Economic Justice for All: How SCCCU Lives and Breathes its WHY

Take a look around your community and ask questions. Be humble, be courageous, and take a leap.

These are guiding philosophies for Katie Fairbairn, Chief Experience Officer for Santa Cruz Community Credit Union (SCCCU), and Kerry Fulton, President & Owner of Southwest Strategic Marketing. They join The Remarkable Credit Union to talk about their mission of economic justice and financial freedom for all, how that guides everything they do, what makes their award-winning “Return the Favor” campaign distinct from other community giving campaigns, and how to balance mission and margin.

This month’s BIG Question: What does economic justice look like in practice and how can a credit union work toward achieving it in their community?

 

Key takeaways:

1. Their WHY shows up in 3 ways:
   • Strategic roadmap, also called their Member Access Plan
   • Types of products offered
   • Outreach and community giving
2. Why did SCCCU become a CDFI? Because the CDFI definition aligns with their vision: an America where everyone, in every place, can invest capital to create prosperity.
3. Access is the guiding principle behind the products they offer, and the response has shown that there’s clear demand — SCCCU has grown ITIN lending from 3M in 2020 to 13M in 2021. For their LIFT loans, they reach out proactively to those who don’t qualify and offer financial guidance.
4. Their award-winning “Return the Favor” campaign focused on helping the folks with boots on the ground. They raised 58k in 2020, and grew that to 158k in 2021.
5. How does SCCCU serve its community? With humility, curiosity, courage, and action.

 

Read the full transcript:

Cameron Madill:
Hello, and 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. We bring on expert guests from inside and outside of the industry for conversations about innovation. 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 magnify the positive impact you have in your community.

Cameron Madill:
Today’s big question, what does economic justice look like in practice and how can a credit union work towards achieving that in their community? I’m very excited to introduce our two very talented and experienced guests today that we heard about recently at a conference that really touched on so much of the exciting work that they are doing. We’re featuring folks from Santa Cruz Community Credit Union and I’d love to introduce first Katie Fairbairn, who is an employee of Santa Cruz Community Credit Union as the chief experience officer for the last year and a half.

Cameron Madill:
She relocated there from Ukiah, California. Katie retired from the California Community College system after 32 years in K to 12 in community college education among others working as a public information officer, executive director for a community college, overseeing the 501(c)(3) nonprofit, chief fundraiser for Mendocino College in Ukiah, and all this was done for the 10 years prior to the credit union. Katie also is the founder of a really amazing, 100 plus woman strong, inland Mendo giving circle that’s in Mendocino, which supports local grassroots nonprofits and she moved on from that post in 2021 due to remove, but still out there doing good work. In her spare time, Katie likes to walk dogs, play with great nephews, loves to vegetable garden, and cook for friends and family. Welcome Katie.

Katie Fairbairn:
Thank you for having me.

Cameron Madill:
I’m also equally excited to welcome Kerry Fulton. Kerry is currently the marketing consultant at Santa Cruz Community Credit Union, has been there since 2020. She has owned Southwest Strategic Marketing LLC for 20 years, serving credit unions throughout the country. Kerry got her start at McCann Erickson Advertising right out of college, working on the Columbia Pictures account, but she quickly moved to credit union marketing where she stayed for 33 years. She started as a marketing coordinator at TRW Systems Federal Credit Union, which is now Unify Financial Credit Union in California, and has since served in many capacities and with several credit unions over the years. When not working, Kerry enjoys spending time with her family, works with the youth group at her church, and enjoys working out, and playing the piano. All right. Welcome, Kerry.

Kerry Fulton:
Thank you. Nice to be here.

Cameron Madill:
Yeah, we’re very excited to have you guys. I know we had some team members who just came back raving about the work that you all are doing at Santa Cruz Community Credit Union and so I’d love to start with talking a little bit about purpose. Over the years, we’ve definitely noticed that some credit unions are more focused on purpose than others, and it seems like purpose is really central to everything that you all do. So I’d love to start by just having you guys talk a bit about your core purpose and why it’s so important to you.

