[00:00:00] Josh DeTar: All right. Welcome to another episode of the Digital Banking Podcast. My guest today is Nick Coleman, the Director of Strategic Partnerships for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and Credit Union for Kids. And, according to him, until his career in professional pickleball takes off, he has and is going to continue to dedicate his personal and professional life to the philanthropic space and specifically focused around children.

[00:00:56] Nick, I mean, with an intro like that, man, how can people not want to stick around and listen?

[00:01:00] Nick Coleman: Well, yeah, it’s great to be here, and I think that pickleball career is going to come any day now. I’m banking on practicing, we’ll see what happens, but no, until then I feel like I have the best job in the world, getting to work with credit unions on making an impact in communities through children’s hospitals,

[00:01:14] there’s nothing better.

[00:01:15] Josh DeTar: I was going to say, how do I say this politely, I hope you miserably fail at pickleball because the world needs more people like you doing what you do, so I hope you stick around in this space, which you’ve been doing this for what, you said seven plus years?

[00:01:31] Nick Coleman: Seven, yeah, just about seven years, and you know what, no worries there ’cause I’m on a good trajectory to fail at pickleball, so there’s no worries, I should be around here for awhile. Yeah, no, it’s been seven years working for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. I’ve been working on the Credit Unions For Kids program and with credit unions for about four years though.

[00:01:47] Josh DeTar: That’s awesome. For our listeners, this is going to be a little bit different episode than probably the 30 plus episodes that have come before this. Typically, we’re spending a lot of time talking about technology and how technology plays into and impacts the community, financial institution space, and one of the things that we’ve really tried to build the brand of the Digital Banking Podcast around is

[00:02:09] this is not a sales pitch, this is not vendors coming on, trying to sell you their new widget. But in talking to Nick, this is a cause and something that I feel like just really deserves any spotlight and opportunity that can give. I’m not saying the Digital Banking Podcast is like, Joe-Rogan-levels of listenership, but even if five people hear this and decide to make a donation to Credit Union for Kids and the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, then I feel like we’ve done our part.

[00:02:36] So, really the podcast today, I want to learn more about what you guys do, and then I want to talk a little bit more about how different community FIs and obviously, specifically, credit unions can be a part of this even more, if they’re not already, and how they can work with you to help make a difference.

[00:02:55] So, Nick, can you just start us off by talking a little bit about the Credit Union for Kids program and the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals?

[00:03:03] Nick Coleman: Absolutely. I’d be happy to. Josh, you’re in Portland, right? Portland, Oregon?

[00:03:07] Josh DeTar: Yeah.

[00:03:07] Nick Coleman: Well, maybe we’ve already talked about this, but Credit Unions for Kids for kids was actually born pretty much in Portland, Oregon. So, in the eighties, I don’t know exactly when, but there were a group of credit unions, I think no longer the same name, but I want to say as United Community Credit Union, which is the Credit Union today, they began fundraising for Doernbecher Children’s Hospital,

[00:03:28] and pretty quickly, within the first couple of years of doing that, they actually were able to recruit some other local credit unions to help fundraise for the hospital as well and they formed this group called Credit Unions for Kids. Now, there is little bit of confusion on where exactly became, because right around the same time credit unions in San Antonio, I will give them credit too, began doing something very similar,

[00:03:49] but regardless, these two great communities started fundraising for their respective children’s hospitals and ultimately, over the next few years, we saw credit union communities in Florida and Texas, also other areas of Texas and Southern California start fundraising for their children’s hospitals under this name of Credit Unions for Kids.

[00:04:06] I think we saw some CEOs and executives networking with each other across the country to help build this out a little bit. Eventually, we’ll fast forward a bit, in 1996, CUNA and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals saw notice that this program was growing across the country and we actually came together as two organizations to agree, to put some formal structure and management to Credit Unions for Kids and see how we can build this out as a way that credit unions across the entire country can work together on raising funds for children’s hospitals

[00:04:39] and so in 1996 Credits Unions for Kids, I will like to say it was when it really officially was born and came to life. CUNA, actually interesting, I think most people wouldn’t realize this, owns the Credit Unions for Kids brand, and CMN Hospitals work here to help manage it and help provide fundraising expertise in raising money.

[00:04:56] But it really is truly an industry program, which has been pretty self-evident, the fact that Credit Unions across the entire country have come together to make this incredibly successful. We’ve raised a $150 mil, 160 actually, now that we’re going to reconcile and close out 2021 numbers, we’re at $165 million for children’s hospitals over the past 26 years.

[00:05:18] Isn’t it? Yeah, it’s mind blowing, and again, in 2021, we hit over $10 million. So, there’s so much more to it, but at its very essence Credit Unions for Kids is really the brand that unites credit unions collectively and giving to children’s hospitals across the US.

[00:05:34] Josh DeTar: So, what does it look like for a credit union today? What are the types of examples do you see that credit unions participate?

[00:05:40] Nick Coleman: Yeah. I mean, it’s all over the board, it’s actually amazing. We have some, like, if you visited our website, www.cuforkids.org, you would find some tabs with campaign recommendations, whether it’s in-branch fundraising with our miracle balloon icons, those are the same paper balloon icons that you would see being sold at Walmart or Dairy Queen or so many other places that you might recognize,

[00:06:02] so credit unions do that as well or they, maybe in the branch they will sell candy bars or we have changed jars, we call it “change a child’s life.” There’s a number of different in-branch initiatives, but of course we’re noticing that has been decreasing and we’re seeing an emergence of digital fundraising, like the, of course, the rest of the industry and world is seeing.

[00:06:22] But, so there’s those traditional things, actually, probably 50% or more of our funds are raised through events. There’s a couple of big events alone that raise probably a third of everything we do, so it’s the Northwest Golf Classic, which again, Josh, is right in your backyard there in Portland, Oregon, that’s hosted by First Tech Federal Credit Union,

[00:06:42] and then we have the Credits for Kids, wine auction that’s hosted by CU Direct and the Credit Union in Nevada, Credit Union League, the California Nevada Credit Union League, excuse me, and that’s in Southern California. We have the Northwest Credit Union Associations, Max Conference, their wine auction that they have during that period, that conference

[00:07:02] and then Desert Financial does a $500,000 golf tournament for us, the Cherry Blossom raise out, and Washington DC raises about $400,000 plus, and then the SACTOWN race in Sacramento, so I do have to, of course, plug those great events because though, I mean.

[00:07:17] Josh DeTar: I was going to say we can do a whole podcast of nothing but shout-outs.

[00:07:20] Nick Coleman: I know. I feel like, I mean, there could be an endless list,

[00:07:23] I could do that for years for all the great support received. But ultimately, I just want to say events, we’ve noticed because it’s an opportunity for credit unions to come together, have fun together, and that idea of cooperation, which I hope we keep talking more about, Josh, ’cause it’s, I think, a huge value that Credit Unions for kids can add to the industry is bringing folks together.

