OTTAWA, Canada—Canada’s largest faith-based credit union has taken steps to live that faith.
Benjamin Jantzen, whose title is Stewardship in Action Advisor with the (CDN) $850-million Mennonite Savings and Credit Union, told the World CU Conference his credit union has for the last four years been working to “change the way we were growing our community.”
“Stewardship in Action is all about growing community,” Jantzen said. “We felt we needed to root ourselves in who our members were. We wanted to demonstrate the uniqueness of cooperative values. We wanted to speak the language of corporate social responsibility. We wanted community partnerships that reflected our members. And we wanted to think globally and act locally.”
“We take being a faith-based credit union really seriously,” he continued. “We want to live out those values. We connect with more than 200 churches and organizations with financial or in-kind support.”
In addition to hiring Jantzen to fulfill that new direction, Mennonite Savings & Credit Union has been averaging a 22% increase in funding toward such activities each year, while the CU itself has been growing 7% to 8% per year. It also has connected with the Canadian Credit Union Social Responsibility platform, which can be found at www.cucentral.ca/cusr/., and is part of an initiative that can be found at www.CreditUnionsAreHelpingHere.com.
It has changed its own look and feel, adopting a colorful “quilt square” as its identifier, as Mennonites are known for both furniture and quilts. “When Mennonites see a quilt square, they know what we’re talking about,” he said.
Three Constituencies
When the credit union asked members to rate how they identify with a number of value statements, the statement that was rated most highly was that the individual seeks to “advance peace, social justice and mutual aid in communities.” That was even rated ahead of “that MSCU shares a portion of its earnings with members” (the credit union typically returns 50% of earnings each year).
In choosing which partnerships to pursue and support, 50% of its efforts target local programs, 40% provincial causes, and 10% international efforts.
“It is important to choose the right community partnerships,” said Jantzen. “They should have the right values alignment. They should be projects that make sense. There needs to be patience on both sides. You should be able to nudge and be nudged back.”
Locally it has partnered with Refugee Health Care, on financial inclusion efforts, on a Regional Carbon Initiative, on Women’s Addiction Services, and on a solar installation.
At the provincial level, it has donated $500,000 to the Mennonite Central Committee for a new building, and given $1 million to Conrad Grebel University for the “MSCU Centre for Peace Advancement” (which will open in 2014). It has also donated $90,000 to an international farming initiative.
