SAN FRANCISCO — To partner eligible members with potential credit unions they can join, Sam Brownell has launched a KickStarter campaign here for Credit Union Match.
Brownell, the founder of CUCollaborate, is not the first in the CU/member matchmaking space. Organizations offering similar "match" services include CUNA's A Smarter Choice and CULookup, which is affiliated with NAFCU.
Like Credit Union Match, these services do not give preference to community vs. SEG-based CUs.
"I think it's important that there is an agnostic intermediary between all organizations," said Brownell, adding the campaign's initial goal is to raise $40,000 by April 8. "Convincing someone to change something they are doing is much harder than going out and showing them that something might work better."
Many C-level executives agree with Brownell and feel that the existing industry match efforts are lacking.
"A Smarter Choice provides credit union locations," said Ron Westad, president and CEO of $1.3 billion, Phoenix-based Arizona Federal Credit Union. "CULookup provides membership eligibility and a list of services in addition to the credit union locations."
Credit Union Match, Westad noted, has the potential to be a more comprehensive service with added financial service and pricing details for each CU and an account-opening link to the selected institution.
"The ability to provide a prospective member the ability to open and activate an account as part of their search would be of benefit to both consumers and credit unions," he added.
In a collaborate fashion, Brownell has reached out to related industry organizations to open up dialogue and work toward a common goal. "Everyone wants to grow the credit union pie, Brownell said. "We are happy to share the backend that we are building."
Match Kick Off
Three days after the Kickstarter campaign was launched, more than $7,500 was raised toward the $40,000 goal. (On Wednesday the campaign had raised more than $24,000 from 113 backers with 21 days to go.)
Westad said that Arizona FCU donated $2,500 to the cause. With 125,000 members, the CU enrolled 14,000 members via its 17 branches in 2014. He hopes to increase those numbers in years to come.
"We plan to offer online account opening later this year, so the timing of the CUCollaborate effort aligns well with our intentions," said Westad.
In total, more than 50 credit unions have supported Brownell's efforts, some of which joined before the campaign launch. The latter became a focus group of sorts helping guide the mission and goal of the service, which hopes to go live in June.
"We want to know not only their geographic location, but where they work and how they conduct business and then match them up with a credit union that would really serve their needs," said Steven Stapp, president and CEO of $940 million San Francisco FCU, which was among the first participants.
The first priority for Stapp, however, is education and consumer awareness. "Here in San Francisco, a large part of our target market doesn't understand what a credit union is or if they are eligible to join them," he noted.
CU Online Dating Service
Brownell is pitching Credit Union Match like an online dating service such as eHarmony or OKCupid. "Finding a date is like a finding a credit union," the slogan notes. "It's just easier with matchmaking."
Here's how the service proposed to work: consumers would visit creditunionmatch.com (when launched) and take a brief personal survey; collected data would be cross-referenced against a database for each credit union's eligibility rules; and then consumers are presented with a list of institutions they could join as well services offered.
"Presently, there is too much burden for consumers," said Brownell. "I work in the industry and I don't even know if I would be eligible to join some of them or not."
Brownell reiterated that he hopes to work with other "match" companies and industry insiders who are looking to grow the CU industry brand. By teaming with CU executives, a better understanding of where weaknesses exist has already been gained.
Institutions that donate more than $250, such as San Francisco FCU and Arizona FCU, will be integral in developing the final solution, including service offerings, fees for using the match service and IT integration.
"These people can vote on two things," said Brownell, noting that four CUs are part of this group. "One is the information consumers see and the search results page, and the second is how much to charge for the service." There are several pricing options being kicked around, which include fees based on asset class as well "per-click" charge.
Westad said he favors a "flat-rate subscription for participating credit unions, which could be staggered based on assets or members, and a variable per-member charge for each new account acquired through the Credit Union Match channel when the number of new members and related variable fee exceeds the cost of subscription."
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For the community chartered San Francisco FCU and its 32,000 members, Stapp said any effort to increase member adoption is welcome.
"Our new member growth has really picked up -- about 6% in 2014 and 40% of that number is through our online channel," he said. "I'm always interested in enhancing how credit unions connect with individuals and I'm impressed with Credit Union Match and want to see it move forward."
