Membership growth is still a sore spot for many credit unions.

Roughly 55% of federally insured credit unions had fewer members at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024 than they had a year earlier, according to the National Credit Union Administration’s most recent map review.

In Ohio, credit unions saw a 1.2% median decline in membership during the year ending Dec. 31. So some credit unions in the Buckeye State are making membership growth a priority in 2025.

The $1.8 billion-asset 717 Credit Union in Warren experienced 4.5% growth to 118,000 members at the end of last year.

President and CEO John Demmler said things started out slow with 717 Credit Union seeing less than 3.5% annualized growth in January and February, but it picked up later in the year.

For 2025, the credit union is targeting growth of 6% to 8%, although Demmler said there will be headwinds.

“With our demographics in Northeast Ohio, we are mindful of the challenges of the lack of population growth to support our membership ambitions,” Demmler told Tyfone. “Even more challenging, we are somewhat saturated in our primary market (Trumbull County).”

To further complicate the issue, 717 runs a large indirect lending program and generally sees a lot of member attrition when those loans pay off.

To combat those challenges, 717 is going “back to basics” in expanding its brand in its secondary market of Mahoning County.

“We are doing this first with a significant effort to build brand awareness through community outreach and public media engagement,” he said. “We are also working to build out our Workplace Partner Programs (SEGs) in both Mahoning and Trumbull counties through our newly formed business development team.”

The topic of growth was also top of mind during the Ohio Credit Union Day event in Columbus this week. The day-long seminar is put on annually by the National Association of State Credit Union Supervisors.

In a session called “innovative approaches to attracting new members,” Shreenath Regunathan, co-founder of Starlight, said credit unions have a significant opportunity to proactively serve members who are facing financial stress either because they are early in their careers or just due to temporary factors.

Reaching out a helping hand during those periods can build impact and loyalty for credit unions, he said.

“The ability to be the trusted partner reinforces the mission and shows how technology and people come in service of the member,” he said.

Starlight helps credit unions by connecting their members to government assistance programs that provide tangible financial help.

Michael Shafer, CEO of Pathways Financial Credit Union in Columbus, said that – like many credit unions – Pathways believes that cultivating a culture of sustained membership growth is crucial to the long-term success of the credit union and the greater industry.

The $654 million-asset credit union experienced year-over-year membership growth of about 7.6% to 51,802 in 2024.

“At Pathways we view membership growth and checking account growth under the same lens and believe that we need to continually grow in these areas,” Shafer told Tyfone. “Generally, our goal in a given year is to try to achieve membership growth that is equal to or better than peer. We don’t always achieve this goal, but this is what we strive to do.”

Pathways had a little help with its membership growth, as it finalized two mergers during 2024. Both Springfield Postal Employees Federal Credit Union and SMART Federal Credit Union merged with Pathways last year.

Shafter said Pathways was “very satisfied” with the growth in 2024 but is not expecting it to be as strong in 2025.

“But our team is always looking for ways to engage with and recruit more members to join Pathways,” he said.

Demmler from 717 said the credit union is also expanding its geographic footprint to several new counties – Stark, Summit, and Portage  – and is filing in its branch network to complement three remotely located branches.

“We hope to connect these branches with a network of up to 10 additional branches in these markets over the next six years,” he said. “To build our brand in these markets we are working on a number of marketing partnerships as well as focusing on our continued public media campaigns and community engagement.”

Workplace Partner Programs will be critical in those markets, Demmler said.

The credit union also plans to expand its indirect lending programs in those markets as well as eventually to Cleveland and Columbus.

Finally, Demmler said 717 needs to shore up its member retention efforts, specifically with indirect lending.

The organization plans to do that by incorporating a perpetual product suite – credit card, primarily, with significant interest rate discounts and benefits for direct deposit – that focuses on greater member engagement with the credit union.

“We also plan to form both a member experience team as well as a member engagement team  to support onboarding and marketing efforts,” he said.