Working together, the two support national and local philanthropic efforts by credit unions.

Since 2011, NCB has partnered with the National Credit Union Foundation (the Foundation) to expand the award-winning Community Investment Fund (CIF).

The Foundation is the charitable arm of the U.S. credit union movement and works as a catalyst to improve people’s financial lives through credit unions. CIF was formed as a unique way for the credit union community to donate funds to support the Foundation’s philanthropic mission to expand the financial independence of consumers.

By opening a CIF-deposit account at NCB, an organization can automatically donate part or all of the interest earned on the account to the Foundation in support of its community grant programs.

Through the NCB-Foundation partnership, the credit union community has access to a wide range of competitively priced deposit accounts. In addition, the two partners have created a simple and secure online fulfillment platform to ensure accounts can be opened quickly and the funds can be put to work in local communities immediately.

“The Foundation chose to partner with NCB because we share similar missions,” says Gigi Hyland, the Foundation’s executive director. “We both exist to ultimately improve the financial well-being of consumers and communities across the country through cooperatives. With its expertise in cooperative finance, NCB is a great partner to help amplify our CIF, which supports national and local philanthropic efforts by credit unions.

“Working with NCB through the CIF is great because it helps credit unions easily make a difference,” Hyland adds.

With CIF, credit unions pick an investment option suitable for their risk tolerance, earn some dividends and then direct a portion of those earned dividends to support philanthropy at the state and national level.

“Credit unions who have invested in the CIF options with NCB have contributed thousands of dollars to make a difference in their local communities, states and in national efforts to improve people’s financial lives,” notes Hyland.

For NCB, the partnership with NCUF presents a great opportunity to complement its own mission banking efforts of supporting underserved communities and cooperative expansion initiatives.

“As a bank chartered to support cooperatives organizations, we are proud of our long history of service and our partnership with an organization that shares these principles,” says Charles E. Snyder, CEO of NCB. “The funds allocated to the Foundation programs through NCB’s participation will have an even greater impact on local communities.”

Interest earned on the deposits are designated to support the Foundation’s financial literacy, cooperative education and community development programs including REAL Solutions®, CU Development Education, Biz Kid$, Innovation Grants and CUAid. In addition, the Foundation shares part of the donation with state credit union leagues and foundations to support their local grant programs.