‘Kindness Day’ Included Hundreds of CUs and Thousands of Employees
In its tenth year, Kindness Day spread across eight states for a collective volunteer effort.
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.