Tacoma, Wash.-based grant-writing firm CU Strategic Planning said eight of its clients were awarded nearly $13 million in the latest round of grants from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
As reported earlier this week in Credit Union Journal, the CDFI Fund
The following CU Strategic Planning credit union clients were awarded 2016 CDFI grants:
- District Government Employees FCU, Washington, D.C., $1,373,250
- Guardians CU, West Palm Beach, Fla., $1,483,000
- Horizon CU, Macon, Mo., $1,605,000
- Royal CU, Eau Claire, Wis., $2,000,000
- Suncoast CU, Tampa, Fla., $1,400,000
- Tallahassee Leon FCU, Tallahassee, Fla., $1,768,250
- The Focus FCU, Oklahoma City, Okla., $2,000,000
- Trailhead FCU, Portland, Ore., $1,120,000
CU Strategic Planning, which won its first CDFI Award in 2009, said including this year's grants, its clients now have received more than $70 million in awards. The company said its total impact over eight years totals 72 winning grants for 52 credit unions in 19 states. CUSP said this translates to $753 million in loans projected in winning grants, with $1 billion in loans originated to consumers as credit unions exceed grant goals and 111,544 moderate- to low-income individuals receiving loans.
"We feel it is important to share the contributions of our company with the credit union movement, because we are a little company doing a lot of good in the industry," Stacy Augustine, CEO of CU Strategic Planning, said in a statement. "It is powerful data for NAFCU, CUNA, state leagues and credit unions to share with legislators."
Augustine, her business partner Jamie Strayer, and fellow CU Strategic Planning executive, Mike Beall, are former credit union trade association executives. While the data helps to quantify how the credit union movement is helping distressed communities, Strayer said releasing the data is not just about supporting the industry.
"This honors the work of our employees," said Strayer. "Credit unions are on track to improve 100,000 lives from the work CU Strategic Planning staff have put into these grants, along with the efforts of our strong industry partners."
No Longer Just For 'Fringe' CUs
Augustine, Strayer and Beall said they run the company for the benefit of members, in the manner of a trade association, rather than strictly as a for-profit business. CU Strategic Planning clients are members of the
"When CU Strategic Planning started, credit unions were not winning many of these CDFI Awards. The thinking at that time was that CDFI was only for fringe credit unions and there wasn't a company organized to win the grants," said Beall, who helped design the organization after a program at the Missouri Credit Union Association, where he was a former CEO. "That thinking was right at that time. There was not a company winning the grants and we shifted that thinking with what we accomplished in Missouri. I am honored to be part of the team that is making that shift across the entire country. A billion dollars in loans to low-income consumers represents auto loans for people to get to work, and jobs created from small business loans."
