LIVONIA, Mich. — Having a limited marketing budget for community involvement and wanting to make a big impact, Co-op Services CU decided the best way to spend the money was $100 at a time.
The $360-million credit union is winding down Project 100, a community involvement effort that awards $100 to 100 people in 100 days. The CU's given away well over half the cash so far, randomly stopping people in the city and giving them the money. It's attracted a great deal of media attention.
"Just about every media outlet here has covered the story and we've generated one million media impressions since we started in June," said Lisa Fawcett, Co-op Services marketing director. "Now people often know about us before we approach them. They stop us and ask, 'You're from that credit union that's giving away all that money?' Project 100 has taken on a life of its own. It's been tremendous at getting our name out."
Part of the goal is to generate positive name awareness through doing good deeds during tough times, and driving new members to the credit union. But Co-op took the approach, primarily, to expand the number of individuals who could help the credit union make an impact in the community. Each time the CU awards $100, it asks the person receiving the money to give back to the community in some way.
"It takes a limited budget — we had about $20,000 — and creates this army of people who can carry on the message," said Gregory Wohler from Edge Creative Group in Ferndale, Ill., which developed Project 100 with the credit union. "It allows you to touch so many more people this way."
Each person receiving the money is also given a Project 100 business card with a link to a website created for the program. The sitecarries testimonials and video clips from people who have already been touched by the program. But what's critical on the site, (www.whatisproject100.com) Wohler insisted, is a list of local community involvement organizations and tips for how someone can lend a hand to friends and neighbors.
"We hope that will give people who go to the site ideas about what they can do to become involved in the town," he said. "The site received 20,000 unique page visits in August."
The CU is also using Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to promote the effort. Co-op's team in the field often tweet and share what's happing live with Project 100. Once, that prompted a local TV news team to track them down and do a short story.
Jeremy Cybulski, youth and community development coordinator, is the CU staffer whose feet are on the street. "It gets a little overwhelming for me sometime, seeing how we are helping people," he said. "For example, one woman we gave the money to recently took in a family off the street and gave them shelter and food for a week, and then found them a place to stay. This is all just good karma."
Wohler said that when Project 100 ends, near the close of October, it will be measured by how well it turns around "some of the negative news we hear everyday. Here in Michigan communities have been hit extremely hard by the economy. We hope that in some way we get people feeling a little more positive."
