Want to lower your CU’s average member age?

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Hi there, credit union friends,

Are you feeling overwhelmed or overstimulated by all of the holiday hullabaloo? If so, then you’re not alone!


📸: Tostoini on Giphy

So for this edition of “Marketing Manatee Musings,” let’s forgo the gift lists and party plans to focus on a critical issue in the credit union sphere: average member age.

Ironically, the key to lowering this metric may be to leverage your oldest members. In a recent CUInsight article, “Want your membership to grow younger? Try promoting ‘The CU of grandma and grandpa,’” credit union consultant (and self-proclaimed senior citizen 😂) Greg Crandell identifies three ways your “more mature” members can help you:

  1. Resources
  2. Needs
  3. Influence

So without further ado, let’s explore each of these opportunities in more detail.

— 1 —

Get to the (Re)Source: The first step to growing your membership by penetrating the youth sector? Recognizing your older members’ resources.

In his article, Crandell identifies the wealth that grandparents will share with their grandchildren as a major resource.

And this capital holds a great potential, for, as Crandell notes, “Your senior members are looking for ways, and means, to help their grandchildren with financial goal setting and attainment, and not just looking to ‘leave them money.’ They want to engage now, make a difference now.”

So that’s where you come in, credit union friends! Motivate your older members to do more with their money than just give it away. For example, you can encourage grandparents to:

  • open joint savings accounts with younger children to give them money-smart starts 💰
  • establish joint checking accounts with tweens and teens to introduce them to money management 💵
  • co-sign on auto loans with young adults to teach them how to manage credit 🚗

Once these youngsters have been introduced to your credit union, they will likely remain members for years to come. So by inspiring grandparents to invest in the present and future of their grandchildren, you are helping to secure the present and future of your own institution.

— 2 —

Why So Needy?: Next up on the journey to lowering your credit union’s average member age? Meeting the needs of your oldest members.

According to Crandell, “Senior members have both traditional and evolving financial needs.” One conventional need often associated with this demographic is preparing for retirement. However, grandparents are much more multifaceted than this stereotype suggests.

Rather than being one-dimensional, senior citizens represent a vibrant mix of monetary needs. And if there’s one need that’s constantly evolving, it’s the desire for money-smart learning resources.

Notes Crandell, “Today’s dynamic way calls for monthly or quarterly content for […] grandparents about helping a child develop responsible money habits,” such as the core money-smart skills our Chief Mammal, John Lanza, identifies in his most recent book, The Art of Allowance:

  1. Distinguishing between needs and wants
  2. Setting and saving for goals
  3. Making smart money choices

So how do you go about sharing these money-smart messages? Through a comprehensive youth program, of course! Consider these tactics when implementing or restructuring your own:

  • Monthly mailers for younger children 📰
  • In-school branches for tweens and teens 🏫
  • Quarterly courses (virtual or in-person) for young adults 💻

By making these resources available through your youth program, you are helping to teach your older members’ grandchildren as they grow, thereby building multigenerational loyalty.

— 3 —

Not Your Average Influencers: The final piece of the average member age puzzle? Acknowledging grandparents as financial influencers.

So just what does it mean to be an influencer? Crandell explains that an individual must possess “the ability to both inform and to guide.”

Despite the social media undertones now associated with “influencing,” many grandparents fit this bill, as they are fountains of financial advice thanks to years of experience. In fact, Crandell notes, “Much of what they believe and would share mirrors the fundamental precepts of quality financial education,” such as:

  • Being cautious with credit 💳
  • Living beneath their means ⚖️
  • Sharing, saving, and spending smart 🧠

However, Crandell adds, “Steering their grandchildren to you, their credit union, for service and advice is an easier path to provide support.”

The average person’s hesitation to engage in financial discussions provides your institution with an ideal “people helping people” platform. For as Crandell relates:

“By promoting a [youth] program to aid your senior members in this effort, you can give them the action-oriented tools, financial products, and information to succeed at both wealth sharing and advice giving. You can give them the opportunity to be financial educators and the ability to do it, including web and mobile banking applications purpose built for this opportunity.”

So grab your metaphorical pickaxes, credit union friends! Because Crandell affirms, “The ‘gold’ to be mined in your well-built relationships with your senior members is found in their role as grandparents funding and shepherding the early years and the early ‘financial teaching’ years of their grandchildren, your future members.”

So here’s to ensuring the longevity of your credit union by leveraging family ties!

— 4 —

A Parting Gift: Alright, I don’t want to be known as a Grinch or a Scrooge! So here’s a little seasonal treat for you! 🎁

If you’d like to get your members (And yourself!) in the holiday spirit, then listen to and download our original song, “We’ll Save & Share for the Holidays.”

As the title implies, this jingle details how Joe the Monkey and his Money Mammals pals plan to use the money in their Save and Share jars this season. Hopefully its festive financial message will encourage your members, both young and old, to do the same!

Until next month, here’s to putting our best fin lit flippers forward!

Erin Prim

Marketing Manatee