The Federation offers a variety of research studies, manuals, and videos about the CDCU movement.  Many are available free to Federation members.  By clicking on the appropriate title, you can access detailed descriptions of each product and either download the actual document or, for those on sale, their respective order forms.

On this page:

• Federation Reports
• Federation Affiliated Reports
• Reports on Serving the Underserved
• Articles of Interest
• Links for Credit Unions
• Links for CDFIs

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Federation Reports

• Low-Income Communities and the Great Recession: Financial Trends in Community Development Credit Unions, 2009.  This report summarizes financial trends for CDCUs based on official published data for the years ending December 31, 2009 and 2008 respectively.  Our year-over-year comparison looks at the 208 member institutions of the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions that were active at both points in time. These institutions, located in 42 states and the District of Columbia, serve more than one-million members in urban, rural, and reservation-based communities. They range widely in size, from less than $1 million in assets to well over a billion dollars. Many are designated “community development financial institutions” (CDFIs) by the federal CDFI Fund, and the great majority have been officially designated by their regulators as “low-income.” While the financial profiles of CDCUs vary, their common denominator is their commitment to promoting and delivering savings products, affordable credit, basic transaction services, and trusted financial information to low-income people, typically with special outreach to minority communities.
   
• Peer Group Statistics for Community Development Credit Unions (As of Dec. 2009). The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has recognized the “CDCU difference,” most recently with its official Supervisory Letter – Supervising Low Income Credit Unions and Community Development Credit Unions, released January 2010, which dis-cusses “the characteristics, benefits, and unique challenges of these types of credit unions and includes an appendix describing resources available to them.” The Federation and a number of its member consulted with NCUA in the formulation of that document, which we believe is an important step toward balancing the need for strong regulation with a commitment to preserving the credit union mission of serving “people of modest means." 
  
  To further this process of balancing regulation with mission, the Federation periodically prepares peer group statistics for CDCUs. Our goal is to move beyond the past regulatory practice of simply comparing credit unions with others of their asset size – a comparison which does not take into account the high-needs, high-cost market that CDCUs serve. We hope that these statistics will enable CDCUs to “benchmark” themselves against those credit unions that are truly their peers, and to better explain their operations to their examiners, supporters, and other credit unions.
  
  
• Community Banking Partnerships: Legal Structures that Work. This study, released in November 2005, reports on the experience of eight prominent CDCUs in using multi-part organizational structures to enhance the financial and related services of credit unions serving the low-income market.  Written by the Federation’s executive director, Cliff Rosenthal, the study resulted from an international collaboration between the Federation and several organizations in the United Kingdom, including the New Economics Foundation (nef), the National Association of Credit Union Workers (NACUW), and Community Finance Solutions (CFS), an initiative of the University of Salford.  The publication is free to Federation members and Community Development Partners (others: $20 plus shipping and handling).
  
  
• Federation's 30th Anniversary Journal.  For its 30th Anniversary Meeting in 2004, the Federation published a commemorative journal outlining a detailed organizational history, philosophy, and programmatic focuses for the organization.  The 30th Anniversary Journal also offers a statistical analysis of Federation-member CDCUs through 2004.  If you are unfamiliar with the Federation or with CDCUs, then the 30th Journal is a great place to get aquainted with this vibrant and vital community development movement.
  
  
• Disability Outreach Project 2004 Annual Report.  In October 2003 the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions (the Federation) and five partner organizations received funding from the Department of Education to extend services to the disability community under the Asset Accumulation Tax Policy Project (AATPP). This grant will enable the Federation to test effective ways to extend financial services to people with disabilities through community development credit unions (CDCUs). The grant included partial funding for research, education, training and pilot activities in two sites: Bethex Federal Credit Union (Bronx, NY) and Communities United Credit Union (Wichita, KS). The Federation established the Disabilities Outreach Project to coordinate activities related to this grant. The following report discusses the Federation’s activities and results during the first year of this project, including the significant achievements of the two pilot credit unions.
  
  
• CDCU Technology Project.  Powerful new technologies offer small CDCUs the opportunity to transform their operations and reach a far greater scale.  The challenge for many credit unions, and the focus of this report, is to determine how best to harness the power of technology to fuel growth while maintaining the added value of “high-touch” services and community accountability that are defining characteristics of community development credit unions.
  