Kerry Fulton:
Sure. I’m going to take this one. I’ve been in credit union marketing for over 30 years, like you mentioned, and I have to say that Santa Cruz Community Credit Union is one of the only credit unions that I’ve actually worked with or worked for that really lives its mission. The mission is to provide economic justice for all and they really mean it. Everything that we do goes by that lens or we use that lens for it. It’s interesting because I’ve been at credit union side and you do the strategic planning, you write down your mission, your vision, and then you go back to work. At the Santa Cruz Community Credit Union, the mission is really at the forefront of everything we do and the CEO is really good about making sure that it’s the lens. Every decision we make, that’s the lens that we use.

Kerry Fulton:
So in terms of what do we mean by economic justice for all? It really is just that we want help people gain financial freedom. We want them to feel confident. We want them to have a way to obtain the things that they need, some of the most basic things that they need. Things like shelter, feeling like they have some stability in their life. We know that studies show over and over again that when you help the underserved and the unbanked, the entire community improves. So you have less poverty. Your economy actually improves overall. So that’s a real big focal point for the Credit Union.

Kerry Fulton:
You ask why it’s important and I think more than anything, it’s our why. So when we have this in front of us every day and in everything we do, especially in marketing, it gives us a little more meaning to getting up every day and going to work. When you feel like you are making a difference, it’s a little easier. When you have a vision of helping people become more confident in their financial lives, it just really matters more. So that kind of sums up when Katie and I were talking about this, that’s mostly what we were talking about, is it really just is the core purpose is just right out there in front of us all the time. That’s not always the case at other financial institutions and credit unions that I’ve been around.

Cameron Madill:
Kerry, I’m curious, do you have an example of maybe how that why guided you all to make a different decision or do something differently than you might have in a different context where the why wasn’t as strong?

Kerry Fulton:
Sure, absolutely. So I can give you an example of we just launched a loan program called the lift loans. This loan is specifically a low cost short term loan that we are offering to members really because we’re trying to attack the payday lenders because they just completely, anyone that has been around payday lending, their predatory lenders. So the idea was to create this loan. Well, what happened was we’re in a meeting and we’re finding that the parameters around the loan were not really what we wanted or what we had intended at first and so we had a meeting with the CEO and with the chief lending officer and we sat down and said, “Okay, what do we need to modify? What do we need to change? How are we going to make this better?”

Kerry Fulton:
We used actual examples of how this was helping and not helping certain people and we made adjustments right then because it wasn’t adhering to our mission. These loans go to C, D, and E paper. So that’s not a very normal loan and so the other idea that we had and that we’re kicking off in August, which I’m pretty much super excited about, is that we’re doing a pre-screen. We’re doing a pre-screen to C, D, and E paper, which is unheard of, and we are offering this lift loan because we want to reach the people who can’t get a loan someplace else, who are members in good standing with us, and try to help them. We also do ITIN lending, which is unique and meets our mission specifically head on. I’ve worked with a couple other credit unions and when I mentioned ITIN lending, it was like, “Oh no, no, no, no,” but that’s the market we’re in. So we want to reach out and hit those people any way that we can to help them to improve their life.

Cameron Madill:
Those are great examples. Thank you and those are really great programs. I’m maybe on some levels thinking about some of the things that you guys have done at an even more structural level. I know that you guys mentioned on your site that you’re one of the first credit unions in the country to become a CDFI and so I’m curious what prompted you guys to go out and seek that designation? Similarly, I know you’re a [inaudible 00:07:17] credit union. What prompted you to go out and get both of those statuses for your credit union?

Katie Fairbairn:
So when you look back to the founding members and the guiding principles of this credit union, we’re fortunate to celebrate our 45th anniversary this year, but the individuals who formed this credit union wanted a place for people to put their money. Santa Cruz has a loving history of a lot of people here are, and I don’t mean this as a bad word, but they’re activism and they’re activists and they take a stand for what they believe in what’s right. They’re not profit driven. They’re not money driven. They’re let’s make a difference driven. Does that make sense? We’ve been very fortunate that we’ve had a CEO for the last 10 years who filters everything through that lens. So every decision that we make is from that standpoint.