[00:07:42] But, so anyways, I’ll keep going, if you don’t mind, with

[00:07:45] the campaigns, we have in-branch, we have events, we have some unique things like Skip-a-Pay Credit Unions have been aligning philanthropy with that, or we’ve been looking into online and mobile banking fundraising. But when it’s all said and done, credit unions, they’re all their own institutions, of course,

[00:08:00] and so they’re looking at, they have their own goals and objectives to fundraise, and we can offer ideas or examples on how you all can participate, but a lot of credit unions do their own creative initiatives. Some of my more favorite ones are hot dog eating contest to raise money, there’s credit unions in Pennsylvania that sell hummingbird ornaments during the holidays,

[00:08:20] and there’s an event that I have to make it to at some point, it’s a Gelatin Olympics and that one looks like it’s incredibly fun. Right? I know. So, anyways, ultimately it’s fundraising and in whatever way credit union choose to and part of my job is just to help provide some direction to do that.

[00:08:35] Josh DeTar: That’s awesome. You know, it’s funny, I actually forgot about this until you said “the sold candy bars.” I literally remembered, Nick, back when I used to go in-branch a lot more to do my transaction, I literally remember that my Credit Union Cutting Edge here in Portland, Oregon, they used to sell candy bars for Credit Unions for Kids,

[00:09:00] and I used to remember, I would literally time visits around when they were doing that so that I could go buy a candy bar because it was, like, the only time, they always had Caramellos, so it was, like, chocolate with the gooey caramel in the middle, it was like the only time I ever saw those, it was the only time I ever bought them for myself.

[00:09:16] I’d never buy one at a grocery store, but for some reason, if I went in to go deposit a check or something and I was standing in line and they had one of those, like, you best believe you could take that out of my checking account, I’m going to be buying one of those. And, I totally forgot about that until just now, that was a campaign that they used to run for that.

[00:09:33] Nick Coleman: Oh, I love that you recognize that. That’s awesome. And, the Caramellos, yeah,

[00:09:36] I mean, on a side note, those are so good too. Those are the ones I used to pick out of the boy scout when we used to sell candy bars.

[00:09:42] Josh DeTar: Oh yeah.

[00:09:43] Nick Coleman: Well, maybe it was a little league baseball or something, but I’d always pick out the Caramello,

[00:09:46] that’s the one I wanted.

[00:09:47] Josh DeTar: I know now I’m hungry. That was poor timing.

[00:09:50] Nick Coleman: Yeah.

[00:09:51] Josh DeTar: No, it’s really cool you mentioned how this helps with the collaborative spirit of credit unions and it’s one of the themes that just, it comes up in virtually every single podcast they do, irregardless of the guest, irregardless of the topic that we’re talking about, it’s one of the things that it’s like, full-on singing Kumbaya, making smores over the fire level stuff that this industry does,

[00:10:17] and I think it’s very unique and you don’t see it in a lot of places. How often is it, I see them even in my own customer base, right? “Hey, we just did this really cool thing. Do you guys all want to save the work? Like, we’ll just share it with you here. You want all of our documentation? Here, you want the tech stack for this? Here.”

[00:10:34] Where do you see that? And, especially when a lot of your differentiating value prop is built on being a part of your community and giving back to your community and building strong, healthy communities, this is just such an obvious adjacent.

[00:10:52] Nick Coleman: You nailed it a hundred percent, I think. And, it’s one of the things that I view, and I think we’ve seen folks that are really involved in cravings for kids agree with as well. I’m actually going to paraphrase a little bit, but I want to steal kind of a quote from Troy, staying at the Northwest Credit Union Association,

[00:11:07] he, ’cause they host that wine event I mentioned that raises over a million dollars for CU for Kids, but he, one of the reasons he hosts that event and is so active in CU for Kids is because he views Credits for Kids as that organization that can bring Northwest Credit Unions together, to work together in a fun way, in a way that impacts their community positively,

[00:11:26] and that translates to them to being able to work together on advocacy and other important Credit Union initiatives that whatever it might be, marketing campaigns or awareness, consideration campaigns, all that kind of stuff. And, CU for Kids is that, is one of those really unique things that isn’t just local,

[00:11:42] it’s not just regional, it’s a national program that is centered on doing good, that things that Credit Unions are also really committed to, of course, one of the other key principles is that concern for community and so being able to do it in a fun way, in a way that impacts people positively, it’s really, I think, the main reason that this program has become so successful. And, you see it because, like I was also saying, we raised money in so many different ways, but more than half the funds we could,

[00:12:08] well, what I should also say is even when I think of CU for Kids, and I think other people would agree, they think of those traditional campaigns, the in-branch candy bars that you remember buying as a, when you were younger or that the miracle balloon icons, et cetera, all those kinds of things, I think that’s just traditional what you think of when CU, when you think of CU for Kids, but the reality is it’s centered around these collaborative events, and I love that

[00:12:31] CU for Kids can offer that and we always look forward to ways that we can bring people together. I have a list of different ideas on ways that I want to eventually be able to do it, so hopefully in my tenure on working with the CU for kids program, I’ll get some of those, but yeah, really powerful.

[00:12:46] Josh DeTar: You’d mentioned that, like, you’re going on track of something, like, half of your donations come from something, what were you going to say there?

[00:12:52] Nick Coleman: Oh the event, yeah, just different types of events

[00:12:55] because I mentioned those big, yeah, I mentioned those big ones, but I mean, there’s like local golf tournaments too. I know the Minnesota, credit unions in Minnesota have an annual karaoke event and credit unions in Atlanta have bowl-a-thon, and in Austin, Texas, they have a Top Golf event,

[00:13:11] I mean, I could go on, there’s so many of those different events that bring those communities together around giving.

[00:13:17] Josh DeTar: Now I’ve got to go and look, oh, you left it blank my friend. One of the questions that we ask on our guests setup form, side note for everybody, is if you had to sing karaoke, what song would it be? And, you left yours blank, so what’s it going to be, Nick?

[00:13:36] Nick Coleman: I thought I put something in there, I actually thought I put two things in there, maybe I didn’t send you a more updated version. I wasn’t trying to get out of it, I promise. The two that I put on there, different genres and also not crowd-pleasers, but I don’t know why those were the ones I thought of that I would want to do, but it was “Lose Yourself” by Eminem, which hopefully we hear at the halftime show coming up this Sunday,

[00:13:57] well, I guess, we will have heard, I know we’re probably recorded this before this will be live, but.

[00:14:03] Josh DeTar: You know, I heard that there was going to be a football game at Eminem concert.

[00:14:06] Nick Coleman: I know, that’s how I’m viewing it as well. So, and then the other one would be “Dirt Rode Anthem” by Jason Aldean, you know that, you listen, if you listen to country music, it’s still kind of a rap song, but I love singing along to that song. I embarrassed myself probably more often than I should by trying to rap all the lyrics,

[00:14:21] but it’s fun. How about you? You have any good ones?

