512 Front Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Central phone: 425-7708
Product or service: Non-profit financial cooperative owned and controlled by members.
Award Status:

The Santa Cruz Community Credit Union (SCCCU) began twenty-one years ago with a commitment to promote social and economic change with a particular focus on meeting the needs of low-income people in Santa Cruz County. The Santa Cruz Community Credit Union is a one-of-a-kind financial institution, nationally recognized as a leading Community Development Credit Union.
SCCCU is a not-for-profit financial cooperative owned and controlled by members. Each person who is a member of the SCCCU is an equal owner with an equal voice and vote regardless of the size of his or her accounts. The SCCCU is truly financially self-sufficient and sustainable -- providing services and making loans supported by member deposits and fees.

Focusing on economic development and job creation, a substantial percentage of the SCCCU's community development and business loans are made to non-profit agencies, cooperatives, farms, or women- and minority-owned small businesses.

SCCCU contributes to their Community Visa Donation Fund each time members use their Community Visa cards. Donations are equally distributed to five local non-profit organizations; human service non-profits that are chosen by the Community Visa cardholders.

SCCCU supports environmental businesses by consciously lending to enterprises that strive for sustainability such as farmers using sustainable agricultural practices. SCCCU also incorporates industrial ecology management practices within their own corporation.

Santa Cruz Community Credit Union
A Savings and Lending Cooperative

I & II. Economic Development & Social Responsibility

We are documenting the economic development and social responsibility issues together because they are closely linked in all of the work of the Santa Cruz Community Credit Union (SCCCU). That link is articulated in our mission statement in the enclosed 1996 Annual Report. In short, at the very heart of our mission since our founding almost twenty-one years ago is our commitment to promote social and economic change with a particular focus on meeting the needs of low-income people in Santa Cruz County.

As a community credit union, the SCCCU welcomes all residents and employees in Santa Cruz County and northern (Aromas, Moss Landing, Pajaro) Monterey County.

Our credit union is a not-for-profit financial cooperative owned and controlled by our members. Each person who is a member of the SCCCU is an equal owner with an equal voice and vote regardless of the size of his or her accounts. The SCCCU is truly financially self-sufficient and sustainable -- providing services and making loans supported by member deposits and fees. One of the central reasons for forming and continuing our Community Credit Union is to have a means for people to meet their savings and lending interests by having their money reside locally and serve other local individuals, businesses, and non-profits. With more than 6,300 members, the assets of the SCCCU are in excess of $26 million.

The SCCCU is special in another way having been designated by the U.S. Government's National Credit Union Association as "low-income" and, also as a Community Development Credit Union (CDCU). The SCCCU received this designation not only because of its stated mission but also because of its proven history in effectively serving low-income people. Our membership consists of people from all walks of life who care about their community and who turn to the Community Credit Union for a full range of financial services. The SCCCU is the third largest of the approximately 300 CDCUs in the U.S.

Focusing on economic development and job creation, a substantial percentage of the SCCCU's community development and business loans are made to nonprofit agencies, cooperatives, farms, or women- and minority-owned small businesses. We stress in all of our actions and communications our commitment to excellence and balance in providing member service and community service.

With respect to member service, the SCCCU is a full-service financial institution providing savings, checking, community development certificates (certificates of deposit), IRAs, Visa, mortgage lending, and more. Our staff is diverse and stress the importance of providing the finest member service to all members. For example, in our community development/business lending, we routinely entertain small loan applications ($5,000 to $25,000) that banks and many other financial institutions will not even consider.

With respect to community service, our community development lending is perhaps our most important method. As a Community Development Credit Union, we specialize in lending to businesses or organizations that create and/or retain jobs, and contribute to the social and economic vitality of our community. We are a Small Business Administration (SBA) lender, and work with other government loan guaranty programs including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California Coastal Rural Development Corp. (Cal Coastal) in order to provide the best financing options, term loans and/or credit lines, for our business borrowers. It is probably not coincidental that at least eight of the fourteen previous Sustainable Quality Awardees are or have been borrowers, members, or collaborators of the SCCCU.

Through our Community Visa cardholders, each time they use their Community Visa cards, we contribute to our Community Visa Donation Fund. That fund equally contributes all of these donations to five local nonprofit, human service nonprofits that are chosen by the Community Visa cardholders

A few specific examples of our community development lending include:

Via Pacifica Gardens
Seascape Senior Housing is the developer and owner of this 80-unit low income elderly and handicapped housing project. Funding was provided by the Community Credit Union, HUD, Teamsters Pension fund, County of Santa Cruz, Central Water District, and Christian Church Homes.

Affordable Housing Revolving Loan Program
Excess funds from Via Pacifica housing were recaptured for use on affordable housing projects. Funds have been used as bridge financing on a number of low income affordable housing projects.

Child care Revolving Loan Program
We have raised funds from a foundation, businesses, individuals and the County of Santa Cruz for this revolving 3% loan program for child care providers primarily serving low-income children.

Small Business Microloan Guarantee Program
The purpose of this program is to make higher risk loans to small businesses. It is funded by the Credit Union and Cal Coastal, a State of California-supported small business loan guarantee program.

Cooperative Membership Share Financing Program
This program provides low interest rate financing for low-income residents of mobile home parks and apartments that are being converted into limited equity cooperatives. It is funded by the County Redevelopment Agency.

Environmental Stewardship

Also in our mission statement, we articulate the need for improving the quality of life in our community. Thus, in order to move towards sustainability, social and economic development must take place in the context of ecological limits. We cannot claim to be fully sustainable in the sense of replenishing the environment with respect to all of the energy and resources that we use. However, we are striving to be as conscious as we can. Through our community development lending, we seek to support enterprises that also strive for sustainability such as farmers using sustainable agricultural practices.

Regarding our direct use of resources we try to act environmentally responsibly. All of our printed material is printed on recycled paper using soy-based ink. We use envelopes with recyclable windows. We recycle all of our office paper, including using a shedding service (necessary for member confidentially of financial information) that recycles all printed material. We use non-toxic cleaning materials. And, we encourage our staff to bike, walk, take public transportation, and car pool to work. We have won the Bike-To-Work Week award for highest participation in our business category. However, we want to state very clearly that we want to do more before making bold public claims or holding ourselves up as a model. During the coming year we plan to take a careful audit to determine where we can do more to improve our environmental responsibility.

Finally, often-unnecessary consumption is at the root of environmental degradation. The notion of thrift has historically been of central importance to credit unions and is explicitly supported at our credit union. For example, in communication with our Community Visa cardholders, we encourage them to use their Visa cards as appropriate financial management tools and not to get lured into overconsumption. We encourage them to pay off their monthly balances in full and not to be enticed into debt. We recognize that for us as an organization and in all of our interaction with our members and our community, moving towards sustainable practices is an ongoing process -- and, one that we are committed to for the long haul.