How to Grow While Staying True to Local Roots: The OnPoint Story

Can a credit union with nearly 500,000 members and $9 billion in assets still authentically serve its local community? As consolidation trends continue and asset size is increasingly seen as a key indicator of success, it’s important to reflect on how these evolving trends impact the cooperative principles and the credit union difference.

Liz Martin, Vice President of Marketing at OnPoint Community Credit Union, believes that when growth is rooted in a clear WHY, it can exist in tandem with a strong community focus. She joins us to talk about how OnPoint has grown while still honoring its history as a cooperative founded for teachers, why “branch deserts” motivated them to dramatically expand their branch footprint in 2021, and how to create a personalized and hyper-local experience across digital and in-person channels.

This month’s BIG Question: How can credit unions grow in a sustainable and intentional way while still staying true to their local roots?

 

 

Key takeaways

1. By staying true to their roots of teachers through awards and volunteering, OnPoint has been able to truly imbue the culture of volunteerism, education, and community across their credit union as it has grown
2. Growth isn’t just about serving more members. Every growth initiative actively involves three key stakeholder groups: members, employees, and communities.
3. Branch managers are key to maintaining a credit union’s community focus. They operate on the front lines, sharing local advice and focusing on hyperlocal publications.

 

Read the full transcript

Cameron Madill:
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Remarkable Credit Union podcast. We created our podcast to help credit union leaders think outside of the box about marketing, technology and community impact. We bring on expert guests from inside and outside of the industry for conversations about innovation. Our goal is to challenge your preconceptions about business as usual and provide you with actionable takeaways that you can use to grow your membership, improve the financial health of your cooperative and magnify the positive impact in your community. Today’s big question: How can credit unions grow in a sustainable and intentional way while staying true to their local roots?

Cameron Madill:
I’m really excited to welcome our guest on today. It’s someone I’ve known for many years. It’s Liz Martin, who is the VP of Marketing at OnPoint Community Credit Union. Liz has a really interesting background. Liz started out in technology marketing, first at a large marketing agency and then with a couple tech companies here in Portland, Oregon. Liz does lots of amazing things in the community including being a board member of Girls Inc. My fun fact, an equestrian who is a big animal lover, which includes obviously the love of horses, two dogs, a big cat and then she added her two daughters and her husband to the list. Liz, thanks for joining us today.

Liz Martin:
Hi, Cameron. Thank you so much for having me.

Cameron Madill:
I’m excited. And I think for this particular question, which is something that’s on everyone’s mind in the credit union space, there’s few people I can think of better to address it. So, I’d love to start with, OnPoint is a really impressive institution. And particularly in Portland, Oregon, where PixelSpoke is based, you guys have a huge footprint. You serve over 400,000 members and you have assets of just under 10 billion or maybe over it right now. And so, I’d love to know, just paint the picture for us. How did OnPoint get to be such a preeminent financial institution here in Oregon?

Liz Martin:
Yeah, absolutely.

Liz Martin:
And I’ll start off by saying we definitely have not gotten over 10 billion yet. And for those in the industry, they’ll understand why that is such a marker but for us, it all started in 1932. We love to tell the story of how 16 school teachers came together to create a safe place to save their money. They called that organization, Portland Teachers Credit Union. And until 2005, that was the name that we used but we decided we wanted to expand our charter so we could serve more members.

Liz Martin:
So, again, in 2005 we became OnPoint Community Credit Union and we still continue our founder’s legacy of supporting teachers in a number of ways. And I’ll share some of that a little bit later but for now, we serve more than 485,000 members who live or work in 30 counties across Oregon and Southwest Washington. And I think it’s really important to note that we’re a community credit union. That means quite literally our community comes first and we believe it is our responsibility to improve the places we call home. And so, this tends to really resonate with those in the Pacific Northwest. Residents here feel really strongly about supporting not-for-profit organizations and being part of a member-owned cooperative allows them to know where their profits are going, which happens to be back into their community and not just shareholders.

