adminFor credit unions supporting the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFIF), it’s time to take action to protect the program. The federal government is operating under a continuing resolution that expires on April 28, and President Donald Trump’s new budget proposes to eliminate federal funding for the CDFI Fund.
CDFIs finance community development initiatives, including small businesses, community facilities, and low-income housing. Eliminating funding would make it more difficult for credit unions to provide this much-needed community assistance to members who are underserved, have a modest income, or are living in distressed communities.
If you are a CDFI credit union, we encourage you to take the following action:
- Write a letter to your Member of Congress telling them the adverse impact terminating these funds will have on your members.
- Have your employees send an email to your Members of Congress through CUNA’s Grassroots Action Center.
- Reach out to your credit union members on this crucial issue.
Click here to view a sample email you can send to members. A portion of the email provides a generic synopsis of the program and the benefits it provides to credit union members.
We ask that you download, customize, and distribute the sample email to your membership. To maximize open rates, analysis suggests that the sender of the email should be an individual clearly associated with the credit union. Once you send the email, please upload whatever results you can track on the Member Activation Program (MAP) toolkit.