Katie Fairbairn:
So it was a no brainer back in 2000 when they received the certification to become a CDFI, because when you look at the US Department of Treasuries definition of a CDFI, it’s an America in which everyone in every community has access to invest capital and financial services that they need to prosper. So it’s interesting because my background as a nonprofit person, working for a community college and supporting students in getting an education, it’s very similar to the work that Kerry and I now do as a CDFI [inaudible 00:08:51] credit union. It’s all about helping people. It’s all about lifting people up and raising that bar.

Katie Fairbairn:
What a journey we’ve been on the last year and a half. We have Kerry who has all this experience as a marketer and an advertiser, and she knows credit unions. She lives and breathes it and I have this passion about nonprofit work. So putting the two of us together was a firecracker moment. I’m so proud of the work that she and I have been able to accomplish this last year with the support of Beth Carr, our CEO. We couldn’t have done this work without her. We’re just blown away all the time when people say to us, “Oh, you do ITIN lending. Oh, you do that. Oh, you create products. Oh, it’s not all about just making money.”

Katie Fairbairn:
So I think we really are incredibly different and we’re unique and we like that. We’re okay in that spot. Our guiding principle is just to empower other people, to bring people up. So 45 years later, we’ve been attaining these remarkable achievements and Kerry and I have been blessed to be rewarded with awards this last year, both from Mac and from Kuna about the work that we’ve been doing, the business newsletters, the return the favor giving campaign that we’ll talk about later. So it’s pretty much we’re living and breathing the mission in everything we do and every discussion that we have, it comes up. What does our community need? What help do they need from us? We ask the questions.

Katie Fairbairn:
We obtained our [inaudible 00:10:24] in 2015, because to be honest with you, we were already serving that population and getting that designation just further cemented our commitment to serving the underserved, the unbanked, and those that didn’t have access to financial services. I believe we’re the second credit union in California to earn [inaudible 00:10:44] designation and it was just a natural that we do that. It directly aligned again to our mission and to serving people that need the service the most.

Katie Fairbairn:
ITIN lending, I just want to give you an example of that. So in 2020, we provided a little over $3 million in loans to our members who only had an ITIN. In 2021, that number increased to 13 million. So we definitely have identified a need, or we wouldn’t have increased in lending dollars that much year over year. I also want to point out that we’re the only financial institution in the community that was doing ITIN lending for years. So over the past year, we’ve seen other financial institutions follow our lead and welcome to the party. The more the merrier, the more that we can all help, the more we can saturate a market that middle income or low economic standing families need us. Please come and join us. The more we can do, the better off we can make our community.

Katie Fairbairn:
If we pull everybody up, we all prosper. We all get better. We all have more access. Everybody should have the opportunity to send their kid to college. So it was competitive to be the only ITIN lender and like I said, we’re happy to have other people join the party, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s our mission to do things that provide economic justice for all. Eventually we can’t do it all alone, because the community’s much larger than we can serve. We’re probably the smallest credit union in the area, least amount of staff, smallest asset size, but we’re doing incredible work and it’s okay to share this story and to share what we’re doing because we want others to do it as well. We would love it if more people followed in our path.

Cameron Madill:
Well, I appreciate that generosity of spirit you all have, because I think as we all know, there are banking deserts or branch deserts or lending deserts, whatever you want to call them. I think it’s by people having the courage to try something different that makes it safe and okay for other people to try it, but love to go back to awards because that was how we first heard about the work you’re doing. It was the gold Mac award for the return the favor campaign. Pretty much every credit union has some kind of community giving initiative, but you guys did some really interesting and creative things to set your campaign apart. So do you mind sharing a bit about that?

Katie Fairbairn:
No, not at all. So this credit union, again, back to the mission, it has always given to the community in a variety of ways. Again, it was part of their original thinking that they wanted to be ingrained in the community. We know who member number one through 10 are and we have relationships with them and we try and make sure that we look at community giving. We think about what those founders thoughts were. So at the onset of COVID, most of the financial institutions in the area were kind of pulling back because everyone was afraid. We’d never lived through anything like this and we were fearful. So instead of pushing forward, which is what we did, everybody pulled back.