  

• Community Development Finance from the Grassroots Up, A Study of Community Development Credit Unions, 2000.  This 66-page report provides a comprehensive analysis of the financial status and performance of CDCUs, their contributions to community development, and key CDCU demographics.  The report describes the crucial and distinctive role played by CDCUs in the broader movement of community development financial institutions (CDFIs), demonstrating that CDCUs are the primary source of critical financial products and services in underserved communities.  It also shows that although they serve borrowers considered unprofitable and high-risk by most mainstream financial institutions, CDCUs typically achieve solid financial performance and self-sustainability.  The report, which includes 38 tables and charts, segments and analyzes CDCUs in ways that have never previouly been done.  While all CDCUs serve low-income communities, there is an enourmous size range among them.  There are also major differences based on whether it is relatively new (less than 10 years old) or older.  This report is the first to provide a comprehensive look at these differences.

• Neighborhood Banking 2000 - Report to the Citigroup Foundation.  In 1995, Citibank provided a $1.25 million equity grant to the Federation, to help strengthen its member credit unions serving low-income communities in Citibank markets across the country. The purpose of the Citibank Neighborhood Banking 2000 program was to demonstrate that performance-based equity grants to CDCUs could help them expand their institutional capacity, increase their lending and financial services, and enable them to reach more low-income people.  By making strategic capital investments in CDCUs, the program enabled participating credit unions to break a pattern termed the cycle of smallness and helped increase the number of CDCUs and branches in low-income communities, expand access to financial services for thousands of low-income people, and greatly enhanced the financial stability of these community-owned and operated financial institutions.  This report provides an overview of the communities receiving investments, the growth experienced following those investments, and profiles of the participating CDCUs.  

• Faithful Stewardship: A Guide to and for Faith-based Credit Unions.  This guide provides direction for faith-based credit unions and organizing groups, as well as current and potential supporters.  It is a major resource guide that offers in-depth information about the uniqueness of operating a cooperatively owned, highly regulated financial institution.  It provides a fuller understanding of the demands of church credit union operations and their potential in terms of spiritual and economic mission.  It informs those who are looking for allies in the struggle to revitalize communities and empower the poor through economic self-help - city and county officials, legislators at every level, corporate and foundation leaders, community-based organizations and others.

• Federation's Introductory Manual for African-American Clergy: The Role of Faith-based Credit Unions in Community Economic Development.  The Federation's publications for African-American clergy is a two part publication that introduces the credit union movement and educates African-American clergy about credit unions.
  
  
  
  Part I: Introductory Manual:  introduced the credit union movement, and through the roundtable discussions between Ministers to Ministers and Managers to Managers we attempt to illustrate real life lessons of the impact of the faith-based community economic development movement.
  
  
  
  Part II: Training Manual:  defines the role of faith-based credit unions (FBCUs) in community economic development.  These manuals will assist ministers in understanding the fundamentals of forming a credit union, the benefits of being affiliated with an existing church credit union.

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Federation-affiliated Reports

• CDFI Data Project.  The CDFI Data Project (CDP) is a major research effort collecting and analyzing information on the financial performance, institutional characteristics, and community development outputs of the CDFI Industry. The CDP aggregates data from each of the major CDFI sectors, including CDCUs, Community Development Banks, Loan Funds, and Venture Capital Funds. The data is collected via surveys administered by the Federation and four other CDFI trade associations to their constituents. Annual joint CDP publications and separate Federation studies then present findings for the CDFI industry as a whole and the CDCU sector individually.
   
• Helping Members Avoid or Survive Foreclosure.  Despite the massive downturn in the American economy and the erosion of family equity through foreclosures, credit unions have come to the forefront as responsible and trusted providers of affordable credit for millions of Americans. While many large banks have been criticized for hoarding their capital instead of lending to people in need, credit unions have continued to provide their members with loans of all types. Industry-wide, credit union lending expanded over the past year.  With credit unions expanding their assistance to members in need, the National Credit Union Foundation (NCUF), in partnership with the Federation, has posted a report for credit unions to address one of their most pressing issues.
  

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Reports on Serving the Underserved

• IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number: An Operational Guide to the ITIN Program.  This manual was developed for the benefit of tax preparation programs and other community service providers who need to make informed decisions about serving taxpayers in need of an ITIN.  The ITIN is a number that allows workers without a valid Social Security Number to: 1.) report their earnings to the IRS and 2.) open interest-bearing bank/credit union accounts.  This manual discusses the history of the ITIN program, recent changes to the ITIN, practice tips for facilitating the ITIN application process, and information about the current operating and advocacy environment surrounding the ITIN.  The manual is also a resource for credit unions who are considering extending their services to new immigrant populations: populations that may be more likely to need an ITIN in order to access credit union services  The manual was developed by the Center for Economic Progress with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
  
  
• Double Jeopardy - Why the Poor Pay More.  "If you live on the tough side of town or the wrong side of the tracks, if you earn a modest hourly wage and not a lofty salary, if you’re a racial or ethnic minority...watch your wallet! Chances are, you’re paying higher prices than the rest of us, and you’re imperiled by a thicket of deceptive money traps that can bust your budget and drain your savings."
   
