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Last month, National Volunteer Week was celebrated nationwide, an annual opportunity to highlight and thank individuals for their unselfish contributions to organizations and communities. For Maine CUs, thanks to the innovative CUs Share for ME program, which documents volunteer hours, the impact, as expected, is significant.
After all, credit unions were founded by volunteers and are still supervised by volunteer board members. However, the involvement of volunteering at CUs goes far beyond the board. According to the Maine CU League’s CUs Share for ME program, more than 41,000 hours in volunteer time were documented in 2017, representing nearly 3,000 more than 2016. Additionally, the League estimates that the more than 1,000 credit union volunteers contributed more than 20,000 hours in support of their credit union through involvement, leadership and governance.
Founded in 2002, CUs Share for ME has documented more than 500,000 hours in volunteer time contributed by Maine CUs. “We know that is on the conservative side of volunteer hours contributed but, being able to capture at least some of what credit unions do in their communities, not because they, like other financial institutions, are required by Congress to perform community-service, but because it’s simply the right thing to do. The ‘people helping people’ philosophy of Maine CUs has been a pillar since the first CU was founded in 1921 and continues today,” remarked Jon Paradise, Vice President of Public Affairs and Engagement.
According to the Points of Light Foundation, which calculates the value of one hour of volunteer time, the value of volunteer hours contributed in 2017 by Maine CU staff and volunteers totaled approximately $1.37 million.