Cameron Madill:
And one of the things you do that I think is really interesting, and I’ve seen this cited in a bunch of places among others, NPR, that branches were closing at a record pace in 2021 and that the general industry trend was accelerated by the pandemic, which according to NPR was 3,324 bank branches that were closed in 2021. And you guys kind of zigged while they were zagging. I know you expanded into 20 Fred Meyer stores, which is Krogers for those of you not here in the Northwest, same company, which is a huge move on your part. And I’d love to hear more about what drove this expansion strategy, especially during all the turmoil and difficulty of a pandemic here?

Liz Martin:
We find it a little bit funny. At the beginning of every year, there are a ton of trend pieces that hit the various publications about banks and credit unions trying to predict how branches will evolve. In the last several years, we kept hearing banks and credit unions are closing branches and that’s the wave of the future. However, that’s not what our members said. And so, our expansion strategy always comes back to what our members need. So, when they tell us they want expanded access and convenience, we listened. And the reasons for wanting more access, they’re not fickle or trivial. Of course members want digital access. And we deliver on that now and we’ll keep delivering on that and keep adding value. The key for us is our members tell us they want more digital and more branch access. So, it’s all about the service they need at the moment. And more often than not, if someone wants to get advice or really sit down and discuss the pros and cons of a loan or any other service, they want to do it in person. That’s where they develop those relationships and that trust. And that’s something we really pride ourselves on.

Liz Martin:
So, when we looked at expanding branches, rather significantly last year, we knew we were meeting a need for our members. Not only are the Fred Meyer stores convenient, because most people are going shopping, but we now offer services in more areas than OnPoint could previously and also worth noting in more areas that were lacking bank and credit union branches in general. So, oftentimes in lower income or minority areas, internet and transportation can be a real challenge. So, we wanted to fill a gap in what we call these branch deserts and neighborhoods located one or more miles away from branches so people can attend to their essential banking needs. And the cool thing is this growth into new areas has also inspired us, enabled us, encouraged us to invest more in the local communities we serve resulting in 157 new jobs and more than 2.2 million in donations to 304 area nonprofits. So, those were a bunch of records for OnPoint and hopefully a bunch of records for the area but it was a way that we really wanted to demonstrate our commitment to these new areas we were moving into.

Cameron Madill:
That’s really great to hear and yes, I appreciate your perspective on the branch deserts. Everything I have read and some of my firsthand experiences is that some parts of the country just have like a bounty of options when it comes to financial services and others have nothing other than check cashiers and payday lenders.

Cameron Madill:
So, you touched on how big of a move this was from a growth standpoint. And there’s that adage in business that sometimes when we try to serve everyone, we end up serving no one. And so, I’d love to hear and I know you guys have put huge work into this. As you’ve grown beyond that target niche, that original membership of teachers and you’ve really increased your geographic footprint, how have you stayed true to your roots and how do you even think about your roots today?

Liz Martin:
As the original Portland Teachers Credit Union, we have deep roots specifically in the education community. We have long term, really lovely partnerships and relationships with our local schools and teachers. And honestly there is not a day that goes by since I’ve worked here the last five years that we don’t reference our founders or what they stood for in one way or another. It comes up constantly because we want to honor our history. We want to honor various traditions there and this incredible group of people and community that we support. So, we do this in a number of ways. One is that we have a partnership with Oregon School Activities Association, which is part of the Oregon high school system and athletics, activities, including band and speech, et cetera. And so, every year we give seven scholarships out to students who not only are great in their OSAA activity or sport but they are really amazing scholars and they have done something amazing for our community.

