Self-Help Credit Union’s Go Local CD Program
Go Local Borrowers
Kieran Roe, Executive Director of the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy; Kudzai Mabunda, owner of Topic Family Care Home [photo credit: Mountain Bizworks]; and Caroline Guffey, owner of Tangles hair salon.
Regenerative Qualities of Self-Help's Go Local CD Program
Innovative & Adaptable / Wealth Viewed Holistically / Honors Community & Place
Kieran Roe, Executive Director of the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy; Kudzai Mabunda, owner of Topic Family Care Home [photo credit: Mountain Bizworks]; and Caroline Guffey, owner of Tangles hair salon.
Regenerative Qualities of Self-Help's Go Local CD Program
Innovative & Adaptable / Wealth Viewed Holistically / Honors Community & Place
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Jane Hatley, Western North Carolina Director for Self-Help Credit Union, tells the story…
for the Self-Help Go Local certificate of deposit started when Franzi Charen, one of the founders of our localist organization, the Asheville Grown Business Alliance, and creator of their very successful Go Local marketing campaign, approached me after hearing Michael Shuman speak. Shuman, author of Local Dollars, Local Sense, had spoken at Venture Local, a conference on local economies held in Asheville in 2012, where he mentioned ten things that individuals could do to build a stronger local economy. One of them was to purchase local certificate of deposits that could be used to fund local businesses. Franzi asked me,
Franzi and I started meeting to figure out how this could happen through Self-Help Credit Union. As our website states,
“The nonprofit Center for Community Self-Help (or Self-Help) combines several organizations that together provide financing, technical support, consumer financial services and advocacy for those left out of the economic mainstream. These entities include: Self-Help Credit Union, Self-Help Federal Credit Union, Self-Help Ventures Fund and the Center for Responsible Lending. Since Self-Help's founding in 1980, the organization has reached out particularly to female, low-income, low-wealth, rural and minority communities across North Carolina, Washington D.C., California and many other states.” Doing a targeted CD was not too difficult, since the credit union already offered specialty CDs — a Green CD that funds loans for energy efficiency and renewable energy, and a Women and Children CD that funds lending to childcare centers, woman-owned businesses, and affordable housing projects. So, we created the 
to fund small businesses and mortgages in Western North Carolina. That is how it started.
The lending that is made possible through the Go Local CD, like all of our lending, is targeted to borrowers who are traditionally underserved by lenders, such as women, minorities, rural folks, who, in this case, also live in Western North Carolina. Small businesses and the entrepreneurs who start them are the backbone of our local economy and drive the growth of jobs and innovation. These businesses have been under tremendous economic pressure with the downturn in the economy, at the same time that all lenders have had to tighten their belts and put more restrictions on their lending. One of the results has been that often these folks do not believe that financing is even available for them, so they give up before they apply. The Go Local CD can help to bring attention to the fact that Self-Help has funds available and is interested in lending to local businesses and growing our local economy. We launched the Go Local CD program last April with a big party with local businesses. Some of our local commercial borrowers provided the food, and we also featured other local businesses, including a local food truck. Since the launch, 
Funds from these deposits are now supporting our local small business lending, home mortgages, and even small “business purpose” loans (loans under $10,000 for a specific small business need).
Since these loans are available through our retail division, Carolina Mountains Credit Union, a borrower need only reside in one of the community credit union’s service counties to be eligible to apply. These counties include Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Polk and Transylvania. The slogan for the Go Local CD is 
Some of the small business loans that have already been funded through these deposits include a business purpose loan to an African-American woman starting a lotion and skin care business out of her home in Asheville, a number of home mortgages in several counties, some of them to single mothers (through a special Self-Help program), and a larger commercial loan to a woman-owned hair salon in Brevard. In December, we closed on a loan to Carolina Mountains Land Conservancy, a leading non-profit in Buncombe County, to help them refinance a high interest loan on their building. Here’s what the Executive Director said about the loan:
“Besides the fact that mainstream banks are still very cautious in making any new loans these days, another major hurdle for us was that commercial banks don’t understand nonprofit finances very well. We found that SHCU, with its community-oriented mission, was more sympathetic toward and understanding of our nonprofit operations and therefore more flexible and willing to work with us. We appreciate this community-centered approach and the resources that SHCU brings to underserved organizations and enterprises.” Often, traditional lenders have rigid criteria, such as minimum credit scores, maximum debt-to-income ratios, etc. 
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the sum of all the parts, instead of focusing on any one aspect of a business. And one of our critical things to look at is what role will this loan play in building or strengthening overall economic development, especially among our “mission” targets.
Although there is no regular system of reporting to depositors, Self-Help is happy to provide information upon request to our CD holders on loans made possible through their investment with us. We have also been fortunate in receiving a lot of local press coverage of the program. Frankly, one of the challenges has been getting our local lending boosted up to move these deposit dollars out quickly into the community. Self-Help Credit Union has a long history of lending to low- income and women-owned and minority-owned businesses, but lending requests have dropped down somewhat with the recession. One of the perks of opening a Go Local CD with Self-Help is that you receive, for free, a Go Local Discount Card, offered by Asheville Grown Business Alliance. This card, which normally costs $15, offers you special perks at over 350 independent businesses in Asheville and Buncombe County, and, best of all, Asheville Grown donates $10 from every card to the Asheville City Schools Foundation to fund scholarships and grant programs for our local public schools. The Go Local CD plays the role of encouraging people to shop locally, via the Go Local Card, 
like Asheville and our vibrant WNC towns.
Our current CD rates are 0.25% for 3 months, 0.55% for 6 and 12 months, 0.75% for 24 months, 1.00% for 36 months, and 1.25% for 48 months. One of the great rewards of this program has been hearing from folks who are buying these certificates of deposit. They are happy to park some funds with us, at a rate comparable to many banks, while knowing the impact their investment will have in their community. 
I would say that it is critical to align your program with any localist organizations that might exist in your community. They are able to get the word out to the ideal target market constituents via their network. Our program would never have had the success it has had without the wonderful support of Asheville Grown.
Jane Hatley, Franzi Charen of Asheville Grown, and Abigail Suarez, Marketing Assistant with Self-Help.
Do you have more questions about the Go Local CD Program? You can reach Jane at [email protected]
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