[00:14:24] Josh DeTar: So, wait, so who does?

[00:14:25] Nick Coleman: No.

[00:14:26] Josh DeTar: Oh, no, no. I may be able to do podcast and maybe my voice is like nails on a chalkboard even here, I don’t know, but no one wants

[00:14:34] Nick Coleman: Well, right back at you, but if I put on the spot, maybe.

[00:14:37] Josh DeTar: So, wait, so who does the

[00:14:39] karaoke event,

[00:14:40] again?

[00:14:40] Nick Coleman: That was credit unions in Minnesota do that one, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a couple of them, but that’s, yeah, that’s the first one I could think of in Minnesota.

[00:14:48] Josh DeTar: The reason I ask is because now I’ve got, what, 40 plus guests that I know all the songs that they said they would karaoke so I’m going to go hit all of them up and make them come join this Minnesota league in doing some karaoke and raising some money for Credit Unions For Kids.

[00:15:06] Nick Coleman: Yeah, I love that idea and I appreciate it. That’s gonna be hard to pass up. You can’t turn out a karaoke night, not when it’s for the

[00:15:11] kids.

[00:15:12] It’s for the kids. I think that is one of the things that a lot of us can rally around, right? Is that, this is support for kids and like you’re talking about earlier, and just what Troy had mentioned is, this is a way that you can, you really can bring a lot of people together.

[00:15:29] Like, there’s a lot of things that we can disagree on, but supporting nonprofit children’s hospitals, like, I’m pretty sure if you disagree with that one, there’s a very warm place you’re going to end up later on.

[00:15:42] Yeah, you’re right. I mean, and it’s like, I feel like whenever I tell people what I do for work, it’s always like, “Oh, it’s so nice you do that,” and for so long, I was always like, “I don’t really love that response,” I don’t, like, ’cause I’m not like, it’s, I love what I do and I’m glad it makes an impact, but it was never something that, to me, I guess it just feels also a little bit like a normal job, but I’ve tried to move away from always, like, hearing,

[00:16:03] “Oh, it’s so nice you do that too.” You’re right. I’m proud of the fact that I’m making a difference for children’s hospitals because I have seen uphand, personally close in multiple ways on

[00:16:13] how children’s hospitals are making a real impact in communities, and it’s important, it’s critical. And, like, especially, like, right now, for example,

[00:16:21] well, maybe before I talk about, Josh, at some point I should talk about some, like, COVID, how COVID has been impacting our.

[00:16:28] Josh DeTar: So Kind of talking about that this is something that you’re now really proud to be a part of and to help further, and it’s more than maybe just a job.

[00:16:38] Nick Coleman: So, yeah, it is more because, Josh, before the show started, we were talking a little bit in the green room, so to speak, just about, like, Tom Shoes and that is such a good example on a organization that does an amazing job with showcasing impact because you know that when you buy a pair of Tom Shoes, that a pair of shoes is also donated to someone that’s in need,

[00:16:59] and candidly, that’s actually something that Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, we struggle with a little bit, I hate to say that word, but this showcasing the impact that we have, because something that we, as an organization, are very proud of is that our funds are unrestricted. We believe that the children’s hospitals we fundraise for know how to use the dollars better than we could tell them how to use them,

[00:17:20] so we decided that we provide the funds, up to the hospitals to decide how they use them, but with that means that it’s harder for us to tell our story. So, we can’t as easily say when you donate a dollar to see in the hospitals that dollar does X, or that dollar purchases a pair of shoes. So, we have to find unique ways to be able to do that,

[00:17:39] and, of course, there, I mean, we do research with our hospitals and we understand kind of where dollars can go. It could go to charitable care or programs. It could go to equipment or research or a number of different types of initiatives, but what I’ve noticed is always really most important is showcasing the real-life stories on how funds make an impact by identifying those patients and those families that have received care from Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, member hospitals, and they talk about their story, their experience with the hospital, how it made an impact on them,

[00:18:11] and some situations how they might not be here without that care, and honestly, and they attribute and we hear it over and over again the fact that they see and they understood how CMN hospital’s funds were right there throughout their entire journey at that hospital and throughout their medical experience.

[00:18:29] I mean, it’s because of organizations like credit unions, for sure, and credit unions especially, they’re the fifth largest fundraising partner to see them in hospitals providing, like I said, $165 billion. Those funds are from credit unions that are helping save these children’s lives.

[00:18:45] It’s not always even saving lives. It’s sometimes the child’s life needs to be saved. Sometimes the child’s life just needs to be improved or even just their experience at a hospital if it’s not life-threatening just to be able to provide them the small comforts that

[00:18:59] you wouldn’t necessarily expect from a hospital by allowing comfort for your family to be able to stay with you or to stay near you or provide vending machine token so that you can have free food and get a Teflon like that, or Child Life Programs, where they bring in experts to even just draw with the children, or

[00:19:17] in fun ways kind of train and educate them on what to expect in this upcoming surgery. Yeah. That kind of impact is real, and it’s important. It’s not always easy for CMN to share, to tell, but the reality is, yeah,

[00:19:29] it’s so critical. So, I actually got involved, Josh, with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals

[00:19:33] when I was in college. We have a dance marathon, a fundraising program with colleges called Dance Marathon, and it’s not quite as popular on the West Coast, but it’s in the Midwest and in the East Coast, it’s wildly popular, so if you’re out there you may recognize it. But, I got involved in that program, became really passionate in my college years,

[00:19:52] and I saw there was one child in particular, his name is Christopher, and I still remain close with him and his family, and they had a program where he would receive, or any patient would receive a bead every single time they had an injection or a hospital or an ambulance ride or anything that, new that happened at the hospital due to their illness,

[00:20:13] and you create this, they call it “beads for bravery”, and so his ended up being, I want to say 14-feet long with these, like, little under-one-inch things. He spent over a third of his life in the hospital and it’s kids like that, and that’s an extreme case, but it’s kids like that that have received support from our Children’s Hospitals all over the country that has continued to influence me and motivate me to want to continue working on CU for Kids and for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

[00:20:39] Josh DeTar: It’s interesting that you make that comment. This is another trend that’s come up in the podcast a lot, but not in this direct way, but one of the things that, I say this with love to my credit union friends, that they’re not great at is shouting from the rooftops how awesome they are. It’s, interesting.

[00:20:59] I mean, I even look at in my own personal life, and I talked to friends, I talked to neighbors, I talked to acquaintances and I’m the weirdo that always asked them like, “Hey, just out of curiosity, where’s your primary financial institution?” And when they don’t say a local credit union or community bank, I’m like, “Why?” And a lot of times they’re like, “Why would I?”, or, “I didn’t even know I could.”