• The Detrimental Costs of Being Poor. A series of articles published in Advocasey, a publication of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, highlights the detrimental and high costs of being poor in America. Without a local alternative to predatory and high-priced banking, credit, and financial services, many families in low-income neighborhoods spend more of their paycheck to access higher-priced food and financial services.  Spending more with less traps poor families in a vicious cycle of debt.  Read these articles to understand the impact of money traps and high-cost financial services on poor families.  They illustrate the challenges facing many low-income neighborhoods and provide an important educational and advocacy tool for CDCUs or other low-income advocates.
  

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Articles of Interest

• A Risk Worth Taking, Newsweek, Nov. 24, 2008.  This article highlights CDCUs and CDFIs as "ethical subprime lenders," and quotes, Federation President/CEO Cliff Rosenthal, as well as CDCUs, Faith Community United CU (Cleveland, OH); Lower East Side Peoples FCU (New York, NY) and North Side Community FCU (Chicago, IL).
  
  
• Putting Your Money Where Your Heart Lies, The New York Times, Nov. 13, 2006.  This article highlights the growing popularity of community investing, and features prominent community development credit unions Hope Community CU (Jackson, MS) and Santa Cruz Community CU (Santa Cruz, CA), as well as the Federation's President/CEO, Cliff Rosenthal.
   
• Ford Foundation Report - Fall 2004.  In its 2004 Foundation Report, the Ford Foundation featured the bold and innovative work of various prominent CDCUs those articles are available below:
  
  
  • Capital Ideas: 5 New Ways to Serve America's Unbanked.  Among the  programs highlighted, this article features two Federation members, Alternatives FCU's (Ithaca, NY) Low-cost Tax Anticipation Loan and Northside FCU's (Chicago, IL) Payday Alternative Loan.
     
  • Lending a Hand: Community Development Credit Unions Target People and Profits.  This article studies the innovative partnership structure organized between  the North Carolina Minority Support Center and a number of CDCUs in North Carolina.  The article highlights the positive impact the network has had on low-income residents in the area. This article also discusses the model partnership between North Carolina State Employees' CU (Raleigh, NC) and the Latino Community CU (Durham, NC), which has allowed the latter to become the fastest growing startup credit union in the United States.

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Links for Credit Unions

Regulators

• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is an independent agency created by the Congress to maintain stability and public confidence in the nation's financial system by insuring deposits, examining and supervising financial institutions for safety and soundness and consumer protection, andmanaging receiverships.  While the FDIC does not examine credit unions, its programs and policies may apply to credit unions.
   
• Federal Reserve Bank. Federal Reserve Banks were established by Congress as the operating arms of the nation's central banking system. Many of the services provided by this network to depository institutions and the government are similar to services provided by banks and thrift institutions to business customers and individuals. Reserve Banks hold the cash reserves of depository institutions and make loans to them. They move currency and coin into and out of circulation, and collect and process millions of checks each day. They provide checking accounts for the Treasury, issue and redeem government securities, and act in other ways as fiscal agent for the U.S. government. They supervise and examine member banks for safety and soundness. The Reserve Banks also participate in the activity that is the primary responsibility of the Federal Reserve System, the setting of monetary policy.
   
• National Credit Union Administration (NCUA).  The federal regulator and insurer for U.S. credit unions post financial information quarterly on all of the institutions it supervises and insures, as well as regulations, descriptive information about credit unions, and more.  Federation members can use NCUA grants to help pay for the Federation's on-site technical assistance, so CDCUs are encouraged to see NCUA's website for information on Technical Assistance Grants (TAG).  Additional resources are available from the Community Development Revolving Loand Fund (CDRLF).  Fore more information on these programs, go to: http://www.ncua.gov/Resources/CreditUnionDevelopment/Finance.aspx.
  
