrome?, when navigating the benefits and risks of technology, try to weigh whether or not you’re just you’re simply caught up in the thrill of a new toy. Before your credit union blows its budget on whatever’s touted as the next must-have tech, consider the following:

Could a “boring” solution be better? Often the answer is “yes.” Sometimes the most impactful innovations are the boring ones that actually make a difference, such as using a history of timely loan payments as a proxy for underwriting.

Ben Maxim, Vice President of Digital Strategy & Innovation at MSUFCU and a guest on The Remarkable Credit Union podcast, described innovation as “day by day, making things just a little better.”

Could a non-tech solution be best? Recognize that your daily efforts to make things “just a little better” don’t have to revolve around technology. How can your credit union improve the lives of your members simply by knowing and understanding them?

Are you meeting members where they’re at—physically and digitally? During our conversation with Elizabeth Escobar, Chief Business Officer of Express Credit Union, in our podcast episode, The Power of Small: What We Can Learn from Express Credit Union, she shared a great service her credit union uses to meet members’ needs: community tellers. Credit union staff bring the credit union to the community with pop-up sites where they open accounts, provide one-on-one financial coaching, and help members complete loan applications. These combine a wealth of digital tools plus the personal touch of on-site, face-to-face connections.

 

3. Human-centric leadership

It’s easy to get caught up in a bigger-is-better, tech-centric mentality. But we’d argue that we all benefit from having credit unions of every asset size and that a human touch is one of most important credit union differentiators.

Let’s start with the idea that small can be beautiful.

Far from being also-rans in today’s financial services landscape, there’s plenty of evidence to support their value, as we outlined in our March article, What small credit unions can teach the big dogs.

For instance, did you know that a 2021 white paper from America’s Credit Unions found small credit unions (those with less than $100 million in assets) have a lower operating expense ratio than larger ones and a loan growth rate at least 50% higher? That same white paper also found that small credit unions help protect the credit union tax status, provide vital services to more than 15 million Americans—many of whom are in rural and vulnerable urban areas—and create valuable diversity. In addition, small credit unions tend to be exceptional examples of the credit union movement, more connected to their communities, and more agile and innovative (check out this Filene report to learn more).

One of our favorite examples of the power of small is Element FCU, headed by Linda Bodie. We had the chance to catch up with Bodie this year in our podcast episode, How Element FCU Defies the Odds with Grit, Humor, and Heart, and her three key takeaways should resonate with credit unions of all sizes: Solving problems doesn’t require deep pockets; everything starts with knowing your members; and credit unions need to build both safe and brave spaces. If you’re not familiar with Bodie and Element, this podcast is definitely worth a listen.

And regardless of asset size, credit unions always benefit from keeping people at the center of everything they do. Chylon Pappas, VP of Corporate and Government Engagement at First Tech Federal Credit Union, showed us how credit unions can keep the focus on people in our podcast episode, At This Tech-Forward Credit Union, People Still Come First. As Pappas stressed, credit unions need to be “understanding what people actually need and figuring out ways to solve those challenges. They don’t have to be these huge initiatives . . . there are small things we can be doing to help employees . . . members and the broader community.”

One last voice on this topic: PixelSpoke’s very own former CEO Cameron Madill. After two decades at the helm of Pixelspoke, Madill shared his three key insights on leadership in our January article, Three unexpected leadership lessons I learned during my 20 years as a CEO.

He stressed the importance of pushing on the WHY instead of simply relying on conventional “business wisdom,” looking beyond the bottom line to consider the impact your credit union has on society, and leading with love. The best leaders give generously, engage from the heart, not just the head, and have the hard conversations that keep a relationship going. Or, as Madill said, “Love doesn’t mean we do everything right. It just means that we’re committed to doing the hard work.”

 

4. Financial wellness in times of economic volatility

Over the course of this last year, we’ve heard a lot about how although the economy has actually been pretty darn good, many people just aren’t feeling it. We acknowledged their pain in an August post, They say the economic outlook is strong. Your members might beg to differ, and provided insights into three big reasons members might struggle: the cost of care, low wages, and the lack of affordable housing.

This article is a great place to get a snapshot of the top things your members are struggling with, plus innovative ways credit unions across the country are working to make a difference. Sure, the system can’t single-handedly solve these big, intractable problems, but that isn’t stopping credit unions from leveraging the power of partnership and innovation to help make a meaningful dent.

In our recent podcast, How to Create a Game-Changing Financial Product, Jerome Emanuel, Chief Lending Officer at Alternatives Federal Credit Union, outlines how credit unions can expand opportunity through their product mix. Emanuel joined Alternatives because he valued the credit union’s efforts to fight systemic racism and inequality. The groundbreaking FAIR mortgage product he pioneered was built on three core tenets: leveraging the positive trickle-up effects of an ownership mentality; asking “what are we afraid of” when determining eligibility requirements for a financial product and looking for ways to solve for whatever areas are raising concerns; and focusing on the positive instead of the negative when assessing a loan application.

Or, as Emanuel says, “Let’s stop looking for reasons for why we can’t do something. Let’s start looking for reasons for why we can.”

 

5. Challenging conventional marketing wisdom

Marketing is critical to any credit union’s growth efforts, but conventional marketing wisdom will only get us so far. We asked our readers to reconsider some of their assumptions in our September article, The 5 questions you should be asking to boost your website’s ROI (but probably aren’t. We looked at popular approaches to credit union websites—including what’s typically featured on the homepage, what types of images credit unions rely on, and popular credit union blog topics—and questioned whether or not they are actually effective. (Spoiler alert: They aren’t.)

We also debunked credit union branding myths in our February article, 5 common myths about credit union brands, asking key questions like: Who owns your credit union brand? What’s your top brand differentiator? What does rebranding mean, and what does the process actually entail?

According to Allision Netzer, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at digital banking platform Nymbus, and co-author of the book, Think Like a Brand, Not a Bank, in our podcast episode, Does your credit union think like a brand?, “The brands that stay, the brands that are compelling, carve out a niche and constantly solve problems.”

And in our November article, How to stay top of mind and wallet we explored what it might mean to flip the funnel on member connections. When we think about what attracts and cements member relationships, it might seem logical to focus on big-ticket, long-term financial services like mortgages. But credit unions might actually be better off connecting at the day-to-day level with things like debit and credit cards, convenience features in your app, and integrated, in-context financial education.

Of course, all of these themes will remain relevant in 2025, and we’re quite sure some new themes will surface. It is certainly going to be another volatile year that will require a delicate balance between technology and human connection, between credit union roots and new frontiers, and between conventional wisdom and bold ideas.

Ready? Let’s go!

This article originally appeared on CUInsight.