[00:21:23] And I know there’s been programs over the last couple of years to try and make it a little bit more mainstream-knowledgeable, but I mean, perfect case in point, I was literally just having this conversation with an Uber driver on a recent trip and I asked him where was his primary financial institution,

[00:21:40] he said, “A huge bank,” I said, “Why not the local credit union? That was my customer that I was there to visit.” And he was like, “Well, I didn’t know I could be, and what’s the benefit?” And I started telling him, and he literally at the stoplight comes all hard-stop, turns around and looks at me and he’s like, “Why didn’t I know this before?”

[00:21:55] He’s like, “I’m moving everything over to them. Like, they have so many more benefits. Like, why am I paying all these fees? Why am I not getting better interest rates? Why don’t I have somebody that actually cares about me as a person in my community?” And he got all fired up and I was like, this is so cool,

[00:22:09] but, like, I think it is, sometimes we’re, we feel like it’s pushy or salesy to talk about the good that we do or how awesome we are for our community, and I want to be one of those evangelists that’s like, “No, no, no, take those chains off. Like, let’s go to town, let’s go preach this thing. Let’s go tell the people,” like, people need to know that

[00:22:29] there’s a better way, right? There’s a different option and there’s options that do more good and this is something that we were talking about before the show started too, and just that I think people are starting to crave that again. You use the Tom’s example, right? There are plenty of places where I’m willing to say,

[00:22:48] I could go buy this product at a big-box retailer for 10 bucks, you sell it for 13, but it was handmade by somebody local and it supported something that I believe in, that hits my core values, so I’m willing to spend the extra three bucks on that product, right? I think you’re starting to see a lot more of that.

[00:23:07] So, I think you’re starting to see people make decisions about the businesses they interact with based on how does this align with my values, right? And I’d be willing to venture, there is all very large portion of America that if we told them, “Hey, we have this whole thing. It’s Called Credit Unions For Kids,

[00:23:27] this is what it does and it’s supported by your local credit unions,” people will be like, “This is dope.”

[00:23:32] Nick Coleman: And they’d be right. It is dope. So, for one of your points, I just want to emphasize again, is that credit unions do need to brag about themselves more a hundred percent, especially when it comes to social impact because they set the gold standard, credit unions, you all set the gold standard when it comes to giving, no joke,

[00:23:47] I see them in hospitals we work with, Fortune 500 companies every single day and truly, and hopefully they’re all not listening to this, but the reality is, and from what I’ve noticed is that credit unions absolutely set the gold standard on the culture of giving, their dedication to giving, now what they, I think they can improve on that we’ve seen from other organizations at Children’s Miracle Network

[00:24:10] is that strategy, the being able to actually identify corporate social responsibility as something that can help improve their business and not just something that’s good to do, something that they need to bring into their annual planning meetings and things that they then ultimately need to measure, report on,

[00:24:27] look at data on and eventually be able to communicate out to their communities how, the great work that they did and why that was important. And so, that, I love when credit unions reach out to me and they have expectations from me and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals to help them meet their business objectives, because that’s what we want as an organization,

[00:24:46] we want, we’re not just, of course we are raising money for children’s hospitals and that’s our objective but we know we’re not going to do that if our business partners aren’t successful themselves, and so we want to help identify ways that philanthropy can align with whatever credit union or name, that organization we partner with what those objectives are.

[00:25:04] And so, I highly encourage credit unions to continue promoting that idea and, and to start bringing corporate social responsibility into the strategy meetings, even at a high level, and we actually did a research series or study with Filene. It’s now been, is three years ago, so it was in 2019, but I think it’s still very valid and we identified some trends that we saw in corporate and credit union giving.

[00:25:28] We identified just some, how credit unions stacked up against other industries as well, which it certainly was above the average in terms of giving. I think they looked at the Filene, “I can’t take any credit,” but Filene combed through, I think, 356 credit unions reports and other documentation and stuff, and these were credit unions that were over $500 million in assets, but they identified that by taking total giving divided by net income

[00:25:56] that they, that credit union stacked up above average compared to other industries, which certainly did not surprise me by any means, but they’re doing that without even, again, taking strategy into consideration because with that same research series, we were, we worked with Filene to identify what are some ways that credit unions can actually improve

[00:26:15] and there are things that we’re already talking about right now. So, the six main things we’re focused on, logistics, and that’s bringing, like, an operational framework and strategy to giving, and it’s also kind of at a basic level, make, does someone at your credit union know who is responsible for social impact?

[00:26:31] I know there’s a lot of small credit unions that are working with a small employee base and you can’t have one single person working on community development and philanthropy, but it should be very clear whose job or responsibility is to at least have a portion of that in their job description.

[00:26:47] I’ll just list out these other, these other six. So, the second one was, be strategic when deploying resources, so we, credit unions, need to identify from their membership and their employees what causes do they care about? And, how can their giving make a real difference?

[00:27:04] Like, where can they identify giving can have it high impact? What causes or issues organizations have a real need? And another one is, how can you leverage your internal expertise? And we’ve seen this from credit unions, I think, in the last couple of years more than we have ever before where this concept of financial wellbeing has been permeated throughout the industry, which I’m so glad to see because it’s credit union recognizing they have this expertise and you go all in on a financial

[00:27:30] wellness. The third one is to measure and report. So, things that we kind of talked about, there is a program that the Northwest Credit Union Association is really the best example of this in the credit union industry. I think it’s the CRT program, so if you’re not familiar, look into that. Getting employees on board,

[00:27:46] so having employee committees, days off for volunteering, getting their feedback on philanthropic strategy, incentivizing and making it fun. We see some credit unions doing, like, spirit weeks where, like, different days of the week, employees actually get to pie the CEO in the face. I love that one.

[00:28:02] Maybe we’ll be able to do that at CMN Hospital Someday. Sorry, Terry. Hope you don’t mind. And then, the last two are engaging members, so they can nominate nonprofits to donate to, or allowing them to even donate themselves, of course. And finally, this is the one where we can wrap it up and put it on a boat,

[00:28:18] like we were talking about, credit unions need to tell their story, they need to brag about it, they need to, and this is where they also need to have the higher expectations than our nonprofit partners. They need to ask them for impact information and data and stories and whatever it might be that helps them be able to communicate to their community what kind of impact they had.

[00:28:38] And also, at the same time, because you don’t want to sound too braggy, so maybe asking the nonprofit to share, even if it’s on social media, the nonprofit shares that impact and then it allows the credit union to share it as well. That’s, I’m getting a little bit more tactical than I meant to, but those were some of the six main themes that we saw or recommended to credit unions

[00:28:57] after doing this research report with

[00:28:59] Filene.

[00:28:59] Josh DeTar: I really wished that I could remember the source, but I have the memory of a goldfish, so unfortunately I don’t.

[00:29:07] Nick Coleman: No.

[00:29:07] Josh DeTar: But, I think you make a really important point, which is, there’s a differentiation here and it’s that, for credit unions, this is genuine, right? You made the comment that they’re doing all of this philanthropic work,

[00:29:24] they’re doing all of this good for their communities, they’re doing all of this to try and build better financial wellness and health in their membership and they’re doing it all without saying, “How can this get us more money? How can we get more people to generate more revenue, to buy more of our products?”