Liz Martin:
So, every year when I read these, I am humbled by how smart and caring and effective these people are. There was one student who won a scholarship this year and they started their own nonprofit in high school. They had awards named after them. It was unbelievable but it’s really a great indication that if this is what our future holds, we are in good hands. Another one that we love to honor teachers is in our annual OnPoint prize for excellence and education. So, again, one of my favorite parts of my job is reading all these letters about our teachers every year. And you think you know how teachers have an impact on these kids’ lives but then you read about some of these exceptional educators and it truly affects you. It makes a difference in how you view educators. They go above and beyond every way possible from visiting their kids’ families after school every night, on the weekends, bringing food to those who need it. They go above and beyond and it’s an inspiration every year.

Liz Martin:
And I would also say that volunteerism is a big part of who OnPoint is. We very much encourage everyone here to get out there and serve not just the nonprofits that we stand for but the ones that each of our employees hold dear. And so, a few of those that help in education that we volunteer and support every year like Schoolhouse Supplies or De La Salle North Catholic High School or In4All and among many others but those were just a few. And then lastly, I would say that we, not just education, but we love to support financial education. We very much view that as part of our purpose, which is to ensure that we are encouraging and providing resources so people do have healthy financial dreams, goals, futures, outlooks. So, we have partnered with a ton of different partners that focus on that area from financial beginnings to junior achievement, enrich, Bonsai, Green Path. All the different ways that a person might engage in financial education and it could be in the classroom, it could be online, it could be in person or it could be personal counseling. And so, we just really want to provide that support that a lot of us really need right now coming out of the pandemic.

Cameron Madill:
Well said. And boy, nothing like some of those students to make us humble, right?

Cameron Madill:
I’ve been involved in a few similar activities. And I just say, “Wow, these kids are incredible.”

Liz Martin:
They really are.

Cameron Madill:
I really appreciate hearing about how I’m always curious how any organization sort of honored its tradition and thinks about its roots and its essence. So, we think of that as the past, the present, the core, the heartbeat of OnPoint. Let’s talk about the future and growth. And one of the things we’ve talked about a lot at PixelSpoke, I think in a sense similar as an employee owned company, we serve different stakeholders than just external shareholders. And obviously, OnPoint shares that. And we’ve had a lot of debates around what is sustainable growth? What does that look like? Everyone still wants raises and new opportunities and to expand our impact but nobody wants hyper growth where we lose touch with who we are. So, I’m curious, how do you guys think about your growth strategy and how do you measure success beyond just the raw top level numbers?

Liz Martin:
You’re so right, Cameron. You think about growth strategies and you pull one lever and it has a ripple effect on everything else. And so, we really try to think long and hard. We are a financial institution. We do consider all options and all perspectives but we think about our three main audiences, which are members, employees and then in our general community. And so, when we talk about expansion, we need to know how that’s going to affect each of our priority groups. So, we have a ton of questions we ask. Do our members have sufficient access in all the areas we support? If no, which areas have the greatest need? If we expand, can we keep delivering on the same quality service? Are we sacrificing anything for our members or employees with a growth plan? What features are members requesting the most for? Online accessibility or anything else? Are we offering the right products and services? Do our members get enough value after they’ve chosen us? Are we providing the right support around financial education? And honestly, are we being good citizens of our community?

Liz Martin:
So, it could go on and on and on, but we do try to have a 360 view of how any single decision we make could have a great impact, good or bad. And so, we try to mitigate that ahead of time. As far as how we measure success, I’ve mentioned it a couple times. Our purpose is supporting financial wellbeing and growth, one person at a time. That is our north star when thinking about if we’re successful. And key indicators could include a strong reputation, consumer trust, member feedback, our net promoter scores, online reviews and probably the most impactful is those thousands of member conversations that we have every day across the credit union. When someone has a complaint, so many people are immediately concerned about what happened, how can we help them and how can we prevent this from happening again? When someone has a wonderful experience, we share that with our various teams and we celebrate that. So, those conversations travel a lot farther than I would imagine members even think it would but we absolutely care about the individual, not just the mass numbers.

Cameron Madill:
Liz, a little bit of a sidebar question. How many employees does OnPoint have right now?

