RALEIGH, N.C. - In the summer of 2004, State Employees’ Credit Union created the SECU Foundation. Less than four years into its work, it’s been awarded the 2008 Herb Wegner Memorial Award for Outstanding Organization.
“The foundation’s work is extraordinary, with broad implications for the credit union’s positioning in the social, political, and philanthropic arenas,” observed Cliff Rosenthal, executive director of the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions in New York. Rosenthall referred to SECU’s work an “exciting innovation.”
The SECU Foundation is a 501(c)(3) corporation created in 2001. Members of SECU’s board serve as the foundation’s board.
Foundation funding is provided solely through donations from SECU members, who provide voluntary contributions of $1 monthly maintenance fees on checking accounts. All members with an active checking account saw the first “SECU Foundation” contribution designation on their July, 2004 statement.
Additional voluntary contributions from members are accepted. While the monthly $1 maintenance fee contribution isn’t a significant burden on an individual member, the collective impact of the donations creates opportunities to positively impact and improve the quality of life in neighborhoods and communities throughout North Carolina, says Mark Twisdale, the foundation’s executive director.
When deciding on what projects to fund, the foundation looks at projects attracting broad-based local and state partnerships that are self-sustaining, with a focus on education, health, and human services. It looks for projects that have long-lasting community effects. “Hopefully we can make long-term social change,” says Twisdale.
Over the last two years, the Foundation provided a full college scholarship to a graduating senior from each of North Carolina’s 341 public high schools and two charter schools, a commitment of $7 million. In addition, it funded two $5,000 scholarships for students in each of North Carolina’s 58 community colleges, another commitment of almost $600,000. “The scholarships serve as a powerful incentive for seniors in every high school in North Carolina,” commented Howard Lee, chairman of the North Carolina State Board of Education.
Since the program started in 2004, more than $11 million has been awarded to North Carolina students for higher education.
The foundation partnered with the North Carolina Industrial Commission to help support Kids’ Chance of North Carolina, Inc., by funding a $10,000 scholarship for study at one of the University of North Carolina System Universities, and a $5,000 scholarship for study at a community college in the North Carolina Community College System. Recipients were children of public sector employees fatally injured in work-related accidents.
In another example of a broad-based initiative affecting the entire state, the foundation is partnering with NC GreenPower, an independent, nonprofit organization that supports renewable energy alternatives for North Carolina. The foundation will fund one kilowatt-hour of renewable energy production in the state for each of SECU’s 1.3 million members annually over four years, a commitment to renewable energy of over 5.2 million kilowatt-hours. The funding will support generation of electricity from alternative cleaner energy sources, and is the equivalent of planting 208,000 trees or not driving 3.2 million miles.
The foundation contributed $2 million to SECU Family House in Chapel Hill, an affordable place for families from all over North Carolina to stay while a family member is treated at UNC Hospitals. The majority are critical care patients. Groundbreaking for the 43,000-square-foot facility took place in June, 2006. SECU Family House is scheduled to open its doors on March 1.
“Chapel Hill is a high cost of living area. It’s very expensive to stay there,” Twisdale says. An average family can expect to shell out at least $3,500 for lodging in eight weeks. SECU Family House provides affordable, comfortable private housing for $30 a night, with financial help available for families who can’t pay. Twisdale says if you live in a 45-mile radius of the Chapel Hill area, you can’t use the facility.
Meanwhile, the foundation also believes in partnering with other community groups so the projects have a high, local impact. Partnering with Hertford County Public Schools in Ahoskie, N.C., the foundation completed a $2.25-million, 24-unit apartment complex for teachers in the county.
Hertford County, in northeastern North Carolina, is a low-wealth rural county which has struggled with teacher recruitment and retention due largely to the lack of good quality, safe, and affordable housing. “Their biggest issue in the educational arena is attracting and retaining teachers,” says Twisdale. “There’s little housing available. No one will build apartment complexes because they can’t get the money back out of it. Teachers have been commuting from as far as 60 miles away, one way. When they get tenure, they transfer to a closer school system.”
Most new teachers are forced to go outside the county for housing, and often transfer to teaching positions in more prosperous counties, resulting in extremely high teacher turnover rates in Hertford County as well (30% in 2001). The issue touched a chord with SECU’s local Advisory Board, comprised of area member volunteers. The group suggested SECU Foundation fund a project designed to provide high quality, affordable housing for teachers.
The new 24-unit apartment housing complex was completed last summer and available for new teachers for the fall semester. The monthly rent for each apartment is around $500. In a situation where two or more individuals share the burden of rent, a teacher could have comfortable housing for approximately $250 per month, while living within walking distance of the local high school and an elementary school.
Teachers have been recruited from other states and outside the U.S., with 31 teachers in the complex at the start, the first time local school administrators can recall having all positions filled at the beginning of the year.
The SECU Foundation supplied $2.25 million to the project through a 0% interest loan for design and construction of the unit. As the funds are repaid through rental income, the Foundation will recycle the funds.
“We’ll use those funds to in turn build apartments in other low-wealth counties across the state,” Twisdale says.