[00:29:42] Right. It’s so genuine. So, when you go out to the market and you market this and say, we’re doing this good, it’s very genuine, right? And the study that I was reading recently was talking about how this was examining all indices, and it was a looking at the social impact that accompany has, will have an impact especially on younger demographics choosing to do business with and they gave examples like, you know, if the company says, “We do everything digital, no paper, we’re cutting down on our paper usage and we’re saving trees and things like that,” people are more likely to do business with that company than company that’s not because of that social element, and I was thinking about it as you were talking and it’s like, okay,

[00:30:30] so, if a coal factory comes in and says, you know, “Hey, we want to be better for the environment, so we’re going completely paperless,” you’re like, “That’s cool, but you’re kind of still, like, a coal factory, so we should maybe deal with that whole thing on top of just maybe getting rid of a few pieces of paper.”

[00:30:46] Right? But, for a credit union to come in and say, “Hey, we’re doing all of this stuff for credit unions for kids,” it’s not because they’re trying to cover up that they are coal factory, right? It’s just genuinely, organically who they are and their makeup and the types of people that tend to take jobs at credit unions,

[00:31:05] that’s their DNA too, right? So, this feels super genuine. So, when you’re going out in marketing, again, it’s not saying, “Hey, we’ve got this wonderful story of how we sold Jim an auto loan that he did not need. It’s at 12%, even though he probably could have gotten 6%, but our corporate jet needs fuel, so you got to do what you got to do.”

[00:31:27] That’s saying, “Hey, we actually helped Bob refinance, and we were able to say, You know what? This may be your credit score on paper, but, we know who you are as a person. We see your relationship with us. We see the things that you do in your community. We see that we can take a little bit more risk on you than maybe somebody else,

[00:31:44] so, you know what, we’ll actually give it to you at 4% and we’ll help you get into a car that’s actually going to be reliable and help you get to your job and help you do the thing.” That’s just genuinely who credit unions are, so when you’re messaging that consumers are smart enough to, I think, see through and be like, “Hey, coal factory, I see what you’re doing,

[00:32:03] like, this whole paperless thing,” but when a credit union says, “Hey, we’re doing this really cool stuff with Credit Unions For Kids, we’re making an impact,” there’s nothing to see through, and consumers will just see the genuineness behind it. So, yeah, I think, absolutely, having those kinds of stories and saying, ” These are the tangible impacts that what we do has had on our community.”

[00:32:25] I think that’s a story we should telling.

[00:32:27] Nick Coleman: Yeah, no, and there’s so much research to back it up. I mean, it’s really amazing. One thing that sticks in my mind right now as we’re talking is, I think there’s a stat there, consumers are four and a half times more likely to recommend a brand to their friends and family if they believe in its social purpose and what it’s doing for its community.

[00:32:46] I mean, that’s just, I mean, there, again, there was just kind of the top of the, and it gets a lot deeper into that. It’s also really, there’s a lot of good research on how it retains employees. I actually remember this was when we were doing the research with Filene too, they found some information from the, I want to say, gosh, what was it?

[00:33:03] The Lewis Babson, Lewis Institute of Social Impact at Babson College, I might’ve gotten that, written that name wrong, but they just got some really interesting information about how, like, it increased productivity, how philanthropy was tied into total sales, gosh, we’ll have to find this and maybe we can find a way to communicate it out afterwards, but, yeah, anyways, it’s all out there,

[00:33:26] it backs it up. You also seen it in the stats. The stats are real and they’re interesting and impactful, but we’ve also seen it backed up to by how industries have actually now been changing their practices over the years. So, even in the last couple of years, we’ve seen the hedge fund Blackstone,

[00:33:43] Larry Fink is the CEO and he sent letters to all of his people that he invested money for and says, “I’m not going to invest your money or I’m not going to invest in you until I know that you’re committed to doing good with the environment and with other social topics as well.” And we’ve also seen the Business Roundtable.

[00:34:03] It’s not something I was super familiar with, but a couple of years ago they came out and its leaders and executives of the top fortune 500 organizations across the world, actually, they came together a couple years ago and said, “The purpose of business is no longer to make money for shareholders. It is now partly that, but it also now includes retaining employees and treating them well, having good practices for the environment, making an impact in your community.”

[00:34:30] It’s all of these different things that when I was in college and growing up and I was in business classes, I remember being told by our professors the purpose of business is to make money and to make money for the shareholder, and I’m so glad that these top executives across the country and the world are recognizing and moving away from that,

[00:34:47] and finally, I think there’s no better analogy than do you watch the show Billions?

[00:34:51] Josh DeTar: I haven’t.

[00:34:52] Nick Coleman: Oh, it’s so good. And I’m, of course I’m joking, but it’s a little bit true because you see in the show Billions, I watch it and it’s a great show, but at the end of the last season, I think it was a new guy kind of took over the head of the investment hedge fund and he did something

[00:35:07] I think they’re probably even following what Larry Fink did. He brought all of his, the guy who took over brought all the major investors, the billionaires, into the office with all the employees, and he kind of, and since he was the new guy, it was kind of set up like he’s going to fire all the employees, which that doesn’t matter,

[00:35:22] but the twist on it was that he told every single billionaire investor in there that he didn’t believe was committed to making change and doing good things within their community, that he’s no longer taking their money, gave them all refunds and told them to go invest their money somewhere else. And so, of course, that’s just a lighthearted take on it, but we do see it,

[00:35:39] I mean, everywhere. We’re moving towards this younger generation and the entire world moving towards wanting to see organizations and industries make real impact, and, again, partly, like I said too, when I was, I’m a millennial, when I was in college, I loved Dance Marathon, that’s what I got involved in because it felt like I was doing something good for my local children’s hospital,

[00:36:01] and we’re seeing that program continue to do really well, and other programs that engage millennials and gen Z, that generation, and we’re seeing those programs being coming very successful because these are all people, individuals that want to see the world become a better place, and they think that businesses are responsible to provide that change,

[00:36:20] or at least one of the many pieces of the puzzle that can make that change.

[00:36:23] Yeah. And I think credit unions are such a good, like, so much of the rest of the corporate world can look at credit unions as a lighthouse in the dark. I mean, I about it all the time. I can’t tell you how many times, Nick, I get on a demo with a credit union, and we’re going around doing intros and somebody starts off and I’m like, “Yeah, you know, my name’s Susan, I’ve been here the least, I’m the young pup around here, you know, I’ve here for 14 years,” you know, it’s like, you go to a tech company and you ask, “How many of your boys have been here

[00:36:55] 14 years?” They’re like, “Dude, not even the CEO.”

[00:36:59] Yeah. “Not even me. We weren’t even around

[00:37:01] 14 years ago.”