Liz Martin:
I think we’re hovering around a thousand, last I heard.

Cameron Madill:
So, we’re hovering around 17 at PixelSpoke. So, slightly different scale but on this conversation around growth, one of the things I’m curious about is both the wins and the challenges because sometimes I think growth can be too much. It can be a bad thing. I’ve also been at a company, at PixelSpoke, in years where we’re not growing and that has not been good. It’s like, “What does that mean for raises and promotions and opportunities?” So, I’d love to hear for the journey that you all have had, especially during your time at OnPoint. What are some of the pleasant surprises and what are some of the challenges that you’ve confronted?

Liz Martin:
I’ll start with the challenges first. We’ve had lots of practice in the last couple years. So, COVID of course-

Cameron Madill:
The world has given us lots of challenges. Hasn’t it?

Liz Martin:
I know.

Cameron Madill:
Not made it boring for us. Very kind of it.

Liz Martin:
Time goes by very quickly these days. So, obviously COVID turned everyone’s life upside down. And what I like to think about is before COVID, say 2019, a typical day is having deep discussions around the latest ad campaign or website launches or branch celebrations and events. That kind of stuff. Yet in 2020 and to this day, we have really learned what it truly means to be nimble. And yes, that can be a buzzword, but to be truly nimble in a financial institution, that takes a lot of motivation, a lot of hard work and a lot of innovation. And so, one of my most memorable moments here at OnPoint is the two weeks after everything got shut down because of COVID because we just saw so many teams get into a whole different mindset of the problems we’re trying to solve right now and a whole different way of viewing what is an acceptable way to work and communicate and deliver service.

Liz Martin:
So, that was amazing. I will never forget that moment. And now, our conversations are like, “What new loan products or features do we need to launch and maybe launch within a week?” This is what we were thinking of in 2020. Which nonprofits are serving the most vulnerable right now and how can we get funds to them immediately? Our members are hurting and confused like the rest of us. So, how can we give them the best service possible right now? What is the right level of communication with these variables changing every single day? And a big question we had for about a week was, “What is PPP and how do we get business members signed up yesterday?” That was a fun conversation throughout that year and beyond but we made it work. And we were one of the main financial institutions in Oregon to deliver those PPP loans and the forgiveness.

Liz Martin:
We were really proud of our team for that because our business members, they needed us. And today, obviously the pandemic has not gone away. It continues to financially impact a lot of people across the Pacific Northwest and every day we’re thinking about, “Is there another different option, product, service? Is there another way we can help them through this time?” And now when we fast forward to 2022, we have words like recession and inflation and historically low employment rates where it’s really hard to hire people and whole new set of challenges. Inflation’s up 7.9% since this time last year. Cost of living is on the rise. Creating economic hardships for many people as they find it difficult to cover just the basics such as food, shelter, healthcare. So, we are really looking at, not only how can we provide value to our members directly, but how do we support the nonprofits that are helping our community in mass?

Liz Martin:
So, Oregon Food Bank is one that is doing a ton. They have a huge increase in people since 2020 that need extra food and support. So, we actually use them as our nonprofit in a recent refer-a-friend campaign. And we were able to give them about $40,000 to their mission there. But again, we have new challenges and I would say we have more challenges than I think anyone would expect year over year but we’re staying here. We’re not closing branches. We’re not moving out of town. We’re committed to our members. And I would say the need is only getting greater for nonprofits. So, we absolutely encourage our employees, our friends, our partners, to get out there and help the community in any way possible. And that’s one of the things that I just really admire about the culture at OnPoint in our individual employees, it’s absolutely part of the culture here. Everyone volunteers and everyone gives back. So many people are on nonprofit boards because they want to make an impact. And it is definitely more than a bank.

