Financial Wellness: Credit Union Initiatives at DNCU That Support Our Members

Posted on September 18, 2024 by Kim Currie

At DNCU, we have so many perks and benefits for members—as well as the community beyond—it can sometimes be hard to keep up with everything. That’s why we’re dedicating this post to showcasing our offerings, exploring all the initiatives we offer and the resources we provide.

From special youth bank accounts to charitable giving, our services are far-reaching and diverse. In this post, we’ll give an overview of them all, discussing the types of financial services and education resources we offer. Keep reading to learn more about all the ways we support our members and communities and DNCU!

Services to Uplift

As a community-based credit union, we consider all the work we do here at Del Norte to be a service to our members, from working one-on-one with you to find the right loan to offering reliable checking accounts to help manage your money. But we also work hard to go above and beyond our standard services to offer specialized financial counseling and support to help our members develop healthy financial habits and create stable and successful financial futures.

Del Norte is proud to partner with GreenPath Financial Wellness to provide extensive financial counseling services. Through GreenPath, our members have exclusive and free access to an array of educational and supportive offerings including:

Debt Counseling
Housing Counseling
Student Loan Counseling
Courses for Managing and Improving Credit
Debt and Loan Financial Calculators
and many more financial literacy and budgeting materials, including Worksheets and Guides

To explore our extensive offerings available through GreenPath, visit our GreenPath Financial Counseling homepage.

Community Events to Stay Connected

In person and online, our credit union holds many events to benefit our members, offering everything from financial resources to fun ways for your family to stay connected.

Our community events include:

Community Shred Days: Throughout our region in Española, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, and Rio Rancho, bring your confidential documents to safely destroy and recycle.
Member Appreciation Events: In special honor of our 70th Anniversary, we’re holding Member Appreciation Parties at our local branches, featuring food, fun, games, and prizes.
Educational opportunities:
- Homeownership seminars that cover the ins and outs of purchasing and owning a home, to help our members become successful homeowners.
- Business education webinars featuring tips on how to establish a good banking relationship as a small business.
- Virtual financial education workshops covering topics including investing, retirement, and social security.
Summer Activity Days from pancake breakfasts to Sunday Fundays.

We are always adding new events to our calendar. Have an idea for a fun and helpful member event? Reach out to us—we’d love to hear more!

Resources to Help Grow and Inspire

Lifelong learning is crucial to obtaining ongoing financial stability. That’s why we’ve made it a priority to make financial education opportunities and resources available to our members of all ages, helping them continue to grow their money-management expertise, prepare for the future, and stay up-to-date on financial trends.

Financial Programs and Resources for Kids and Teens

Creating a strong financial foundation for small children and teens is one of our key missions. From first savings accounts to learning credit basics, our specialized programs and services aim to set up kids for long-term financial success.

Here are just a few of the Kids & Teens Financial Resources we offer:

Youth Accounts: Designed to help young people develop an understanding of managing finances, our savings accounts come with low $5 minimums, no additional deposit requirements, and plenty of cool perks. Options include:
- Baxter’s Bunch: Encourages savings for our youngest members with earned dividends, a savings passport program, birthday recognition, and kid-friendly newsletters.
- SCORE: Developed for teens, this account also earns dividends, while providing opportunities for young adults to develop their financial and credit skills with an optional low-limit credit card and eLearning courses.
Financial Literacy: To best support our young savers, we’ve partnered with Banzai to offer financial literacy opportunities for schools, educators, and students in New Mexico, as well as direct resources for adults, teenagers, and kids. We currently sponsor 94 schools, serve 310 teachers, and have empowered and educated more than 19,000 students ages 8 – 22. To see if Del Norte Credit Union and the Del Norte LOV Foundation sponsor your local school, please visit their Banzai Schools platform program page. You can view an alpha listing of all sponsored schools, and encourage those schools’ educators to sign up through Banzai and utilize over 220 pieces of multi-lingual financial literacy content, curriculum, and a digital library to ensure that the next generation is financially capable to make good financial decisions throughout their lives. We also have Banzai Financial Wellness Center program page where all content in the Banzai Schools platform is available for anyone to use, regardless of age and if you are a DNCU member. We promote and provide personal finance resources to advocate for anyone—young and old—to make good financial decisions at any life stage. Del Norte LOV Foundation and Del Norte Credit Union take this a step further to add value to the community, by collaborating with schools, nonprofits, and agencies and conducting on-going presentations and workshops on a variety of financial literacy topics that significant in making good financial habits.

Learning to save, maintain a budget, manage a checking account, and understand a credit score are just some of the financial literacy achievements that DNCU and our partners help children and teens accomplish every day.

DNCU Blog

One of our best resources for our members is what you are reading right now—our blog. Blog articles can provide an easily-accessible way to stay informed about financial news and DNCU events, learn about individual topics, and get bite-sized financial lessons from the comfort of your home.

We strive to offer articles that are useful to our customers and keep them in-the-know. Recent posts have covered a range of topics, like:

Have an idea for a topic you’d like us to cover? Let us know!

Initiatives to Give Back

We don’t just empower our members, we want our good work to extend deep into the New Mexico towns we serve. From charitable giving to education scholarships, we strive to build strong, secure, and prosperous communities.

Community Sponsorship Programs

Our community is the foundation of our credit union, which is why we create opportunities that aim to improve the quality of life here in New Mexico. Through our Community Sponsorship Programs, we offer financial assistance to area charitable organizations that promote financial literacy and improve the lives of our local youth.

In the past, we’ve sponsored organizations and events from STEM Santa Fe to the Rio Arriba County Fair. To learn more about our sponsorships, visit our Community Sponsorship Programs page. Submit your organization’s sponsorship request here.

Del Norte LOV Foundation

To better serve our community, we founded our Del Norte LOV Foundation, an independent 501(c)(3) that works hard to improve the lives of youth and families in New Mexico. Within the LOV Foundation, there are unique community support programs:

Employee giving, where staff generously donate charitable contributions through their payroll deductions.
Community grant-making, offering programmatic funding to nonprofit organizations based in New Mexico.
Charitable Sponsorships of $500 to $2,000 (typically) to organizations that are aligned with our mission to improve lives of youth and families in New Mexico.
Our award-winning Financial Literacy program that advocates for and enhances Del Norte Credit Union’s financial education programming through outreach, partnership, and events.
Community engagement which includes direct programs and events, focusing on financial literacy, education, and volunteerism, including our annual Back to School Event.

These programs build on the work we do and support we offer for our community directly through the credit union, supplementing our activities and providing additional opportunities for our staff to give back.

In addition to the services and offerings listed above, one of the main ways our LOV Foundation supports the lives of New Mexico residents is through its Scholarship Program. Through this special program, we can provide financial assistance to local New Mexicans who are high school seniors, homeschool seniors, or GED recipients who plan to continue their education in college or vocational school programs, with scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $5,000.

Supporting Communities from Albuquerque to Española

As a community-focused credit union, it’s our mission to support our local members, their families, and the towns where they live and work. Becoming a member of Del Norte Credit Union is quick and easy, and gives you access to our exclusive member benefits—from Personal and Business Checking Accounts to GreenPath Financial Wellness and other financial resources.

Community members in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Los Alamos, Santa Fe, Española, DeVargas, and beyond are eligible. Visit our membership page to learn more about joining, or stop by your local branch to meet us in person!