[00:37:02] Josh DeTar: Yeah. So, I again, this goes back to the just the genuineness of, like, this is how we’ve always been. We just create good places for people to work. We do good things for our community, and when you good all around, kind of stuff tends to stick with people.

[00:37:18] Nick Coleman: Yeah, yeah, that’s so true. And it’s also really important to note that I’m really proud and very thankful and gracious for the support credit unions have provided to CMN and our 140 members children’s hospitals across the US but it’s not just children’s health care that credit unions have such an impact on, it’s

[00:37:38] obviously like we were just talking about, it’s that financial wellbeing component in a lot of different ways, which candidly also aligns with CU for kids. CU for kids, those funds can help provide healthy communities, but also financially sound communities, but credit unions we see them supporting, like, in the buy-sell the Mountain West Credit Union Association is taking a strong stand on hunger insecurity as does Maine has for a long time, the state of Maine,

[00:38:02] and I want to say the Northwest is focusing on housing insecurity and environmental, so, I mean, we see I love that it’s not, and it’s important that it’s not just Credit Unions For Kids and child health care, and again, very gracious, I want that support to continue, but I love that credit unions don’t focus just on one day, identify the need within their community as well,

[00:38:21] and they make that change that they deem necessary.

[00:38:24] Josh DeTar: Yeah, I love that. You had mentioned something earlier I wanted to come back to that. I am really curious to hear your insight on. So, how

[00:38:32] has affected your guys’s ability to do what you

[00:38:35] do?

[00:38:36] Nick Coleman: Dramatically, for sure. For CMN Hospitals, we’ve seen a dip in fundraising and that’s not even really what I meant by dramatic, what I mean is our Children’s Hospitals are the ones are impacted and, of course, CMN, naturally, we were hoping to raise as much money as we can for them during this time,

[00:38:52] and we understand that a lot of businesses have been impacted. So, this small decrease in fundraising we’re experiencing, we kind of expected when it all came about, but what we’re really focusing on is how can we help get hospitals back functioning up to how they were pre-pandemic or, which is actually probably not even true,

[00:39:08] it’s probably how can we get them functioning with the new reality of the world because we’ve seen them needing to make $40 million investments into Telehealth and different forms of providing care within the communities, and we have seen staffing shortages that have just absolutely ravaged hospitals all across the country.

[00:39:29] Their needing to hire and spend a lot more money on agencies to fill those roles, they’re in some situations bringing in the national guard, they have to convert patient rooms into infection control rooms. They, at one point, had to stop all elective surgeries, now we’re at the point where a lot of them have to get postponed.

[00:39:48] Nick Coleman: So, in so many dramatic ways Children’s Hospitals have been impacted, and I remember right at the beginning, ’cause we were, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, we had to decide, like, everyone really quickly, like, what changes do we have to make sure. Obviously, this was a situation where people’s health was being impacted, but at the very beginning it wasn’t necessarily thought of as child, healthcare issue, is more of adults, but we’ve seen pediatric patients, millions of children be test-positive for COVID and we’ve seen pediatric hospitalizations, even in, of course, we’re going through this Omicron

[00:40:22] surge, we saw in January hospitalizations up 50%, and this is all hospitals that need to provide the normal care that they always do. So, kids still get broken arms, kids still get sick or injured in many other ways, and hospitals still have to provide that kind of support,

[00:40:39] but in addition, they’re dealing with all these really challenging issues, but truly, I mean, it’s remarkable to have seen what hospitals have gone through and gone up against during the past couple of years. I don’t think, as an outsider, a lot of people would have said anything, that they would’ve noticed any change because so many of the staff, so many of the people that run these hospitals and the doctors and nurses, they’re so committed to providing that good experience and making kids healthy that judging I think from the outside perspective that people wouldn’t even notice the glitch, but internally, this is a time more than ever that they need support,

[00:41:12] they need funds and we’re glad, and I’m glad that I can work with credit unions to help provide some of that.

[00:41:16] Josh DeTar: Yeah, I dunno if we can say it justice with words on this podcast, but the shout-out that needs to go out to all the healthcare workers over the last couple of and the ones just continuing that fight and making sure that, like that level of service and care and the kids don’t know any different.

[00:41:36] They shouldn’t know,

[00:41:37] right? They don’t know why they’re not able to get in to have somebody look at their broken arm, they just know they fell off a skateboard,

[00:41:43] that it hurts really bad.

[00:41:45] Nick Coleman: Yeah, exactly.

[00:41:46] Josh DeTar: Just such a huge shout-out to all the folks that have just been, I mean, putting their lives at risk, putting so many hours in to just continue to give that level of care,

[00:41:57] and I agree, I think now more than ever we need to stand behind them and we need to step up to the plate and we need to make sure that they get taken care of so that they can take care of the kids, so that they can take care of the adults, and that our health care system can keep running at full steam and doing the amazing things that it does,

[00:42:13] and it’s cool to see your group doing what they’re doing to help support that.

[00:42:17] Nick Coleman: Well, yeah, It wouldn’t be possible without many of the credit union people, people like you, Josh, honestly, and I don’t know if you want to get into this or get into this now, but this all, actually, the reason I’m on this podcast is because Josh reached out and he said he had this cool idea for a fundraiser to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals,

[00:42:34] and it’s so cool, I love, like, again, we were talking about creative fundraisers, like the Jello Olympics or whatever, and all these, like, selling hummingbird ornaments, but, Josh, we’ve never met before, but you reached out and had this really interesting concept to try to help provide some funds for Children’s Hospitals.

[00:42:49] I love it. Maybe you

[00:42:49] want to explain

[00:42:50] it, but it’s awesome.

[00:42:51] Josh DeTar: Sure. Yeah, but, tell you what, I know the first thing I’m doing when this podcast is over, Jello

[00:42:56] Olympics.

[00:42:58] Nick Coleman: Yeah, me too.

[00:43:00] Josh DeTar: Yeah.

[00:43:00] And, you know, this all started, we’ll try and keep a very long story short and get to the point of it, but one of the things that we find at our company is that we are extremely passionate and fueled by two major things, and the first is building up and strengthening the community financial institutions that build up and strengthen our communities and providing them, them the amazing technology that they need to not only compete, but

[00:43:32] to really succeed in a modern age, and, like we were talking about, really continue to preach from the mountain tops and offer the amazing good that they do through technology. So, that’s one. The other is a metric crap ton of coffee. So, are big fans of the coffee around here and so, my brother-in-law is a true Portland hipster coffee snob,

[00:43:58] I love him to death, but man, it takes that boy way too long to make a cup of coffee. That’s all I know. But he got me connected with a friend of his who started a company to do essentially white-labeled coffee, and it’s really high-quality, like, fair-trade organic, and then locally-roasted coffee, they actually take awards in the quality of coffee that they offer,

[00:44:21] but they wanted to start a program to allow companies to do their own branded coffee that was actually good coffee, that people would actually want to drink. And so, my brother-in-law connects me with him and I was like, “Yeah, you know, I really love this idea. This gives us an opportunity to support a small, local community-based company

[00:44:36] that’s trying to do some cool things. Maybe we’ll create a Tyfone bag of coffee and we’ll give it out to our customers at, like, customer-appreciation events or things like that. So, long story short, you know, I’m talking with these guys and they kind of changed their business model throughout the process,

[00:44:50] and ultimately what it became was, they got to a point where I didn’t have to make, you know, these large orders to get our own branded coffee. They got it to a point where he just built a webpage where I can go order a single bag of Tyfone coffee and have it shipped anywhere in the world. And he was like, “Oh, you know, when you could drop this widget on your website, you guys could sell coffee.”