Cameron Madill:
One of the things that was really heartening for me in March and April of 2020 was seeing how our clients and especially you guys turned it into an opportunity. I think that’s the flip side of the challenges of growth as they create opportunities. And I remember… I think it’s Winston Churchill that said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” and I think it really allowed me and us at PixelSpoke and I think all of the credit union we work with and obviously I think the entire space to really reconnect with purpose. And what are the metrics and what are the things that really matter? So, thank you for doing that. I know you guys helped several of my colleagues get PPP. I still don’t really know what PPP is. What a weird program but life keeps throwing things at us that we didn’t know were coming.

Cameron Madill:
I’m back on topic, Liz. I’m focusing.

Cameron Madill:
So, new question. I’d love to know, because you guys really serve such a large area. You’ve got rural, you’ve got urban, you’ve got suburban, you’ve got conservative and you’ve got progressive. Probably any adjective we could come up with is probably under the OnPoint umbrella. And so, I’m curious how you go about speaking the local language in all these different regions. I know you all had a big diversity, equity and inclusion effort. And so, how do you think about that idea of being local when it’s not like you can just say local is one thing. Local must mean many different things to different communities you serve.

Liz Martin:
Absolutely. I would also say that over the last couple years as we opened up several new branches, it really pushed us to think about how do we localize in a more meaningful way? So, what we do so far is, we have some local branch managers that share financial advice in local publications. We’ve put out dozens of those and the topics and the advice really is customized for that area. Now, some of the lessons may be applicable across the state or the region but it’s coming from the perspective of what members are asking for in that area. And I think that really resonated with our members by helping them in different ways. Obviously donations is a big part of how we give back to our community, both statewide and regionally, but also those neighborhood nonprofits that are making a difference that come in every week. Supporting hyper local publications and events.

Liz Martin:
That’s one where, yes, it helps get our name out there but we also have several publication events that say they need us otherwise they can’t do this. They can’t afford this. And so, we like to view them as partners. We help them, they help us. And it’s something that the community really references and relies on. This may seem silly but we pay a lot of attention on showing local landmarks on our website or our billboards or other ads. We want people to see their area represented and know that they’re part of this OnPoint world. It’s not just Portland. We are all over the place and we want people to feel that. I would also say each branch works really hard to showcase the local businesses. And so, every month in the 55 branches, they have an opportunity to put up on a business display all the things that this local business wants to highlight. And sometimes they give discounts to OnPoint members and other times it’s just for awareness and we love to show what they’re doing. Our branches also try to reflect the community in little subtle ways when they even come up with a design for the branch. So, we do try to keep it as local as possible.

Cameron Madill:
I love how you referenced the website. So, perfect segue for digital marketing. So, I happen to know a little bit about that myself. I know one of the really fun things about the initial website we did for you all and I think it’s evolved over time, which was you guys were really committed to having really advanced geo-targeting capabilities on your website. And you said it might sound silly but at least in my opinion, it’s absolutely critical. I know the times I’ve logged into a site and it says, “Welcome back, Cameron,” and it’s a picture. You and I both have Bay Area connections. It’s a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and it’s just like, “Okay, you don’t know me.” And I think it’s maybe all the more powerful when it’s not something slightly cheesy or iconic like the Golden Gate Bridge or the Space Needle or the Eiffel Tower. So, I think it’s really powerful to think about what is meaningful and recognizable for someone locally. So, can you tell us a little bit more about how you… It makes sense with your background but how you’ve gone about leveraging personalization features online to target your messaging to all these different communities that you’re building relationships with.

Liz Martin:
Yeah, absolutely. And I have to tag on with what you’re saying. I listen to Spotify every day and I get Seattle and Bay Area commercials every time I listen and yet I don’t get Portland commercials. It drives me nuts. So, in partnership with PixelSpoke, we have performed a ton of geo geographic analysis. Store locations, branches, we’ve come up with regions that we can localize our messaging to them. And the geo-targeting has been fantastic. We do try to customize our creative, have specific shots of Smith Rock or something when we’re trying to do something for the [inaudible 00:24:13] Branch or the Bend Branch. We like people to feel like this message is for them and it’s not just a generic message we’re sending out into the ether.

