On Monday, October 10th, 2022, the credit union industry celebrated the fourth annual CU Kind Day. Created by the Illinois Credit Union League in 2019, the day is meant as a time for credit unions to get back to their roots and live out the seventh cooperative principle: commitment to community. The three main goals, according to the event page, are to spread kindness, create awareness, and impact communities.
During this event, credit unions across the country join together to achieve these goals by raising money for community groups, volunteering for local organizations, and spreading acts of kindness. In its first three years, CU Kind has raised over $250,000 for 600+ organizations along with hundreds of donations and volunteering hours.
“I’m so proud to work in an industry that focuses on people over profits,” said ICUL President Tom Kane, founder of the event. “That mindset does more than just describe the priorities of a credit union, it is the keystone that credit unions are built around. I look at the CU Kind Day initiative as a manifestation of that mindset; it is an opportunity to show our communities how important they are to credit unions, and to the movement as a whole.”
In honor of this year’s celebrations, credit unions took to social media to share the work their teams were pouring into their communities. Honor Credit Union in Michigan went so far as to close all of its branches for the day, using the time to volunteer instead. Extra Credit Union, in Warren, Michigan, installed several small community libraries around their town and proceeded to fill the libraries with books focusing on topics such as “financial literacy, diversity, equity, inclusion, kindness, and other character-building topics.”
Other credit unions found more ways to get involved by paying for tanks of gas for strangers, donating food and supplies to shelters, and cleaning up public areas. If you’re interested in seeing more examples of the ways credit unions gave back, you can check out the hashtag CUKind on social media.
Any credit union interested in joining can find both information on the event as well as resources such as media graphics, videos, budgets, plans, and press releases, on the Illinois Credit Union League’s website. Credit unions can also register for the event on that page, however, they do not need to sign up to participate.
