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 & Publications
  • Organizing Credit Unions: A Manual
  • Low-Income Communities & the Great Recession: Jan-June 2010
  • Peer Group Statistics for CDCUs: As of Dec. 2010
  • Community Banking Partnerships: Legal Structures that Work
  • Other Resources & Publications from the Federation
• Federation Affiliated Reports
  • Community Development Finance and the Great Resession, FRBSF Working Paper - Mar. 2012
  • CDFI Data Project
  • Helping Members Avoid or Survive Foreclosure
• Reports on CDCU Service to the Underserved
  • CDFI Industry Analysis Summary Report, Spring 2012 - Apr. 2012
  • CDCUs, Providing Capital to Underserved Communities - Feb. 2011
• Articles of Interest
• Links for Credit Unions
  • Regulators
  • Trade Associations
  • Foundations and Research Organizations
  • Collaboratives and Partnerships
• Links for CDFIs

Federation Reports & Publications

• Low-Income Communities and the Great Recession: Financial Trends in Community Development Credit Unions, January - June 2010. This report for the period through June 30, 2010 notes three forces shaping the credit union movement in general: unabated recession; redoubled regulatory pressure and regulatory fees charged to credit unions; and positive media coverage urging consumers to “move your money” from the large banks. “Resilience amid stress” best captures the condition of CDCUs. By several indicators, CDCU growth outpaced that of the credit union industry at large. CDCU assets increased at a higher rate than the rest of the credit union industry; CDCU loan portfolios increased modestly, while the overall credit industry portfolio declined, and the collective Return on Assets was virtually the same for CDCUs as for all federally insured credit unions. However, economic stress did exact a heavy toll, as the typical CDCU was marginally unprofitable, due in part to the deposit insurance charges of 22 basis points imposed by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). Thirteen CDCUs were either merged or liquidated, a higher proportion than the overall credit union industry. Mitigating this trend, four of these institutions were merged into other CDCUs, thus ensuring continued service to low-income communities.
   
• Peer Group Statistics for Community Development Credit Unions. 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 (January 2010), which discusses “the characteristics, benefits, and unique challenges of these types of credit unions and includes an appendix describing resources available to them.” 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).

Other Resources & Publications from the Federation

• 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 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.  

Federation-affiliated Reports

• Community Development Finanance and the Great Resession, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Working Paper. Written by Federation President/CEO Cliff Rosenthal, this Working Paper provides an overview of the history and role of community development credit unions (CDCUs) within the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) movement; the importance of the CDFI Fund in preserving and expanding CDCU services during the Great Recession; and recommendations for strengthening CDFI depository institutions of all sizes through best-practice models and innovative collaborations to increase impact.
   
• 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. Joint CDP publications and Federation-specific CDCU studies present findings for the CDFI industry as a whole and the CDCU sector respectively.
   
• 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.

Reports on CDCU Service to the Underserved

• CDFI Industry Analysis, Summary Report, Spring 2012. Authored by Michael Swack, Jack Northrup and Eric Hangen for the Carsey Institute, this report is the largest CDFI industry analysis ever commissioned by the CDFI Fund. The report confirms the important role of CDFIs in low-income communities throughout the “Great Recession” and focuses on the critical need to leverage capital, increase scale and achieve sustainability. An analysis of leverage contained in the report, also shows that the median CDFI credit union generated significantly higher leverage than any other type of CDFI, equating to nearly ten times the leverage of the median CDFI loan fund. 
   
• Community Development Credit Unions: Providing Capital to Underserved Communities, Feb. 2011. This report was independently produced by Community Development Strategies and New England Market Research, Inc. It is the first of a four-part analysis of Community Development Credit Unions (CDCUs). This report introduces the legal and organizational structure of CDCUs, and explains how they promote savings and investment in low-income communities.
   
• 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 serves as 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, and 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.

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 North Side Community 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.

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, and managing 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 the Federation's 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 and 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.
   
• National Council on Aging (NCOA). The Federation received a major grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies to launch a nationwide program to help low-income seniors gain financial security. This pilot program, with its emphasis on economic security offered at the local level by CDCUs in collaboration with community-based organizations and NCOA economic security centers, provides comprehensive solutions and advice specifically tailored to the needs of older Americans. The “Better Directions” program seeks to help vulnerable seniors become financially secure and advancing supportive measures by effecting long-term change. Through this program, the Federation wants to encourage credit unions to develop and market products and programs at CDCUs that recognize and meet the needs of this group; promote the creation or expansion of partnerships with local direct service agencies that work with the aging; and ensure that older adults in the communities served by CDCUs get the financial counseling and information they need to obtain all the public benefits for which they are eligible.
   
• National Disability Institute (NDI). The Federation has forged alliances with the National Disability Institute to bring financial services, access to affordable credit and financial education to millions of people living with disabilities, highly underserved populations that are often disproportionately represented in America's low-income communities. The Federation works closely with NDI to provide training to CDCUs looking to serve people with disabilities more effectively and help them build wealth by providing them with responsible and affordable financial services tailored to their needs.
   
• U.S. Solidarity Economy Network. The mission of the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network is to connect a diverse array of individuals, organizations, businesses and projects in the shared work of building and strengthening regional, national and international movements for a solidarity economy. The Federation has been a member of the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network since inception in 2007, and currently represents the interests of community development credit unions, on the network's Board of Directors.
   

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 retains a permanent seat on the Coalition's Board of Directors.
   
• 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 $23.2 billion in financing in non-conforming urban, rural, and Native communities through 2009.