ETFCU Earns National Award For Habitat Commitment

EVANSVILLE, Indiana – A groundbreaking partnership with Habitat for Humanity earned Evansville Teachers Federal Credit Union the top national honor for civic engagement by a credit union.

CUNA, the Credit Union National Association which represents more than 5,000 member-owned cooperatives, presented ETFCU President and CEO Bill Schirmer with the Dora Maxwell Social Responsibility Community Service Award during the annual Governmental Affairs Conference in Washington, D.C., on February 26. The award is named in honor of Dora Maxwell, an early credit union pioneer who organized hundreds of credit unions, developed volunteer organizer clubs, and worked with organizations on behalf of the poor.

 “(This) commitment to the credit union philosophy of people helping people is an active demonstration of our cooperative superpowers at work,” said CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle.

ETFCU was nominated for its work with Habitat for Humanity of Evansville. The Tri-State’s largest credit union, with more than $1.8 billion in assets and 219,000 members, fully funded home builds in 2018 and 2019 and will do so again in 2020. More than $100,000 each year was raised by donations created by members opening fee-free premier accounts such as Vertical Checking, which pays 3.30% APY on deposits up to $20,000, and employee pledges.

Employees, from the CEO down, volunteer on the home builds. More than $138,000 has been raised for the next build, scheduled to launch in the spring.

“We’re so grateful for the support we’ve received from everyone in the ETFCU organization, and for this unique program that they established and now embraced for three years,” said Evansville Habitat executive director Beth Folz. “We have so many great partners throughout the community, but to see an entire organization come together to help our neighbors become home-owners is just amazing.”

Schirmer serves on the board of Habitat for Humanity of Evansville and is the immediate past president. He said that working to develop affordable housing in the communities served by ETFCU is a natural part of the credit union’s mission.

This is the second national award accorded to ETFCU in as many years. In 2019, Schirmer was honored by the National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions as its CEO of the Year, recognizing the tremendous growth of the credit union. ETFCU also earned the state Dora Maxwell Award for community involvement and was named by Forbes as Indiana’s top credit union.