  
• U.S. Department of the Treasury.  The U.S. Treasury Department seeks to maintain a strong economy and create economic and job opportunities by promoting the conditions that enable economic growth and stability at home and abroad, strengthen national security by combating threats and protecting the integrity of the financial system, and manage the U.S. Government’s finances and resources effectively.  Treasury is in charge of managing Federal finances; collecting taxes, duties and monies paid to and due to the U.S. and paying all bills of the U.S.; currency and coinage; managing Government accounts and the public debt; supervising national banks and thrift institutions; advising on domestic and international financial, monetary, economic, trade and tax policy; enforcing Federal finance and tax laws; and investigating and prosecuting tax evaders, counterfeiters, and forgers.

Trade Associations

• African American Credit Union Coalition (AACUC).  The African-American Credit Union Coalition is a non-profit organization of African-American and African descent professionals and volunteers in the Credit Union movement. The goals and objectives include expanding the interest and increasing the numbers of minorities in the credit union movement; increasing outreach of the credit union movement in African countries and in the United States through credit union mentoring; providing scholarship programs and educational opportunities to credit union professionals and volunteers towards professional development and advancement; and most importantly enhancing internship and scholarship programs for African-American and African descent college students in pursuit of financial services careers to introduce them to and encourage them to seek employment within the credit union movement.
   
• Credit Union Executives Society (CUES).  CUES' mission is to advance the professional development of credit union CEOs, senior management and directors.  CUES continues to recommit itself to growing, learning and developing the professional development programs and services credit unions will need to succeed in the 21st century. To this end, CUES has begun to provide even more services to its members through strategic alliances with leading-edge companies.
   
• Credit Union National Association (CUNA).  CUNA (Credit Union National Association), based in Washington, D.C., and Madison, Wisconsin, is the premier national trade association serving America's credit unions.  In partnership with state credit union leagues, CUNA provides many services to credit unions, including representation, information, public relations, continuing professional education, and business development.
   
• Credit Union Retired Executives (CURE). CURE is a virtual network of retired credit union executives who volunteer their time and expertise to provide free, confidential advice to all credit union professionals.  CURE is a service of Credit Union Info, Inc., which was founded in 2008 to share the powerful experience of retired executives with today’s credit union professionals via a unique, secure online network. “Experience matters” describes both their vision and their service, CURE, which shares the insights gained only through experience with credit union professionals at all levels and in all areas of the industry.
  
  
• National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU).  The National Association of Federal Credit Unions is a respected and influential trade association that exclusively represents the interests of federal credit unions before the federal government and the public. Membership in NAFCU is direct; there are no state or local leagues, chapters or affiliations standing between NAFCU members and the NAFCU headquarters in Arlington, VA.  NAFCU provides members with representation, information, education, and assistance to meet the challenges that cooperative financial institutions face in today's economic environment.
   
• Network of Latino Credit Unions & Professionals (NLCUP). In 2004, at our 30th Anniversary Meeting and 3rd Latino Credit Union Conference, held in San Juan, PR, the Federation’s Board of Directors agreed to support a new organization dedicated to increasing the representation and participation of Latinos in the credit union movement.  Two of the Federation’s allies led the new initiative: Carlos Calderón from OAS Staff FCU and Carla Decker from District Government Employees FCU, both in Washington, DC.  The idea became reality in April 2006 when the Network of Latino Credit Unions and Professionals (NLCUP) was formally incorporated, with the Federation serving as institutional host and providing administrative support.
   
• World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU).  WOCCU is a leading advocate for knowledge exchange.  WOCCU serves as a development agency for credit unions worldwide.  Today, WOCCU serves credit unions in 84 countries.  These credit unions provide more than 123 million people worldwide with an opportunity to grow through access to safe savings, affordable credit and the chance for a better tomorrow.

Foundations & Research Organizations

• Annie E. Casey Foundation.  Casey’s overall approach to poverty reduction builds upon almost two decades of innovative demonstrations, initiatives, and advocacy. When parents can secure a steady income and build economic assets they are better able to successfully address the physical, emotional, and educational needs of their children. Our economic security work emphasizes family economic improvement, community-level system reform, and comprehensive neighborhood transformation.
  
  
• Aspen Institute. The Aspen Institute fosters values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The Aspen Institute does this by hosting seminars to help participants reflect on what they think makes a good society, thereby deepening knowledge, broadening perspectives and enhancing their capacity to solve problems; offering young-leader fellowships around the globe, which bring a selected class of proven leaders together for intensive multi-year programs helping them become better leaders; operating policy programs, which serve as nonpartisan forums for analysis, consensus building, and problem solving on a wide variety of issues; and through organizing public conferences and events to provide a commons for people to share ideas.
   
