Investing in Member Education for Financial Health

Credit unions that invest in member education are more likely to have financially healthy members. By providing members with the information and resources they need to make sound financial decisions, credit unions can help them achieve their financial goals. When building effective member education programming, credit unions need to consider both fundamental skills development as well as in-depth advanced education. 

Subjects with universal appeal may include personal financial management, fraud prevention practices, and credit building, but it’s also important to educate members on practices specific to your credit union. For example, you might provide on demand courses on cyber security best practices and how to avoid identity theft, but you might also embed mandatory education into your account opening process that trains members on the data your employees will (and will never) ask for. You might provide high level education of your financial product offerings, but detailed instructions on how to navigate your website or mobile app. 

Personal financial management topics that are relevant for all members include budgeting, saving, investing, and debt management. Specific workshop material might include saving for retirement, a first-time homebuyers workshop, or student loan management counseling. Members would also benefit from the creation of self-paced workshops that teach people how to monitor their credit, build their credit, and use credit responsibly.

Credit unions can engage with their members in a number of ways to provide a variety of learning opportunities. Having the flexibility to adapt to each members’ unique learning style is an important aspect of member education. Credit unions can reach their members through different channels including in person workshops, virtual seminars, online courses and webinars, articles, social media, and one-on-one counseling. The more avenues by which you can provide member education, the better the overall member experience will be. 

When developing a member education program, credit unions should consider the needs of all their members and the topics that are most important to them. Make sure all materials are clear, concise, easy to understand, and customized to the audience’s level of financial fluency.