Great Lakes Credit Union

GLCU was also one of 63 agencies in the state of Illinois that was selected to help the Illinois Department of Housing assist those that needed emergency assistance for rent or mortgage payments. Bugg reports, “We drove over 44,000 individuals to our GLCU website to find out how they could apply for assistance through the Illinois Dept. of Housing. We also were allowed to help them submit their applications online.” Another way Great Lakes Credit Union helped support the communities it serves during the pandemic was to take advantage of two opportunities through its partner Federal Home Loan Bank. One was to access grant funding. “We used those funds then to provide back to the community for the greatest needs,” Bugg explains, “based on the need for housing assistance and food assistance, and also to support women and minority owned businesses.” Federal Home Loan Bank also offered member institutions a loan at a zero-percent interest rate. Great Lakes Credit Union used one of those loans to support its own lending but took the income it would have made on that credit line over a year and donated $90,000 to local nonprofits in the communities the credit union serves. Bugg admits, “We know in a year we’ll have to pay back that advance to the Federal Home Loan Bank, but in essence we took the income and provided it back to the local communities to help support them. So this helps us show the unique difference of the people- helping philosophy through Great Lakes Credit Union.” About 51 percent of the credit union’s members are what Bugg describes as low-income, while the rest is high wealth. Great Lakes Credit Union prides itself on this diverse membership and has a wide variety of financial products to match. While it offers small business and commercial lending, consumer lending is the primary focus. It has an alternative to payday lending for low- income members and also offers unsecured loans for high-wealth members.