Happy Holidays! It’s PenFi’s Social Purpose Coordinator Dana here, checking in for our yearly ‘Truly Local Commitment’ (TLC) recap. In case you need a reminder, our Truly Local Commitment is to improve lives and strengthen communities, specifically the Niagara and Haldimand communities. Now, this isn’t something we just use as a slogan or as a hashtag on social media, it’s a promise that’s weaved into everything we do. If you’re a member, you’re probably already aware of how we do this as a credit union. If you’re not a member, or maybe a new member, you’ve come to the right blog post because it’s literally my job to show people how we keep this promise. That should be your first clue that PenFinancial takes this commitment seriously, because they created an actual job to ensure it gets done. One of my favourite parts of my job is explaining to people what a Social Purpose Coordinator is, and what I do, and hearing this response after I tell them: “Wow, that’s awesome.” And yes, yes, it is. We invest in our Truly Local Commitment every day, not just through my position, but through our B Corp certification, Living Wage commitment and our partnership with Bullfrog Power.
But today I’m here to show you what we got up to in 2024. I’m sitting here in my cozy at-home library, in a fancy robe, about to light a cigar to deeply reflect on a great year and put pen to paper – just kidding! I am sitting in my home office, wearing a cozy PenFi branded sweater, sipping a latte and ready to type my little heart out. Last year was our first TLC ‘Wrapped’, and as I gathered the data from 2023 and strung together some cool graphics and stories to share with the world, deep down inside I was a little worried we wouldn’t be able to top what we did in 2023. I thought maybe we had reached for the stars a little too high and set an impossible benchmark. That fear continued to creep in as I prepared my 2024 goals with my very supportive and creative boss, Kerry. How would I be able to take my role and PenFinancial’s TLC initiatives to the next level in 2024 if we already crushed it so hard in 2023? Kerry seemed to have blind confidence in the PenFi team as a whole, and also in me (thanks, Kerry!), and encouraged me to keep reaching for those stars. As the early months of 2024 progressed, I still felt a little uneasy about how our impact would measure up with the rise in inflation, the cuts in budgets everywhere and the needs of our neighbours growing larger. But during our mid-year reviews in June, I collected my data, revisited the past 6 months and realized we were on track to surpass many of our TLC goals for 2024. I then felt the confidence that Kerry had shown me in January, and I felt an enormous wave of gratitude and excitement come over me. We were only half way through the year, and we had already done so much as a credit union, and made many small impacts that added up to some really great stuff. I said to myself: Bring on the next 6 months!
I’m not going to lie, June to today blew by. I can’t believe it’s the end of December and a new year is upon us. A few weeks ago when I began to pull our stats, I was amazed at how much our small, truly local credit union was able to accomplish. Check it out:
A stat that makes my heart so full is our staff volunteer hours logged for 2024. In 2023, our team (of around 100) logged just over 1,250 hours. At the time, I was pretty darn impressed. Now, full disclosure, we do incorporate volunteering into everyone’s development goals, and we sweeten the deal by donating $200 to a local non-profit/charity on behalf of every staff member who volunteers in their community. But, there is no minimum time requirement. Someone could volunteer for 30 minutes at a fundraiser once a year and that would fulfil the goal and warrant the $200 donation. If each of our staff volunteered for just 1 hour throughout the year, we would have logged just over 100 hours. But we’ve logged almost 2,500 hours so far (and there’s still time to log more!). If that number doesn’t blow you away, I don’t know what will. That number means our staff aren’t just volunteering because they have to, but because they want to. They care about the organizations they support; they care about the lives they are improving and the communities they’re strengthening. It means we have some pretty incredible people working at PenFinancial. It means we have people who care. They care about other people. They care about our members. They care about you.
Take Stacey, Financial Solutions Specialist at our Welland brand, for example: she’s logged almost 200 hours this year with Niagara Dog Rescue. She’s processed over 500 adoptions, getting these dogs into homes with their forever families. She does this outside of being our Financial Solutions Specialist, on top of everything else she has going on, and she does this because she wants to make a real difference. Then we have Karen, Member Services Representative at our Niagara Falls Branch, who joined the PenFi family early in 2024. She’s logged almost 100 hours this year with Hospice Niagara and Southridge Shelter, and led the Niagara Falls branch in the Hike for Hospice in October. Together they raised just over $1,600 for an incredible cause that support so many in the Niagara community. Or Laura, Member Services Representative from our Fort Erie branch (one of our most involved branches), who has logged over 100 hours this year with her volunteer work with the 1st Ridgeway Sparks and Embers. These are huge accomplishments and serious amounts of time and energy, and I want to congratulate every single PenFi team member who volunteered this year. I could probably write a blog post every week highlighting the incredible volunteer work the PenFi family does, and a goal of mine for 2025 is to share more of these stories (so stay tuned!). Our team has volunteered their time with over 70 different community organizations in Niagara and Haldimand, and our branches have raised over $5,000 in donations through various in-branch drives and fundraisers. There is always something going on in our branches, and our staff are always finding new ways to help. Most recently, Nicole, Member Service Representative at our Fourth Avenue branch organized a holiday raffle fundraiser for Fur Warriors. Thanks to our staff, members and St. Catharines community for raising $1,500 for our fury friends in need (and luckily our donation was matched to make an even bigger impact!). It just goes to show you how our people go above and beyond in their Truly Local Commitment, and we are incredibly lucky to have each and every one of them as part of our PenFi family.
As I approach my word limit for an appropriate blog post length, I encourage you to check out more of our TLC accomplishments here, and on our social media channels (@penfinancial). We’ve had an incredibly impactful year, and I couldn’t be prouder to work for an organization that puts people before profit. Now, I know you may read that and think “Yeah, right!” - I mean, we are a credit union after all, but I want you to challenge that thought. We are a credit union. A credit union is a member-owned financial institution, and we operate to serve our members, rather than generating profits for external investors. We operate on the principle of cooperation among members, with profits typically being reinvested back into the credit union to benefit our members, and we also invest into the communities our members live in. We are a community-centered organization. We actually do put people first, because our people are our bottom line. I’m honestly telling you this isn’t a marketing tactic; I’ve got the proof to back it up: look at what we’ve done this year. Look at our community partnerships, the causes we support, and how much our people give back. Look at how we keep ourselves accountable by being B Corp certified, and how we awarded six Truly Local Grants this year. Bring up PenFinancial to your friends and family in Niagara or Dunnville, and you’ll discover how our reputation speaks for itself.
I excitedly look forward to a fresh 2025, and I can’t wait to shine an even bigger light on this Truly Local credit union, and to celebrate our staff’s accomplishments, and our growing community impact. I want people to discover the PenFinancial difference, and what Truly Local Commitment means to us. You can be part of that commitment by becoming a member (I promise you, it’s worth switching your automatic payments), or if you’re already a member, tell someone you know about why you bank with us. Tell them why banking with a local credit union actually matters. We have some VERY exciting things happening in 2025 and I hope you continue to follow along and stay connected with us on social media. Before we know it I’ll be back writing the 2025 recap, have a wonderful new year!
