Sure, your budget is stretched. But you can still support the fun things like the youth dance, theater troupe and football team. When your usual resources aren't as plentiful, ask those organizations to partner with you to keep your support at present levels. What can they do to create a campaign or involve your members or volunteers, such that you can still help meet their needs?

Again, the theme is collaboration. We can multiply any effort twofold, threefold, tenfold by being creative. How can your credit union and the organizations it serves help one another? 

Collaboration has been key for Wisconsin credit unions this year. Faced with increasing local needs, they wanted to give more but were being held back by a 40 year-old statute that limited the financial support they could donate from their reserves in a single year to aid local causes. So credit unions approached the legislature and quickly gained bipartisan support to enact Senate Bill 356, doubling their giving capacity. There was not a single dissenting vote.

The bill's lead author, Wisconsin Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) remarked how refreshing it was to see an industry lobbying to help Wisconsin communities instead of its own bottom line. He also penned a letter that helped capture for Wisconsin credit unions a 2012 Corporate Citizenship Award from one of the state's most well-read business publications, Corporate Report Wisconsin.

So your advocacy for the needs of others is simultaneous advocacy for you. Few lawmakers will see a need to slap costly, unnecessary mandates on credit unions when lawmakers and media alike congratulate your own successful efforts to do what's right. Wisconsin credit unions have told us in a survey that they support close to 3,000 charities. Our REAL Solutions Scorecard that we share with lawmakers and media proclaims this proudly, and we link to this piece at www.theleague.coop/scorecard from every league press release.

Does your credit union have a prominent spot on its website that captures the extent of your community support and philanthropy? Lawmakers, media, and other community partners can't support your efforts if they don't know what you're doing. But you'll boost your impact quickly if they do. For example, the Gannett newspaper chain, as well as local foundations and businesses, have partnered with Wisconsin credit unions to expand a food drive that started as a local effort but now involves all 10 Gannett readership areas and serves 108 pantries.

Put yourself in legislators' shoes. They're constantly urged to fix the housing crisis, do something about payday lending, and help small businesses. But credit unions are already doing the heavy lifting to help people avoid foreclosure, access affordable small loans and extend small business credit. By showing lawmakers you're solving the problems they're elected to address, you'll have their support. That's why we need small businesses that credit unions have helped to tell their stories in Washington to help pass the Credit Union Small Business Jobs Bill. You help small businesses, they advocate for you, you offer even more help. Good works truly offer compounding benefits.

Another example? Parents need resources that can help them address exploding higher education costs as well as find a way to help their student navigate into adulthood without crushing debt. In 48 states, credit unions have directed local schools to credit union websites for help through Money Mission, which is an online life simulation that teaches teens about financial decision-making while offering opportunities for college scholarships. Parents, hungry for this assistance, urge their student's participation. That is how credit unions solve problems while also building loyalty with the next generation of borrowers.

The extent of credit unions' REAL Solutions to meet current needs has not diminished. Sometimes we can help financially. Other times the assistance is more creative. Every time, collaboration magnifies our impact. It's not a matter of whether we need to serve; it's a matter of simply deciding how. That's how credit unions have grown and thrived for more than 100 years. 

Brett Thompson is president/CEO of the Wisconsin Credit Union League
Contact 608-514-0083 or [email protected]