Looking for a way to explore and celebrate Hispanic history and culture in your credit union? Then celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM), which takes place September 15 to October 15.

Several credit unions proudly celebrate the richness and diversity of their communities by scheduling a special lineup of programs during HHM, focused on Latino themes and issues.

By planning fun, insightful and rewarding activities, your credit union can join in the celebration and reach out to this underserved market.

• You can inform your members and your community of HHM events through different communications on your Web site. 
• Get educated on different cultural celebrations and the make-up of your local Hispanic community. 
• Partner with a local organization or event to support a HHM activity. 
• Inform the Hispanic community of your credit union's efforts to meet their financial needs.

HHM is a great time to learn more about the largest, fastest-growing, youngest and most underserved group in the U.S. - Hispanics. While it only comes around once a year, you and your credit union can celebrate Hispanic heritage and culture anytime. Sometimes all it takes is a visit to a new area of town, a dinner at a new Latin American restaurant or something as simple as getting to know a Hispanic co-worker or neighbor.

Be sure to check out Coopera's video blog post, as Vice President Miriam De Dios discusses the celebration.

Sign up for Quarterly Hispanic Member Analysis Reports and Receive Your First Report FREE!

The Hispanic Member Analysis is meant to:

• Provide a reliable way of determining how many members are Hispanic. 
• Provide information useful for calculating return on investment of a Hispanic initiative. 
• Be the most accurate way of establishing metrics and measuring against goals. 
• Provide standard reporting that will be helpful for benchmarking across the industry. 
• Give a report that is created on your behalf without you having to invest the time to create the report. 
• Protect you from collecting member ethnicity information which may bring about concerns from examiners. 
• Provide you with timely data that can help inform your strategies.

Included in the Hispanic Member Analysis Basic Report are the following:

• Tables and graphs depicting Hispanic cohort, Hispanic Spanish-preferring cohort, Hispanic English-preferring cohort, Overall Membership cohort, and Age-Adjusted Membership cohort. 
• Data points: average age, median age, average tenure at credit union, median tenure at credit union, proportion of membership, average deposits, loan penetration, average loans, delinquency rate by incidence or by dollar volume, membership breakout by age, membership breakout by branch, market penetration, membership growth since last report. 
• Coopera observations and recommendations based on the data.

Click here to view pricing for the HMA.

It's not enough to translate your brochures and Web site into Spanish in order to reach the Hispanic market. To create a successful Hispanic outreach strategy, it's important to adapt your products to the market and not merely force the market to adapt to your products.

Join us at the 2011 CUNA Community Credit Union and Growth Conference and attend our breakout session titled, "Product Strategies to Attract and Create the Loyalty of the Hispanic Community."

At our session, you'll learn about new products such as reloadable prepaid cards and existing products that you can repackage to attract Hispanic members, as well as what resources you can use to execute these product strategies.

Coopera would like to bring your attention to an upcoming learning opportunity offered by our sister company, PayFusion.

PayFusion is hosting Debit Card Schools designed to help you create sustainable debit card portfolio strategies for the future. CEOs, CFOs and card program managers who attend will leave the school feeling confident in their ability to generate new revenue, save money and optimize their debit portfolios.

Sessions include:

• Debit networks & interchange
• Mobile banking
• Fraud prevention & control
• Compliance & regulations
• And more...

Register today:

• BOSTON Debit Card School - Oct. 6 & 7
• SAN DIEGO Debit Card School - Oct. 27 & 28

For more information, contact TJ Riha, CEO of PayFusion, at 800-870-4186.

We welcome the following credit unions to El Poder es Tuyo™(Spanish Web site for Hispanic Members):

• Jefferson Financial Credit Union - LA
• Darden Employees Federal Credit Union - FL
• Community 1st Credit Union - IA

Coming soon on El Poder es Tuyo™: