St. Paul, Minn.
Credit/Adobe Stock
In 2013, the Saint Paul, Minn.-based Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union ($4.1 billion in assets, 260,619 members) hosted an employee-driven volunteer and community kindness day. Over time, the idea spread to other area credit unions. Ten years later, the concept has grown so much that additional credit unions and its employees have created an annual Kindness Day Initiative that now includes more than 300 credit unions and nearly 12,000 employees in eight states.
According to a statement Monday from the Minnesota Credit Union Network, this year's Kindness Day Initiative involved credit unions from New Jersey to Montana and raised more than $260,000 for nearly 1,000 local organizations. "The Kindness Day Initiative has spread to six more leagues holding events in seven additional states – Illinois, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin," according to the Minnesota Credit Union Network. Each league brands the event in its own way and together credit union employees, members, and partners help community organizations and individuals through volunteering and spreading kindness.
"With the upcoming holiday season, we're thankful for a collaborative industry where employees embrace rolling up their sleeves, giving back to their communities and spreading kindness on a day off," said Mara Humphrey, president/CEO of the Minnesota Credit Union Network. "We're also proud to collaborate with our league partners to share this initiative with credit unions across the country."
"We work in a service-minded, people-focused, cooperative industry, and because of that, beautiful opportunities like this are possible," said Staci Hering, ICUL's director of culture and engagement. "There is nothing more uplifting than working collaboratively across the country with our league neighbors to showcase how credit unions celebrate kindness and put their communities first. That mindset is one of the most special things about this movement and assisting other states in launching their 'credit union kindness' days is simply an example of our cooperative principles in action."
Next year's Kindness Day Initiative will take place on Oct. 14.
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Michael Ogden
Editor-in-Chief at CU Times. To connect, email at [email protected]. As Editor-in-Chief of CU Times since 2016, Michael Ogden has led the editorial team in all aspects of content strategy and execution, including the creation of the publication’s exclusive and proprietary research database of the credit union industry’s economic landscape. Under Michael’s leadership, CU Times has successfully shifted to an all-digital editorial product with new focuses on the payments, fraud, lending and regulatory beats. Most recently, he introduced a data-focused editorial product for subscribers that breaks down credit union issues into hard data, allowing for a deeper and more factual narrative for readers. In 2024, he launched the "Shared Accounts With CU Times" podcast, which offers a fresh, inside-the-newsroom perspective through interviews with leaders from the credit union industry and the regulatory world. He dives into pressing credit union issues, while revealing the personalities working behind-the-scenes to push the credit union world forward. His background includes years as a radio and TV anchor/reporter and a public relations and digital/social media manager, where he covered the food and music industries, as well as cooperatives and credit unions. Over the years, he has launched numerous exclusive video and podcast series, including a successful series of interactive backstage interviews with musicians at music festivals, showcasing his social media and live streaming production skills.