Liz Martin:
We also sometimes change our messaging. Not all cities are created equal and not all cities are going through the same challenges. And so, sometimes we have different messaging that goes to different areas. And that’s on social but also digital and also website. And last year we had a new brand refresh, which affected the website along with all of our other assets. And one of the things we did was we partnered with Waze to highlight nearby store locations through branded pins. It featured our new logo and other information. So, were trying different things to get out there more and to be super relevant to whoever is looking into us or sees our message. I would also say that we personalized our landing page experience depending on the campaign and the various branches that we were opening last year, 20, we had a lot of practice.

Liz Martin:
So, we personalized all those pages. So, when you came in for a certain branch, it did feel like we were talking to you again. Also, if a site user is looking for a mortgage, a mortgage loan, et cetera, then the website can present bio and contact information for an MLO or a mortgage loan officer near them. Also, the website can share local branch and ATM locations when you’re looking in the locations page. And then within our digital banking, which behind the pin for our members when they sign in, a lot of our messaging and advertising there is based on our members account profile. So, let’s say you have an auto loan. We may put up an ad that says, “Well, have you considered a credit card? You might be great for that,” or, “If you’re looking for your next auto loan, have you looked into our green auto discount? That might be a place to go.” So, again, it’s a way that we can personalize our messaging for the members based on what kind of products they have now and where they might be looking for something new. And it’s also not just products. We use that to talk about some of the community giving, some of the community impact stories and financial education advice. So, we really try to keep it a mix of different topics so that it’s exactly what they need.

Cameron Madill:
Well, I appreciate you highlighting the website features. I think that’s the basic level or Spotify. Any digital marketing, as you said, is getting some of that geography correct. Getting that relevance to where the person is. I think we talked about this a bunch in the pandemic of, look, we’ve all been enforced into remote. We can learn a lot from tech companies. There’s a lot of innovative things they’re doing, in many cases, because they’re not regulated in the same way but they’re also often hyper focused. What makes credit union beautiful and special and different is that they are human plus digital. They’re not the one or the other. And so, I think that’s where looking at like, Hey, using technology to connect someone, not just with a photo of where they are, but the local mortgage officer is a really great example of how that human plus digital connection can come together and how that speaks to the unique differentiating abilities of a credit union.

Cameron Madill:
So, thanks Liz. That’s exactly how I would’ve said it. You did wonderfully. I will return to my role as host.

Liz Martin:
Thank you.

Cameron Madill:
So, looking towards the future, what’s on OnPoint… Of all the big things you’ve done, what’s on the horizon for you all in 2022 and after that?

Liz Martin:
Well, it’s kind of hard to top the previous year when it was COVID and then it was our record breaking giving but we intend to. We would like to build on that foundation in 2022 and I think we’re off to a good start. We have so many partnerships with the local nonprofits and they go so much further than donations. Donations is a great way to start but what we are trying to focus on is really spreading education with our employees about what these organizations stand for, how they’re helping our community and then partnering with those organizations to find out how they could best use our help. Donations, yes, helps. What about volunteering? What about, should we come in and give some financial education courses to them? Is there any co-marketing effort that would benefit them and do they need people to fill board member seats?

Liz Martin:
So, we do ask a lot of these questions and try to be good partners beyond just, “Here’s some money. Can you put our logo on a website,” or something. That is not very meaningful for us and probably not for them but we try to push to go further. I would also say on a different topic beyond supporting our community, we’re always going to keep looking at our products and services and see if they are still delivering the value that they need to deliver to balance out what our members need, what’s going on in the industry, et cetera. That is something that we’re constantly looking at. And this year also has some interesting challenges, I would say, that have started a couple years ago again, but some of the issues with Portland and the neighborhoods and where people are struggling. We do very much like to partner with other institutions to bring about this collaboration, make Portland successful again and a thriving business center. We would love to be part of that. And so, we’re always talking with different people to see how we can help there.

