Nearing 40 years of experience in the Credit Union Industry, Oak Tree is a leading provider for lending documents and forms for Credit Unions. We provide all types of forms (all types of formats), data linking services, training, compliance support, legal opinion letters, preprinted brochures and documents, as well as web-based and mobile forms. Marketing Services for credit unions also available.
This week, our focus for Humanitarian Highlight is on credit unions who are giving their community the strength to overcome life’s trials and tribulations.
In Bay Federal Credit Union’s annual fundraising drive, a total of over $27,000 was collected for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. The money will go to help children in the various high-quality children’s hospitals the network represents.
GoPacks, a nonprofit made to fight food insecurity and provide educational programs for children, partnered with this credit union to raise over $10,000. The money was raised through individual donations and contributions from West Virginia Credit Union community members and staff.
Employees at Credit Union West donated $5,451 to the Firefighter Angel Foundation. This non-profit foundation aims to help children in need by providing essential items and services, particularly those in Yavapai County.
State Employees Federal Credit Union pledged to donate a significant amount of money to the Special Olympics for every USA victory in the Tokyo Olympics. The credit union pledged $500 for every gold, $250 for every silver and $125 for every bronze. Fans and community members are also encouraged to donate directly through SEFCU’s page on the charity event.
This credit union announced that their employees had donated 5,279 food items to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee. Ascend Federal Credit Union held the collection in its corporate office and within all 28 branch locations. The food bank will be donating the collected foods to 27 different agencies. This is the fourth year the credit union has participated in this food drive.
For July 4th, Visions Federal Credit Union hosted its annual 4 on the 4th Road Race. This charity event supports a charitable organization of the credit union’s choosing, and this year’s event donated to the Southern Tier Veterans Support Group. Over 350 runners participated both virtually and physically, and as a result of the race, the credit union donated over $3,500.
These charitable acts benefitting children, veterans, and other vulnerable groups grant people the strength to overcome their struggles, and these credit unions should be praised for them.
If you would like to place an inquiry about being featured in a Humanitarian Highlight or have any other comments or questions regarding our business, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions through our email or by phone at (800) 537-9598.
Be sure to follow our social media pages if you’d like to see our weekly Humanitarian Highlights segment as soon as it comes up!
How Enticing & Simple is Your Credit Union Membership Application Process?
Every now and then it’s important to take a look at your membership process to make sure it is easily accessible. While you might think you have all bases covered, and you most likely do, it’s always a good idea to take a few minutes and review the process. You want to make sure your credit union membership process is easy and enticing. Address the following areas to ensure a smooth, easy road to membership. Here are 3 keys to more credit union members for your institution!
Awareness.
Have you covered all the bases regarding membership awareness? Is all of your branding in place, easily identifiable, consistent, front and center? Take a moment and look around your credit union. Make sure the first impression a potential member has is that you want him to join your credit union. If you notice an area lacking, make adjustments until it is obvious to anyone who walks through the door that you want him on your team. Also, do the same evaluation of your website. Remember, people like invitations. Your web presence should give them one.
Promotions.
Potential members looking to finance an automobile loan, or obtain a first or second mortgage, will likely turn to a credit union for the low rates and attractive terms. Make sure you have any promotions regarding those services, and any other services you have to offer, in plain view. Look to make sure they have a high degree of physical visibility in your credit union, and online. Promotions can be used as a great hook to get new members. It is important that potential members are aware of anything special you have to offer like introductory rates, online banking, and automatic bill pay. This could be the very thing to entice them to leave their current banks and become members. Oak Tree also offers Marketing Services to help your credit union grow.
Forms.
The easier a credit union application process is, the better. This is why Oak Tree’s fillable forms are a good alternative option. It cuts down on the time it takes for new members to fill out the form, and gives you more time to get to know them as individuals. It makes the process a lot less formal and works to establish a rapport from the beginning. Plus, all of our forms are compliant with regard to disclosure requirements and all other state & federal guidelines. All that is required is simple and accurate data input.
Consider these three areas to be a great starting point. There are other ways to make your membership application process enticing and simple. Just get creative. Work through the process as a new member and make note of any areas you might be able to streamline or make more appealing. Of course, if you need credit union membership forms we are just a phone call away. We are happy to serve and would do anything we can do to make sure our forms contribute to making your membership process as simple and attractive as possible.
For this week’s #HumanitarianHighlight, we’re looking at credit unions whose donations are inspiring hope in the communities they serve. Whether it is through donations to children’s organizations, or even directly donating a closed branch to a charitable organization, here are some credit unions that go above and beyond to inspire hope for those who really need it.