• Callahan & Associates, Inc.  Callahan & Associates, Inc. is an employee-owned financial consulting firm located in downtown Washington, DC. For more than 20 years, our team has been at the leading edge of credit union issues.  Callahan's mission is to ensure Americans unrestricted access to a vibrant cooperative financial system by improving the health and prosperity of America's credit unions and their partners.
   
• Center for Responsible Lending (CRL).  Since 2002, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) has protected homeownership and family wealth by working to eliminate abusive financial practices.  CRL's mission grows directly from its affiliation with Self-Help, our founder and one of the nation's largest non-profit community development lender, credit union, and real estate developer.  For 30 years, Self-Help has worked to create ownership and economic opportunity in underserved communities through responsible loans and financial services. CRL's focus is on consumer lending: primarily mortgages, payday loans, credit cards and bank overdrafts. CRL provides research and technical policy expertise--informed by Self-Help's 30 years' of lending--to help policymakers evaluate consumer protection options and wealth-building opportunities. CRL works with allies to educate consumers and the media about predatory lending issues, and work on selected legal cases to advance consumer protections.
  
  
• Filene Research Institute.  The Filene Research Institute examines vital issues affecting the future of credit unions and consumer finance. Through this unique, non profit organization, leading scholars and consultants analyze managerial problems, public policy questions, and consumer needs.
   
• National Credit Union Foundation (NCUF).  The National Credit Union Foundation dedicates itself to providing access to quality affordable financial services for all Americans by providing grants and support to credit unions across the country.  The Foundation’s approach to change is simple and can be summed up in the equation: Access to Quality Affordable Financial Services + Financial Literacy and Education + Asset Accumulation = Financial Independence.
  
  
• New America Foundation.  The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States.  New America emphasizes work that is responsive to the changing conditions and problems of our 21st Century information-age economy -- an era shaped by transforming innovation and wealth creation, but also by shortened job tenures, longer life spans, mobile capital, financial imbalances and rising inequality.
  
  
• Woodstock Institute.  The Woodstock Institute is a leading nonprofit research and policy organization in the areas of fair lending, wealth creation, and financial systems reform.  Woodstock Institute works locally and nationally to create a financial system in which lower-wealth persons and communities of color can safely borrow, save, and build wealth so that they can achieve economic security and community prosperity. Our key tools include: applied research; policy development; coalition building; and technical assistance. Woodstock Institute has been a recognized economic justice leader and bridge-builder between communities and policymakers.

Collaboratives and Partnerships

• Fair Mortgage Collaborative. The Federation is a co-founder and executive committee member of the FMC, a joint effort by major national nonprofits, community lenders, foundations, and advocacy organizations to certify responsible lenders across the nation.  The Federation's goal is to certifying credit unions as equitable, trusted, and sustainable providers of financial products for consumers. Because of our role in the Collaborative, member CDCUs and Community Development Partners will be the first credit unions to be eligible for this certification.

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  Links for CDFIs

• Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund).  The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund was created to expand the availability of credit, investment capital, and financial services in distressed urban and rural communities.  By stimulating the creation and expansion of diverse community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and by providing incentives to traditional banks and thrifts, the Fund’s investments work toward building private markets, creating healthy local tax revenues, and empowering residents. The CDFI Fund provides relatively small infusions of capital to institutions that serve distressed communities and low-income individuals.

• Coalition of Community Development Financial Institutions ("CDFI Coalition").  Find updated information about the CDFI industry, as well as advocacy resources, on the Coalition's website.  The Federation is a founding member of the Coalition, and its President/CEO, Cliff Rosenthal, is a current Board Member and past Chairman of the Coalition.
  
  
• Community Development Venture Capital Alliance (CDVCA).  CDVCA is the network for the rapidly growing field of community development venture capital (CDVC) investing. CDVCA hails more than 100 member community development venture capital funds who provide equity capital to businesses in underinvested markets, seeking market-rate financial returns, as well as the creation of good jobs, wealth, and entrepreneurial capacity.  CDVCA promotes the field by combining advocacy, education, communications, and best-practice dissemination through conferences and workshops. CDVCA makes its expertise available to CDVC funds by providing consulting services and technical assistance.
  
  
• Opportunity Finance Network (OFN).  Opportunity Finance Network is a leading network of over 170 community development loan funds(private financial intermediaries) serving low-income and low-wealth people throughout the U.S., delivering both sound financial returns and real change for underserved people and communities. OFN's members help capital flow to markets in need – the people and communities that are outside the economic mainstream today.  Since inception, OFN members have originated more than $23.5 billion in financing in non-conforming urban, rural, and Native communities through 2008.