Katie Fairbairn:
Our board who also lives the mission and eat, sleeps, and breathes everything that we do, said to our CEO, “We have to help. We got to get out there. We’ve got to help the nonprofits. We have to help the people that had the boots on the ground.” So the people that their doors were still open, the nonprofits that were still serving food or providing grocery bags of groceries, the people that were wearing a mask and they were still picking up elderly folks who couldn’t drive a car to get to a doctor’s appointment. The board said, “We got to help.” So they created return the favor and that was before my arrival. They said, “We’re going to help the nonprofits.”

Katie Fairbairn:
So they ran a program and they raised, I want to say, that first year they raised about $58,000. That was in 2020 and they dispersed that to, I want to say, about 16, 18 nonprofits in Santa Cruz County who were doing the important work. Then I came on board in 2021 and Kerry and I started talking about return the favor. I had been a executive director of a nonprofit for 10 years. So I asked the CEO if we could run the return the favor as a match program. The board agreed. We designated 12 nonprofits that were doing a variety of work, serving the homeless, serving the food insecure, serving the elderly, serving children, you name it. They’re the people that are doing the most difficult jobs.

Katie Fairbairn:
We ran the campaign as a match. We called all the nonprofits. We said, “Hey, call your best donors. Tell them if they donate through this avenue,” and we used a site called grapevine.org and I’ve used them twice now. They’re a fabulous organization and they generate the 501(c)(3) charitable contribution letters for you. They’ll even disperse the funds that are collected. We were able to raise $158,000 and it was a smashing success. The board gave the 50,000. We ran it as a match. We ran out money within three weeks. We went back to the board. We asked for another 25,000. They graciously gave it and we maxed that out within one week. So the board gave 75,000 and the community gave the difference.

Katie Fairbairn:
Our total was 158,000 that we raised. We just dispersed that to 12 nonprofits that are doing great work in Santa Cruz community. So it was a very special time and we worked really hard on it and the work paid off. Kerry and I are absolutely thrilled, couldn’t be happier with the outcome, and we’re right now gearing up for this year’s program that will start in September. We try and end it on Giving Tuesday in November, it’s core to the mission and it’s core to we’re part of the fabric of the community in which we live and work.

Cameron Madill:
What a great program. Well thank you for sharing that. I look forward during how 2022 goes, hopefully even bigger. I’d love to go back to your mission a little bit. One of the first things I noticed when I looked at your website was that inclusion is part of your main navigation. I know we have lots of marketers and user experience people on the call. That’s something that most of the time we would strongly recommend against as the nav should be peanut butter and jelly, plain vanilla stuff, but we actually have one client who probably has a similar ethos to you. We put force for good in their navigation because they just felt like it was central to everything they do.

Cameron Madill:
So I’m curious, why did you guys put inclusion as a core part on your website, that you thought was so important that you wanted to make sure you called it out separately? Then maybe tied to that, you guys have a lot of products that are quite admirable, second chance checking, the lower interest for timely payments loans, DACA loans, [inaudible 00:17:28] tax services that are all sort of built around inclusion. So how do you think about that umbrella and the boldness to put it into navigation of your website? Then how do you think about all these products and how they support your members’ financial wellbeing?

Kerry Fulton:
I do appreciate the comment that you made about trying to make things very generic in the navigation because it’s a challenge, right? I mean, it’s always a challenge. When we redid our website, we just launched that new website on May 18th, and one of the big things that we wanted to do was make our website feel more like our credit union. One of the big issues was we wanted to make sure that the things that we’re doing that set us apart strategically from other people in the community, from other financial institutions, that that was, I guess, very prominent on the website. So that’s where the inclusion button came in and that section.