This credit union committed $2 million toward the Boys & Girls Clubs of North America for their Doors to the Future capital campaign. This campaign aims to grow the organization through developing new Centers for Advancement, improving transportation, and increasing scholarship funds contributions. The significantly large donation will be paid in parts over the next five years.
Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union hosted the “2021 Tech Drive Tuesday” donation event that aimed to collect laptop tech for struggling college students. In addition, for every laptop that was donated, the credit union promised to donate $150 directly to Minnesota Computers for Schools.
Marion Matters for Hope Center received an unusually generous donation: an entire closed branch. Pillar Credit Union handed over the keys to the closed office structure to the organization, which has partnered with them for over ten years. Marion Matters helps community members with financial literacy programs and provides comprehensive education for financially struggling participants.
Power Financial Credit Union donated nearly $50,000 to charities that help minority groups and communities in Florida. The announcement was made as part of Power Financial Credit Union’s 70-year anniversary. Each of the organizations will receive over $7,000 to be used at their discretion. These organizations include the Advocacy Network on Disabilities, the Save Foundation, the Jason Taylor Foundation and more.
A $125,000 donation was made by this credit union to sponsor East Tennessee State University’s Roan Scholars Summer Experience Program. This program offers students a six-week service internship aimed at teaching them how to positively impact the world around them.
This credit union donated $3,000 and over 700 pencils to the Monroe County Library System. These generous donations will go toward summer reading supply kits, which are aimed at inspiring children to complete summer reading logs.
Hope is important, and these credit unions, as well as many others we’ve featured before in #HumanitarianHighlight, are greatly appreciated for their charitable and hopeful donations.
If you would like to place an inquiry about being featured in a Humanitarian Highlight or have any other comments or questions regarding our business, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions through our email or by phone at (800) 537-9598.
Be sure to follow our social media pages if you’d like to see our weekly Humanitarian Highlights segment as soon as it comes up!
We already went into some important rules on email marketing in our Email Dos and Don’ts article, but there is always more that can be discussed about this powerful and cost-effective tool for reaching your members with your services and promotions. Email brings up many compliance risks, and so it is something that should be reviewed. So let us help you with knowing when to email or not to email credit union members.
Why should you continue or create an email marketing strategy?
Most consumers prefer email, and so marketing through their preferred media makes sense. Email is also one of the most cost-effective methods to get your message out to the masses. There is also the fact that email is permission-based. This means someone has to approve the emails, or at the very least, they have the ability to stop the emails. Email is also convenient for the consumer as well as the credit union since they can engage with the brand anywhere they go, and very easily.
What should I use email for?
Consumers love promotions and coupons. Who wouldn’t want to save money on a product or service they need or want? This is the same for contests or rewards programs. You can notify your members of news and updates about the credit union, or your products and services. There are many purposes that you can use emails for.
How do I do it?
There are many providers to help in creating your email blasts, and they are very cost-effective. When you are running your email campaigns, it is important to be aware of the pitfalls that could end up costing you, though.
Let’s go over some important rules when emailing your members marketing materials and creative content. Official rules can be found on the FTC website, and are required for email communication from businesses to consumers. The rules are pretty simple, and it is important that you do not try and work around the basic boundaries, as they are there to protect your members – just like you!
Compliance and Permission
Get consent from your members to use their email addresses for e-communication, and let them know that you are using their info for that purpose. Give them the option to “opt-in,” and always offer email updates and newsletters to your members when interacting in-branch, and in your online communities. Don’t miss opportunities to have members go paperless with the latest news your credit union has to offer.
No misleading information
Avoid misleading information, especially in your subject line! You need to be clear about the content of your email. Your members should not think they are opening an email from a known close friend, but a friendly neighborhood credit union with beneficial rates and services! With so many phishing scams and email hacking going on in the digital age, a clear subject line actually increases your chances of getting your email opened and read, whereas misleading subject lines are becoming more of a red flag.
Based on the FTC guidelines the following tips are very important:
Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.
Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.
Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future emails from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting an email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt-out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.
Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days. You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request. Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes it clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible.
It can seem daunting to look at the many things involved in running a legitimate and compliant email marketing strategy. That is why Oak Tree Business Systems, Inc. is here for the credit union community. We are ready to help you strategize and create an awesome email blast campaign that drives your membership numbers and other lending growth numbers. If you have something to add about when and what to email or not to email credit union members, then please let us know on our social media or below.