[00:45:08] “Cool. Thanks, Gregory. Like, I’m not a coffee company, dude. Yeah. I mean digital banking, yes. Coffee, no. Like, I’m not a B2C company. That’s not my jam.” And then it was one of those standing in my kitchen, at 10:00-PM-at-night epiphanies, and I was like, “Well, why don’t I sell coffee? But just instead of pocketing the proceeds, why don’t we do something good with it?”

[00:45:28] And so, in true Tyfone fashion, I immediately pick up my phone, I call my CEO Silva who’s also a hardcore coffee nerd, who’s also super drunk on the credit union Kool-Aid and I was like, “Siva, what if we did this?” And he’s like, “Yeah, it could go to credit unions for kids.” And I was like, “Yeah.”

[00:45:45] First thing next morning, I’m online trying to find a contact, I meet Nick and here we are today. So actually super excited that this is going to come to fruition and this podcast we’re actually going to air the week of GAC and we will actually be debuting this program at GAC, where you can go to the Tyfone website, you can order one or multiple bags of coffee,

[00:46:10] and for every bag of coffee we’ll donate a hundred percent of the profits which comes out to a little over five bucks a bag to Credit Unions For Kids in the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. So, my goal is to sell a lot of coffee and send you guys a ton of cash, who knows how that’ll actually pan out,

[00:46:28] but like I said, so we’re going to actually debut this at GAC, Nick and I will both have boxes of samples of the coffee at our booths, our booth is, I think, 313 at GAC, so come, stop by, come check out the coffee, you can even start ordering online at GAC and making donations to Credit Unions For Kids through that program.

[00:46:49] So, I’m super excited about this, you know, even I was telling Nick before the podcast, like, I’m just, as you probably have been able to figure out if you’ve listened to any of these podcasts, I’m a pretty excitable guy, and I also run on a lot of coffee, so I have a lot of energy, but I was telling my marketing guy, Kevin,

[00:47:06] who’s our brand and marketing director how excited I was about this, and his comment was, “Look, you’re excited about everything, so if you’re saying you’re excited about this, like, you are really excited about this.” So I am and this is why I’ve been really looking forward to being able to have you on as a guest, to just learn a little bit more about the Credit Union For Kids movement and the good that it’s doing for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

[00:47:26] And, yeah. Anyway, so I’m really excited whole thing.

[00:47:30] Nick Coleman: Yeah, well, I, I’m a lot bit excited. This is it’s so cool, Josh. Thank you. And, again, I mean, just another example on a credit union industry, you may not be a credit union, but a part of the fabric of this industry wanting to do good for the community, not something you could have, you know, you could have used this as a, which hopefully will be a really excellent marketing opportunity, but you’re doing good with it,

[00:47:48] Josh DeTar: and love it. It’s really, really awesome that you’re doing it, so thank you very much. I hate to say, I’m not a coffee snob, myself and my wife is so I’ll probably be buying multiple bags. So, what are some of the other ways that specifically, since this is, you know, the whole digital banking podcast, I mean, talking about technology typically, you know, what are some of ways that you’re seeing credit unions use technology and maybe even digital banking, hint all of my Tyfone customers, take note, attention,

[00:48:14] what are the ways that you’re seeing credit unions do some cool things digitally and through technology to, to raise funds for Credit

[00:48:21] Unions For Kids?

[00:48:23] Nick Coleman: Well, at

[00:48:23] a pretty basic level, we have a number of different vendor partners ourselves that provide really great experiences for online fundraising pages. So, we can, like, for example, right now we were just it’s timely for me because we’re working with the cherry blossom, not organizers, and so they’re creating

[00:48:40] fundraising pages that allow the runners to fundraise, to reach a minimum $500 against the runner, guaranteed entry code into the event. They’re also creating separate pages that allow current runners to ask their friends and families to donate, so we’ve also seen these pages used in a variety of different ways and can be super custom and creative,

[00:49:00] so these online fundraising pages have over the past two years been incredibly, grown to be incredibly popular, and you can find out information on that and honestly anything, and I’ll make sure to mention this too before we’re done, Josh, but on our website, www.cu4kids.org, so that’s been an important one.

[00:49:18] When it comes to digital banking, I would be completely honest that it’s not something I’m an expert in, but for the past, like, four years, we’ve been working on a product called Give On The Go. So, Josh, maybe this is something we’ll have to connect on at another point too, but so, we’ve been working on taking the concept of members donating a dollar at the branch to purchase one of those paper balloon, miracle balloons and bringing that to the digital space.

[00:49:42] So, instead of being in the branch where members are no longer banking as often, and we bring that concept to online and mobile banking, so when you’re logged, when you log in, there’s ideally like a lightbox pop-up where you can click and donate $1 to your local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, and we made some really good progress on that so far.

[00:50:00] In fact, we have solid partnerships with Q2 and Alchemy at this point, and they offer a solution to their, yeah to their clients, but it’s hard to scale and we’re still learning and growing through that, and so, if I say you have, or anyone has, please feel free to contact me on how we can make this concept available to all credit unions across the US, but that’s the direction we’re moving in as a program.

[00:50:22] And I’m happy with the progress we’ve made over the past few years, but I know that we still have some more work to do. And then in terms of just, like, other random digital stuff. We have a new partnership with a company called Golf Status, it

[00:50:32] makes, planning golf events and managing them more convenient and efficient and a number of different kind of random digital tools,

[00:50:38] but yeah, for any credit union looking for those, please visit our website.

[00:50:42] Josh DeTar: Well, I have to say a huge shout-out to Q2 and Alchemy. We may be competitors by day, but at night we all rest our heads knowing we’re trying to support the same industry and we’re all trying to do some good in here, so I just want to say shout-out to those guys and I just, now I want to get in on that party,

[00:50:58] right?

[00:50:58] So, let’s,

[00:50:59] get the

[00:51:00] opportunity folks to donate through our digital banking as well.

[00:51:04] Nick Coleman: Absolutely. Thank you, Josh.

[00:51:05] Josh DeTar: Yeah. Well, Nick, any parting thoughts that you have that you’d like our listeners to know just a little bit about how they can get involved or be a part of, or support Credit Unions For Kids?