Cameron Madill:
That’s great to hear as a Portlander as well. I think it’s been a hard couple years. I know we’re not the only city but it’s like we’ve been hit with a lot. And I think there’s a lot of ambition to figure out how we can build towards the next thing.

Cameron Madill:
All right. So, that was touching and meaningful. I’m going to go the completely opposite direction. I’m going to ask you a bunch of rapid fire questions. For those of you who are obviously just meeting Liz, she’s super professional, very polished. And now I get ask her bunch of wacky questions. So, all right.

Cameron Madill:
Liz, we’ll start easy. What’s your favorite word?

Liz Martin:
My favorite word is family.

Cameron Madill:
Very good. Very touching. What’s a place you’d like to visit that you’ve never visited?

Liz Martin:
Africa.

Cameron Madill:
What is in the trunk of your car right now?

Liz Martin:
Oh gosh. Horse supplies, helmets, brushes, cleaners and extra stuff like that.

Cameron Madill:
Excellent. On brand. I love it.

Cameron Madill:
What is your favorite meal?

Liz Martin:
Gosh, I do like a good salad but that’s pretty boring. So, salmon. A nicely grilled salmon and some spinach.

Cameron Madill:
All right. And lastly, what is that song that you’re just really embarrassed to admit that you love? The one you’re playing on Spotify when you get those advertisements for Seattle?

Liz Martin:
Well, someone asked me about my theme music as I go into a room the other day. And I don’t know if this is my theme music but this is one of the bands that I love to play to really irritate my daughters. And that’s the Beastie Boys. So, some of their classic records, I will listen to all the time. And as soon as they start complaining, I turn up the volume so they get to hear more of it.

Cameron Madill:
I love it. I love it. All right. My kid’s only two, so I can’t really annoy him yet but I really look forward to those days.

Liz Martin:
Start early.

Cameron Madill:
I know. He still thinks I walk on water.

Cameron Madill:
All right. So,, awesome. I’ve really enjoyed this conversation, Liz. I’d love to do a final take. Is there anything that you didn’t get to that you wanted to share with our audience or anything you’d like to reiterate that you already covered?

Liz Martin:
Couple things of note when we’re talking about what’s coming up next. First one is, I think I touched on it earlier. We have a Green Horizons Initiative, which is really trying to help our employees and our members build a more environmentally friendly future for all of us but also in a financially sustainable way. So, a lot of times when you want to do eco-friendly services or products or anything like that, sometimes it can be really expensive and we want to make sure that everyone has access to this. And so, part of our Green Horizons Initiative is providing loan discounts on certain products. So, green auto discount. If you take out a loan with OnPoint for an electric or hybrid vehicle, you’ll get a discount on your loan rate. Same thing with solar panels. So, we’re trying to make it a little easier to go green in ways that are meaningful for the member but the initiative goes beyond the products.

Liz Martin:
As I mentioned before, we have a big donating team initiative and focus for eco-friendly organizations. We provide a ton of opportunity for employees to volunteer with nonprofits like Solve, Nature Conservancy. We also are offering more tele-comminuting opportunities. Before COVID, that was really not on the table for us and how we do work but since COVID, we’ve examined that. And so, how can we do that and still provide the same service for our members? And so, the company has been working super hard on that and I think people are pretty happy with the balance we’ve struck there. And then of course, just providing education. How do you save money and save the planet at the same time? There’s always more we can learn there and we try to share that with our membership.

Liz Martin:
And the other thing that I think is worth mentioning is very common conversation these days in the last two years has been around DEI. Are you focusing on that? What does it look like? What more do you need to do? And so, like several other businesses, we have really been focusing deeply on DEI. We have a couple employees dedicated full time to DEI and what they’re focused on is four or five key initiatives right off the bat but it does go beyond that. And so, I would say internal employee training. They have issued several training modules in partnership with Oregon State University and that all employees are asked to view those. And so, those come out periodically and they’re really helpful. It talks about historically underrepresented communities. It talks about the history here in Portland and beyond. It talks about different vocabulary that people should be adopting, how we can be allies and support our friends.

