TOLEDO, Ohio – Toledo Urban FCU, a 15-year-old community development credit union, is asking the public for a helping hand, an unusual request to keep the struggling CDCU alive.
The credit union, with net worth of just 3%, is launching a community fund-raising drive to raise $250,000 that would boost its dwindling cash reserves. The $3.5 million credit union plans to send letters to the community this week pleading its case on why it should survive and is asking for public donations. It hopes to raise $250,000 by late September.
“We’re taking individual donations – anything. No donation is too small,” said Suzette Cowell, president of the CDCU, chartered in 1996.
Ironically, the rare public plea comes as leaders of this hard-hit Rust Belt city’s Latino community are poised to open a new CDCU in a few weeks just a few blocks away in Toledo’s Old South End. Nueva Esperanza Community CU will open its first branch in a former insurance agency. Up till now the start-up CDCU has been operating out of an office of nearby Directions CU and Champion FCU, which helped organize the new charter.
The new CDCU began with $1.3 million in deposits and about $180,000 in start-up capital. Most of the funding came from local businesses, individuals, and community foundations that provided donations for Nueva Esperanza's start-up. Today, it has $1.5 million in deposits and more than 80 members.
