Skyline of Saint Paul, Minnesota from the Mississippi River. 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.

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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.