Liz Martin:
And in addition, we are looking at our relationships with vendors and agencies. What do the agencies look like as far as who they’re owned by or who works there? Are they representing all communities or just maybe the dominant community and culture? We’re looking at those who are B Corp. We’re looking at those who believe in giving back. So, that is absolutely part of our work right now. In addition, we’re looking at our products and services and seeing if they’re helping underserved communities in the way that we would like them to help. And we’re talking with lawmakers and how do we get the word out about what we’re doing and what needs to be done? And so, what I can say is we’ve taken meaningful steps in the area of DEI. There’s so much more work to do but we are absolutely committed to getting there.

Cameron Madill:
Awesome. Thank you, Liz. These are all lifelong journeys.

Cameron Madill:
Well, it’s been really great having you on here. And I wish I could play the Beastie Boys to allow you off but I’ll have that playing through my head every time I get to see you, going forward. So, thanks for joining us today and sharing everything you’re doing.

Liz Martin:
Thank you so much, Cameron. I appreciate it.

Cameron Madill:
All right, folks. Thanks for joining another really enjoyable conversation. I always like chatting with Liz and picking her brain because they’re doing so many innovative things. Let’s go to my key takeaways. My first one was how they’ve really been able to stay true to their roots of teachers, their original membership pace, through awards and volunteering and how they’ve really used that to build a foundation that can imbue this culture of volunteerism, education and community across OnPoint as it has grown over the years. I really liked her framework of thinking about sustainable growth as being driven by the three stakeholders: Members, employees and communities. And I think while that sounds really simple or almost common sense, my experience has been that when there’s a really simple framework like that, ideally it’s got three things. It can become a really powerful filter for making decisions when it comes to strategic planning.

Cameron Madill:
I love the story about how they had to refer-a-friend campaign that raised $40,000 for the Oregon Food Bank. And I think whatever the scale, OnPoint obviously is a huge institution. I just love seeing credit unions when they do efforts with their marketing that bring in members that really tie them to the deeper sense of purpose and contribution to the community. I also really liked that they have branch managers sharing local advice and focusing on hyper local publications. I know that can be a really difficult thing to do and sometimes it can be a lot easier to pay a large company to do all of that. But I think as Liz said, a lot of those hyper local publications really depend on a small number of advertisers and contributors. And I also thought it was just a great idea, which I’ve seen in a variety of places, but featuring local businesses whether they give a discount or not of just kind of building that as part of, “We are the community,” and sharing that with all your members as they come in.

Cameron Madill:
I think the personalization talk was really rich and we could almost do a whole podcast on that but I thought the idea of using Waze to feature local businesses was really intriguing to me. I had not heard of that before. And as I mentioned, I’m just a big fan of using the website or other things to feature local mortgage officers, branches, ATMs, as well as relevant financial education. There’s some really powerful tools to create a more relevant experience of someone based on their geography. I know there’s a lot of things happening in the space of climate change, as Liz shared, her Green Horizons Initiative. I’m always on the lookout for a catchy phrase and I just thought that line that, “You can save money and save the planet at the same time,” was a really smart way to market and connect with our audience who’s going to be engaged with that particular issue.

Cameron Madill:
And lastly, I thought it was great to hear how OnPoint is using diversity, equity and inclusion as a filter across the organization, not just internally because I do think there are huge opportunities. We’ve certainly seen this in the certified B corporation community to also look at your “supply chain” or your vendors as well as looking at products or services and what role do they play in the broader world?

Cameron Madill:
All right. Thanks for joining us today for another great episode. Until the next time, I wish you all the best of luck in making your credit union remarkable.