Kerry Fulton:
It’s a section that I feel really proud of because I feel like it defines the credit union. It allows us to share our story, to share who we are, who we serve, and the specific products that are there for people who may have been turned down by someone else or can’t get a loan someplace else. We are truly, I know some people just say it, but we’re really, truly committed to that. Sometimes it’s not about profit. I know that’s a bad word, but I am a marketer so I can say that.

Kerry Fulton:
Sometimes it’s not about profit though. Sometimes it’s about meeting a need and in the long run, developing that relationship, and because of that relationship in the long run, that becomes a more profitable relationship. So that’s why that inclusion was there and the CEO, Beth Carr, was very specific about wanting to have something that showed our difference, showed who we are, that you could feel the credit union, not only by the images that we have all through the website, but actually just in that section specifically. We took great care with every single thing that we did on that.

Kerry Fulton:
So in terms of some of the products on there, mentioned the lift loans before, which are a big, hot product for us right now that we’re trying to sell, but one thing I want to mention, I talked about the pre-screen that we’re going to be doing on that particular product, but one thing I didn’t mention with that particular product was those people who do not get a pre-screen loan, who do not get pre-approved, we are also going to be reaching out to those folks in some way.

Kerry Fulton:
We’re trying to figure out right now the best way to do it, but reaching out to them and providing them some sort of financial guidance so that the next time we do a pre-approval, they can be part of it. Again, that’s mission specific. That’s not going to make us a whole lot of money to go out and reach these people who really can’t get loan with us, but we know that a lot of these folks are payday lending customers and they’re paying through the nose for a loan that they shouldn’t be paying for. So that’s one of the things that we’re working on.

Kerry Fulton:
The other one that I really love that we mention in this particular section, one of the products, is second chance checking, and this is a great option for folks. We have a lot of people in our community that use check cashing stores. We have a lot. They’re all over the place and so we did some research on these and I would highly recommend that to anybody who is thinking about trying to do some sort of a payday lender alternative loan, or a second chance checking type of loan. I love this product because it allows us to reach out to those people who may have been turned down for a checking account in the past, or maybe they’ve had some other issues. So we put them into this account and we help them to learn how to budget, learn, how to manage, et cetera.

Kerry Fulton:
So anyway, I did a competitive analysis in the community, specifically looking at payday lenders and check cashing stores. Seriously, my mind was blown. Blown away. I mean, you know that they nickel and dime people, but I just didn’t realize how intense it was. For example, they say, “Get a debit card with us for free,” but then you pay $1.50 per transaction. Now someone who is needing a payday loan or someone who is needing to go to a check cashing store, how are they going to afford $1.50 per transaction? Every penny matters.

Kerry Fulton:
So again, it’s a ridiculous option for some of these folks who are struggling paycheck to paycheck every month, but if they’ve been turned down in the past, or if they’re concerned they’ll be reported to the authorities, they won’t come to the credit union. So that’s a big, I guess, stumbling block that we’re trying to overcome to try to get people to be comfortable with us enough to know, hey, look it, we’re just here to try to help you. We’re not trying to do anything more than that. I just think it’s a really great option.

Kerry Fulton:
I mean, our second chance checking gives them a safe place to deposit their funds. It’s a true free debit card, free access to online and mobile banking and bill pay. I mean, all free. These are all things that are charged. In fact, one of the things I thought was interesting is they actually say, “Bring your unused gift cards and we’ll pay you the money that’s left on them for a fee, of course.” So it’s just interesting to me to see how they’re taking advantage of folks that are in this situation. We want to try to kind of switch that around and help them understand that we’re here to help them have a better financial future.

Cameron Madill:
Well, thanks for sharing all of that, Kerry. I think it’s incredible, the range of programs you have. I know I have done the “secret shopping” with check cashers and payday lenders. I remember the thing that really blew my mind was, I guess, back to the topic of user experiences, a lot of these places had really great user experiences.

Kerry Fulton:
Oh, yes.

Cameron Madill:
Yeah, but that was paired with, as you said, just unbelievable fees. In many cases, actually the fees were quite transparent, but because the user experience felt so friendly, I think it felt a lot safer than often the shame and exclusion that people feel when they go into a mainstream financial institution, which often has this generations of exclusion as the mindset in the community around those sorts of institutions.

