Credit Union Wants to Thrive in Expanded FOM in Rural Indiana
Thrive CU adds two neighboring counties to its field of membership.
The NCUA has allowed a small credit union based in a county with a declining population to expand its field of membership to include two counties next door, where the population is falling at a slower rate.
Thrive Federal Credit Union, which is based in the Delaware County city of Muncie, Ind., added Madison and Henry counties to its field of membership with the NCUA’s April 6 approval.
Thrive had assets of $83.8 million on March 31, up 8.4% from a year earlier and 7,288 members, up 5.7%.
A news release Tuesday from Thrive said it had been “looking to expand its service area, but (was) uncertain as to the best path forward.”
Thrive President/CEO Brett Rinker said Thrive’s field of membership was just over 100,000 before the change, but that it had been getting requests for members from Henry and Madison counties for several years.
“The demographics of Delaware, Henry and Madison counties are very similar,” Rinker said. “With inquiries for membership coming from all three, we wanted to offer all residents the opportunity for membership.”
Thrive enlisted the help of CUCollaborate, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting company that said its mission is to help credit unions grow. “The company primarily focuses on addressing credit unions’ biggest obstacle to growth, field of membership,” the news release said.
Thrive has a community charter, allowing it to add contiguous counties to its field of membership if they have a total population no greater than 2.5 million.
Population was not an obstacle.
Delaware County’s population fell 4.9% from 2010 to 111,903 in 2020. The populations of the new counties also fell, but at a slower rate: 1.1% to 179,043 in 2020, according to Census data.
Census data also showed Delaware County had a less affluent population in 2020.
Median household income was $45,910 in Delaware County, or 71% of U.S. median income, compared with just over $51,000 in the other two counties, or 79% of the U.S. median.
About 19% of Delaware County residents were living in poverty in 2020, compared with 12% in Madison County and 11% in Henry County. The poverty rates were 11.6% for the state and 11.4% for the nation.
The expansion had no effect on overall racial and ethnic diversity. Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities account for 13% of the population in both Delaware County and the two new counties.
The U.S. Treasury Department has certified Thrive as a Community Development Financial Institution, and Rinker said Thrive has been working on a strategy to take advantage of the CDFI designation to help the community.
“We specifically want to reach the underserved, not only from a banking standpoint, but also through financial literacy,” he said. “The larger field of membership gives us the ability to leverage our resources to ensure the programs reach as many people as possible.”