The Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions has launched a campaign to raise US$1.7m (£1.24m) to bridge inclusion gaps around digitisation, disaster relief, gender equality and leadership.
The foundation wants to help the global credit union movement bridge four inclusion gaps as well as increase donor and industry engagement with the its work by 25%.
In terms of the digital gap, the campaign intends to support credit unions around the world digitise through World Council projects and engagement experiences. The initiative falls in line with the World Council of Credit Union’s Challenge 2025 goal of digitising the global credit union system by 2025.
The second campaign area is the ‘safety gap’; the foundation’s response is relief support through its Project Storm Break disaster fund. The plan is to supply credit union systems with personal protective equipment and natural disaster support.
On gender, the foundation wants to leverage the Global Women’s Leadership Network (GWLN) to tackle inequality for female colleagues and members.
Lastly, the campaign will address a leadership gap in the movement by building Woccu’s global young professionals’ network up 10,000 members. It will drive networking and leadership opportunities through the World Council Young Credit Union Professionals (Wycup) programme.
As part of its Bridge the Gap campaign the Foundation has redesigned its website and a produced a new video to drive interest in the campaign.
Eecutive director Mike Reuter said: “2020 shone a large spotlight on inclusion gaps that exist worldwide every day. Credit unions are community pillars that can help bridge these gaps and include everyone. With the Bridge the Gap campaign, our purpose is to give credit unions worldwide the resources they need to address inclusion gaps for their members, their teams and their communities.
“Our four foundation initiatives continue our support of this critical work in 2021 and beyond. And because inclusion means different things to different people – and everyone is deserving of it – we are addressing the gaps with a multi-faceted approach.”
