WASHINGTON – For the National Credit Union Foundation, 2005 was, in a large part, about disasters. In a year bracketed by the devastating tsunami that hit South Asia in late 2004 and the hurricanes that ravaged the Gulf Coast and New Orleans in the late summer of last year, the NCUF found itself called to a responsibility that might have obscured its more traditional grantmaking role. "Helping to coordinate disaster relief was a role that we never sought, but in the wake of the disasters it just seemed logical that we could serve as a conduit for emergency dollars," Steve Delfin, executive director of the NCUF said, "particularly in the case of the Gulf Coast disasters where the leagues in the impacted areas were themselves damaged and unable to coordinate aid from their headquarters." "I don't know precisely how many credit unions don't know anything about what we traditionally do by comparison, but I wouldn't be surprised if that number was significantly large." After all, if by definition the NCUF funds work at the grassroots, Delfin pointed out it can be easy for that work to get drowned out in the flood of coverage surrounding natural disaster response. But that other role has grown and the NCUF has grown with it. With its Community Investment Fund standing at $340 million as of the end of January and almost 600 credit unions investing with more coming online, the NCUF has become a key player in credit union development and redevelopment efforts around the U.S. and a significant contributor credit union efforts overseas. But with increasing size comes increasing responsibility and the NCUF doesn't want to be measured solely on amounts invested or even on the annual number of grants it makes or grant money it distributes. Rather, the standard the NCUF wants to begin meeting has a different scale, one that is harder to measure and potentially a good deal more difficult to meet. How much impact is it having? How many credit union members have its grants helped enable to change their behavior in a lasting way? How should it best measure success? Those are some of the questions Delfin and the members the NCUF Board frequently wrestle as they seek to improve upon an already strong institution and develop awareness for its traditional work among credit unions. Delfin, who came from a philanthropic background but not a credit union one, has been in office as executive director for just over a year, a time when the NCUF made $4.4 million in grants, $2.2 million under its own name and another $2.2 million to state foundations. This is in addition to $3.2 million in money distributed related to natural disasters. He is pleased with the grants it has made but has begun to take steps to sharpen its focus regarding future grants, looking to measure the impact a given grant might make even before it is made. This approach will mean spending more time with the applying credit union to try to ensure the grant's maximum impact – particularly grants over a $100,000. "We still get and we still fund grant applications for things like covering a gap in a financial literacy program after a key sponsor has pulled out," Delfin said. "But when it comes to the larger grants that might cover multiple years, we have already started moving toward a different approach." That different approach, Delfin explained, will mean working with credit unions seeking a grant to help make sure the project seeking the grant meets four criteria: it will have the support of the credit union's leadership, it will be something which can be sustainable over time, it will have a measurable impact, and other credit unions be able to replicate it. "A predominant model of evaluating a project will be the counting approach," Delfin said. "Five hundred residents of a lower income area received financial education or the program provided 300 hours of tax preparation. It's tangible and it's a number which you can count once and be done with it. But what we want to know is of the 500 residents who completed financial education, how many opened individual development accounts or how many became credit union members or how many invested that tax refund?" This approach is more difficult because it generally takes longer and can be more expensive to track, but it's also an approach which will be more likely to spur programs and changes which will be around after the NCUF's grant money runs out, Delfin said. Because credit unions may not be familiar with this approach, Delfin said NCUF was considering cutting its grantmaking cycles down to one per year in order to allow the eight full-time staffers to work more closely with grant applicants, in some cases even before the grant application is submitted. Delfin said the increased discipline in making and managing grants is necessary to help the NCUF make the sorts of long-term impact on credit unions and credit union members that it wants to have and will, gradually, help NCUF increase its profile among credit unions. Another measure of increased impact may come from the Credit Union Development Education program, which has now been moved to the NCUF after being a part of CUNA and other structures. The CUDE program is particularly important now, Delfin said, as credit unions continue to grow and bring in staff from other fields, many of whom may not have a clear idea of what credit unions are and what makes them different from other financial institutions or development approaches."It's a week of a pretty high intensity introduction to what makes credit unions tick and what a cooperative approach is all about and how it works," Delfin said. "And afterward there is a commitment to continue the spirit of the training." But like the grantmaking process, the CUDE program may also see change, Delfin said. While nothing has been decided, NCUF may launch CUDE programs that are regional and somewhat shorter in order to help train people who might not be able to make a commitment to a week of the traditional CUDE training. "It's an important introduction to credit union culture that I think it's important we promulgate as widely as we can," Delfin said. Between running and expanding the CUDE program and focusing its grantmaking on longer terms projects, Delfin said he believed the NCUF could become better known for its traditional work that it is even for helping credit unions overcome natural disasters. [email protected]