Kerry Fulton:
Yeah. Agreed. A hundred percent agree with you on that.

Cameron Madill:
I’d love to talk about affordable housing, because that’s a topic that I think honestly, here in Portland, Oregon where I’m located, it’s a huge topic, but I don’t honestly know any part of the country where it’s not a huge topic. So especially I’m sure in your region, I’d love to hear what are you guys doing with local affordable housing initiatives?

Kerry Fulton:
That’s another really good question and it is an issue. When you do a analysis of Santa Cruz county, there are not a lot of options for people who are looking for financing in the types of people that we’re serving, when you’re talking about a lower income or a middle income folk. So it’s a really great question. So I want to give an example of one of the greatest things that we do as a credit union is we provide mobile home loans. So we’ll fund these loans when others don’t. We’re one of the only players in the county in terms of mobile home lending.

Kerry Fulton:
So we had a situation where we had a member come to us. Her name was Sarah and she was turned down from another bank in the community for a manufactured home because she didn’t have a pay tax stub because she was self-employed. She had great credit, had a good down payment, but no one would fund her loan. So we helped her create a loan file out of rent receipts. She provided proof of income through her tax returns and she got a home. Again, you’re helping someone meet a most basic need, which is shelter and it makes a huge difference. She had raving reviews about our mortgage representative that helped her.

Kerry Fulton:
We also just partnered with habitat for humanity. So we help fund a few of the home loans for their projects that they have coming out in our community. I think one of the things that we’re most excited about though, is that we recently received a grant to fund some housing specifically in the certain areas of our field of membership that need it the most. We’re calling this initiative the [inaudible 00:25:24] or project home. It’s in the works right now, but it’s designed specifically for mobile home and manufactured home loans, and we can throw in condos and town homes as well, but it will really provide a way for people to get the homes that they need, because again, shelter is one of those most basic needs that people have. So if we can help fulfill that incredibly important need, even for one person like Sarah, that’s a huge win.

Cameron Madill:
Those are great series of programs. I think it’s inspiring because it’s clear that affordable houses is something that everyone’s going to have to pitch in together to create a situation where everyone can have that very basic need, as you said, met. Well, I’ve really loved chatting with you all and I feel like the theme, obviously, throughout all of this is purpose. So I’d love to hear what advice you have for other credit unions that are looking to better define or connect with their core purpose and then how can they go about being more effectively pursuing that in their communities?

Kerry Fulton:
Our vice president of member services, Eduardo, he was sharing with us about a man who came into the credit union. Eduardo was helping him and he had a really high rate on his auto loan and so he offered to help him get a lower rate and he didn’t get a good rate because he didn’t have a social security number. He had an ITIN. So we’re talking about a significant difference. His rate that this member had was 23% for an auto loan. He walked out of our credit union with something like a 5% or 8% loan, something significant like that. I mean, think about the change in the monthly payment that this made to the member. So now when the member comes to the branch, he says hi to him every time. Why? Because it’s a significant difference that one act, one risk made that difference to one person.

Kerry Fulton:
I’m not really a fluffy person. I’m pretty much a marketer, linear. I manage and I’m all about programs and meeting and deadlines and so forth, but to me, when you can make a difference in helping someone meet a basic need, shelter, financial stability, whatever that is, you create a bond with them. That’s really what credit unions are all about. I think for me, besides having courage, taking that leap, is keeping that end game in mind, keeping what is this all about? I mean, what are we in business to do? We’re in business to help people better their financial lives. We’re in business to help them have more financial security. When you keep that end game in mind, the decisions you make, they might be different than what you may have made, I guess, if profit was the only generator and it is kind of the credit union way. It’s the philosophy, right? People helping people. So again, just having a little courage, take the leap, and then keeping your end game, always keeping that end game in mind.

Cameron Madill:
Awesome. Well thank you both for joining. It’s really wonderful to hear what you’re doing and wish you all the best of luck and all your great initiatives going forward in transforming your community.