As not-for-profit financial institutions owned and controlled by their members, credit unions occupy a unique position within the banking and finance industry. They are driven by the communities they serve, which means they constantly strive to ensure that their organizational focus aligns with the values and needs of their membership. This alignment naturally affects the decisions and actions of credit unions as they adapt their services and policies to better serve their community, but it's not a simple task.

Ultimately, credit unions' executive leadership needs to understand how they can protect the needs of individual members within the institutions' greater organizational structure to properly support their community. Beyond simply providing financial services, they need to understand what matters most to their community, where they come from, and how they can align their organization with those values.

Community Roots: Where Credit Unions Begin

Most credit unions exist to support a specific community. These communities usually revolve around their region, industry, or a specific organizational or cooperative need. For example, University Credit Union was founded on the UCLA campus in 1951 by university employees to give everyone in the university community a financial advantage. These types of community roots inform and shape the organization's decisions as it grows to keep it aligned with the community's needs.