[00:51:16] Nick Coleman: Yeah.

[00:51:17] Well, if you’re listening to this podcast right, about as it’s airing around the GAC period, you will have time to consider participating in an upcoming campaign we have in April. We’re asking credit unions to donate a portion of their ATM transaction fees to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

[00:51:34] We have a couple of credit unions and I’ll shout them out, actually, Westcom in Southern California and Desert Financial in Phoenix, they both, for years, have been donating a dollar of their transaction fee from the ATM, and they’re large credit unions, but they raise each, I believe, over six figures and it’s pretty remarkable.

[00:51:53] So, it’s such an easy way to fundraise and it can have such a high impact, and so we’re testing this concept. I actually don’t need, I take that back, I don’t want to use the word testing ’cause we have a proof of concept, but so we want to see more credit unions adapting it, this kind of fundraising model,

[00:52:08] so, we’re starting it off, I should say in April, by incentivizing it. Any credit union that agrees to participate is going to be put into a drawing to win an additional $10,000 donation from our great friends at Co-op Financial Services who do so much for the Credit Unions For Kids program that cannot be overstated.

[00:52:26] So, please consider participating in that campaign, but otherwise reach out to your peers within your community and maybe you can consider developing some kind of collaborative event with them and loop in your local hospital representative to help plan, make, do that planning, visit our website to learn about other fundraising initiatives that we recommend and provide some resources on how to accomplish and execute,

[00:52:49] and besides that, just, I mean, I cannot say this enough, but thank you. So, for everything that credit unions have done, we just celebrated our 25th year anniversary. We’ve raised over $165 million. That is because of thousands of credit unions that have decided to make Children’s Hospitals and child healthcare a priority, and to raise funds and do so much more than just that.

[00:53:13] So, thank you, thank you for everything you’ve done, and we at Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals look forward to another 25 years of a successful partnership.

[00:53:22] Josh DeTar: Yeah, it hits you in the feelers, you know, as somebody who’s really passionate about this industry in this space and about credit unions and somebody who quite frankly is a as a new dad too. I have a nine-month old and it really does change your perspective in a lot of ways. So, this is something I’m really happy to see exists,

[00:53:40] and this makes my heart happy to see that this is something that our industry does and provides, just the service is incredible, so I think we need to reciprocate that back and just say thank you, to Nick and your team of incredible people who make this even possible and facilitate it and organize it and make sure that all the good that the credit unions want to do has a place to go.

[00:54:04] So, thank you, and thank you to the Credit Unions For Kids movements. Awesome stuff.

[00:54:07] Nick Coleman: Thanks, Thank Josh, and congratulations on your newborn. Hope your family’s doing well and

[00:54:12] healthy and

[00:54:12] happy.

[00:54:13] Josh DeTar: Yeah, I was going to say, you probably hear him yapping away in the background. He’s getting to that point where he loves to, like, explore new voices he can make with his mouth, and it’s just and I love it, hearing him in the background. It’s such a constant reminder of what’s important in life and why I even do the things that I do and the way that I do it, to make

[00:54:32] world that, you know, I want him to grow up in. So, I love hearing him in the background while I’m doing podcasts, so that’s my formal, I’m not apologizing. If you hear a kid in the background of I’m not going to silence it. So, now, Nick, one of the other things that I wanted to just say is, I was actually quite impressed with just your level of knowledge and the stuff that you were able to pull out of thin air throughout the last hour.

[00:54:55] We don’t script this podcast and we don’t tell people to come prepared with a bunch of content and material. Nick’s, I’m looking at him right now on camera and he’s not sitting there with a big old stack of notes he’s reading off of, this is all stuff off the top of his head.

[00:55:06] You’re obviously really dedicated to what you do and you’re paying attention. So, you know, I’d like to end with that with two final questions for you, my friend, and the first is just, where do you go to stay up-to-date with what’s happening in our industry, and where were you pulling all of those facts out

[00:55:19] of thin air from?

[00:55:20] Nick Coleman: Yeah. Well, thank you for

[00:55:23] saying that. I’d say that the main place I get information, and we actually have an advisory board for Credit Unions For Kids that, I mean, the program wouldn’t exist without them, without not just their influence, but their knowledge and their feedback on how the program can be successful,

[00:55:37] so I won’t take the time to shout out all of them, even though they all deserve it. But, so thank you to all them for helping really move this program in the right direction. Second and more specifically, I really like CUbroadcast what Mike Lawson does, the video interviews that he has. I really like CUinsight and CUtoday.

[00:55:56] True. I read all three of those. It’s the first thing I do in the morning. I read those publications. I’m looking at a number of others that come to my inbox every morning but those are the three key ones I use along with the advisory board and to the also, I mean the many, many, many individuals that I communicate with day in and day out that help provide feedback on the industry.

[00:56:15] Again, couldn’t have time to thank all of you individually, but you know who you are if you’re out there and listening.

[00:56:21] Josh DeTar: Thanks, Nick. And what about if people want to connect with you or learn a little bit more about Credit Union For Kids and you’ve given out the website a few times, but it doesn’t hurt to throw it in

[00:56:30] there one

[00:56:30] last time

[00:56:31] or the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

[00:56:34] Nick Coleman: Sure. So, again, the website is www.cu4kids.org, and if you want to contact me, you’ll find my information on the website, or you can also email me at N. Coleman, ncoleman@cmnhospitals.org, and I’m on LinkedIn, I’m on Facebook. If you want to go on Facebook, I have, I don’t really check it that often,

[00:56:58] I watched, it was like a year and a half ago that social media documentary on Netflix got me to try to delete Twitter and Instagram and try to stay off that as much as I can, but if you send me a follow-up, I’m sure I’ll get back to you. But, yeah,

[00:57:08] please, please reach out if you have any questions, comments, feedback, anything.

[00:57:13] If you want to know how to fundraise anything I can do to help support your efforts, reach out to me anytime, or, again, maybe I’ll mention just one more thing, Josh. I will also be a GAC, like your reference. I am at booth 411 and I’m excited to have some of the information that you all have for your upcoming fundraiser, but we’ll also be talking about a number of other things.

[00:57:30] So, stop by if you’re at the conference and say, please.

[00:57:32] Josh DeTar: Super cool. Thanks, Nick. You know, I appreciate all that you and Credit Union For Kids does and I just, I really appreciate you taking the time to come into the podcast and talk to us, and more than anything, I’m just, I’m stoked to continue this partnership with you and keep working on things. I think we have a long

[00:57:48] friendship ahead of us.

[00:57:49] Nick Coleman: I think we do.

[00:57:49] Josh DeTar: Thanks

[00:57:50] for being a guest on the Digital Banking

[00:57:51] Podcast today.

[00:57:52] Nick Coleman: Right back at you, or, well, thank you for having me. It’s great to get to know you and look forward to a

[00:57:56] friendship.

[00:57:57] Josh DeTar: Alright, thanks, Nick.