CUNA has pledged $1 million to become the lead sponsor of a $3.3 million legacy capital campaign to expand America's Credit Union Museum in Manchester, N.H.

The trade group's contribution, announced Feb. 17, launched the public phase of the campaign

About 18 months ago, America's Credit Union Museum initiated what it described as the quiet phase of the capital campaign, which raised $600,000 from credit unions, individuals and other organizations.

With CUNA's $1 million contribution, the museum's goal is to raise an additional $1.7 million by 2017.

The quiet phase was held to create momentum for the public phase of the legacy capital campaign, Stephanie Smith, executive director of America's Credit Union Museum, explained.

The effort will hit the road to increase awareness about the museum among the nation's credit unions and to ask for their support.

“We'll be going to different credit union league meetings, including the GAC, to tell the story of the credit union museum and to explain why it is so important for all credit unions to support this initiative and to have a museum,” Smith said. “I think it's important to maintain the roots of our movement so that the future leaders understand why the credit union movement came about and why it's so important.”

The legacy capital campaign will expand the museum's footprint with a new 900-square-foot research center and add 400 square feet of new exhibit space. The funds also will be used to renovate the existing museum, including upgrading its conference facilities and adding a sky walk that will connect the museum to the research center.

The museum opened in 2002 in a three-story, three-family house where the nation's first credit union, the St. Mary's Cooperative Credit Association, made its first transaction in 1908, according to America's Credit Union Museum. The building belonged to Joseph Boivin, who founded the cooperative with the help of Moinsignor Pierre Hevey and Alphones Desjardins.

The first and second floors of the museum feature exhibits about the U.S. credit union history, including artifacts and documents beginning in 1934 from the Estes Park conference that created CUNA and the 1934 Federal Credit Union Act, which enabled credit unions to be established in all states. The third floor houses an 85-person capacity meeting and conference spaces.

The legacy capital campaign will expand the museum's footprint with a new 900-square-foot research center and add 400 square feet of new exhibit space. The funds also will be used to renovate the existing museum, including upgrading its conference facilities and adding a sky walk that will connect the museum to the research center.

CUNA'S $1 million contribution will give it the naming rights of the research center, which will house the credit union industry's historic archives, including documents, books and other papers, according to America's Credit Union Museum. In addition to being the industry's central research library, all of the library's documents will be digitized, making them accessible online.

“Conserving and promulgating credit union history is consistent with our mission of supporting, protecting, unifying and advancing the credit union movement,” Jim Nussle, CUNA's president/ CEO, said in a prepared statement. “CUNA is proud to participate in this project, which has the potential to ultimately preserve for future generations the roots and growth of the credit union legacy in America, particularly as we strive to achieve our system vision of 'American's best choice for financial services.'”

America's Credit Union Museum hosts about 50 student and credit union events annually. A rendition of the research center workspace is seen here to the left.

Smith said the museum needs more space for its archives and many other papers such as founding documents, original ledgers, legislation, anniversary memorabilia, and other artifacts that credit unions from around the country want to donate.

“We plan to hire professionals to archive all of this information and to pull out important pieces of the credit union history, preserve them and make them available to everyone,” Smith said. “I think it is important we preserve those pieces that do tell a story.”

Smith also said she hopes the expansion and renovation will attract more people, credit unions and other organizations to visit the museum and hold events there. America's Credit Union Museum hosts about 50 student and credit union events annually.

Nathan Saller, SVP for strategy developments and member experience at the $1.1 billion Workers Credit Union in Fitchburg, Mass., said credit unions hold their employee training sessions at the museum because it can be a very powerful experience.

“The reason we are called a movement goes back to the way we were founded and the way our values were developed,” Saller said, who also chairs the museum's marketing committee.

“Once people take a walk through the museum, it really crystalizes that in their hearts and minds,” he added. “They are able to, in a very tangible way, experience the difference between credit unions and other types of financial institutions. They see the stories and why the credit union movement was founded. We don't want to lose that because it is the foundation of our difference.”