By Christian Mullins
It’s almost Thanksgiving, and with the holiday comes one of the truly unique promotions I’ve seen this year. Greater Niles Community Federal Credit Union ($29M in assets, 3,800 members), located in Niles, Michigan, thanked their members by giving them a turkey or ham earlier this month. In all, 2,000 turkeys and 600 hams were purchased by the credit union, one for each member address, to be picked up over a two day period from each of their two branches. According to CEO Dave Vanstrein, any extras are donated to food pantries and other organizations.
At first glance, I had wondered if this promotion was used to take advantage of harder economic times. However, this is the sixth year GNCFCU has offered their members a Thanksgiving dinner, and it’s become a tradition rather than just a promotion.
This is one of those unique offerings that can only come from a medium sized credit union (imagine the nightmare of coordinating this a turkey giveaway for a 100,000 member CU). While the benefit to their members is obvious, it’s also an excellent way for GNCFCU to extend their goodwill into the community. The expense in relation to their net income is likely high, but there is no price tag for anyone that would otherwise eat pizza (or less) for Thanksgiving.
