PORTLAND, Ore. – OnPoint Community CU, a former teachers' credit union, will reward one of the community’s most innovative educators with a year of paid mortgage as part of its “OnPoint Prize for Excellence in Education” contest.
The winner’s school will also receive $5,000 worth of supplies, and three runners-up each will receive $2,500 cash for themselves and $2,500 worth of supplies for their schools.
The contest is aimed at rewarding teachers who have taken progressive steps in the classroom and found innovative ways to help students learn, according to Kelly Schrader, vice president of marketing for the $2.7 billion credit union, originally chartered as Portland Teachers CU. “When we became a community charter in 2006, one of the things we wanted to do was maintain our heritage and the commitment to the educational community we were founded on,” Schrader told Credit Union Journal yesterday of the various ways OnPoint has tried to support education in the community.
That has meant collecting tens of thousands of dollars in school supplies for local districts each of the last two years and offering a special 100% mortgage with no down payment called Homeroom Loan, among other things. About 18% of the credit union’s 225,000 members are still related to its original teachers' field of membership, according to Schrader.
The contest will have two main components. In the first, a panel comprised of OnPoint directors, local educators and public figures will chose 10 finalists from nominees sent in from the public. Neither the nominator nor the nominees need to be a member of the credit union.
In the other component the credit union will reward a “Community Choice Winner” who will be selected in an American Idol-type contest in an online vote in which the public can choose their favorite teacher. The winner will receive $1,500 in cash and $1,500 for their school.
OnPoint has committed $45,000 in prizes for the contest.
Throughout the campaign, Portland’s KGW-TV will run a series of promotional spots to support the OnPoint Prize contest. Ads are running on TV and radio and promotional material is being distributed to schools in the 13 counties (11 in Oregon and two in Washington) now served by the credit union. OnPoint also will post updates of the contest on Facebook and Twitter. A dedicated website can be found at
OnPoint’s long-time advertising partner, Weber Marketing Group, which helped develop the new brand in 2005, developed the concept and website for the promotion.