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Starting point: Cooperatives

Organizing strategy: Credit union that works for members’ benefit, and uses financial clout to better the community and environment they live in

Tools: Credit

Outcomes: A powerful financial player that lives up to its vision

Primary Resources: https://www.vancity.com/AboutVancity/VisionAndValues/?xcid=about_megamenu_visvalls

From their materia

At Vancity, our vision is to redefine wealth. Our vision requires us to think differently about wealth—to re-envision prosperity as something we can only achieve if we are surrounded by and connected to a vibrant, healthy community that is sustainable for the long term.

While the traditional banking model focuses on increasing short-term profits for the benefit of shareholders, our vision focuses on meeting the long-term needs of our members and their communities.

Our vision calls on us to measure success in terms of how we contribute to the well-being of our members and their communities—not just financial well-being, but social and environmental well-being as well. Our goal is to create positive member and community impact through all our operations—from how we make money to how we spend and invest it. We’re committed to finding new and better ways to use all our resources, people and capital to create large-scale positive impacts.

This way of doing business differentiates us from traditional financial institutions. By redefining wealth, we are measuring our success in terms of the health and vitality of the community as a whole. By holding ourselves to higher standards of innovation, co-operation and accountability, we’re helping to build a wealthier future for all.

Good Money™ is about making your money work harder for you while doing good things in your community and the world. It’s connecting members to an innovative investment model that supports a stronger local economy, a healthier population, and a more vibrant, prosperous community.

Values-based banking

Our commitment to building an accountable, sustainable, supportive financial model guides everything we do, from our work with the Global Alliance for Banking on Values to our Living Wage and ethical principles to our environmental practices.

As a financial institution, how we invest and operate affects your community’s well-being. It’s a responsibility that we take seriously. That’s why our values-based banking model is grounded in the local economy—because we believe you only truly prosper when you’re connected to a vibrant, healthy community.

Providing credit is the single biggest way we can help members and their communities thrive and prosper. We use your deposits to lend to and invest in local businesses, organizations, and initiatives that create positive economic, social, and environmental impacts in your community. That way, we can grow your wealth while making a difference in areas such as creating jobs, reducing greenhouse gases and fighting homelessness.

We invest in local businesses and organizations in a number of ways. We share our expertise and give them savvy advice. We use the strength of our networks to partner and collaborate with them. And we provide them with specialized financing solutions that combine grants, microcredit, start-up financing, traditional loans, mortgages and lines of credit with cash-flow and growth financing.

Our goal is to continually increase the proportion of lending we do that has a positive community impact.

We focus our impact lending and investing in the following areas:

Each of these areas was chosen because it demonstrates a clear, positive community impact, improving people’s lives and sustaining the environment. Many of these areas also have strong growth potential and are currently underserved

As a member-owned financial co-operative, we’re rooted in your community, responsive to your needs and dedicated to building sustainable wealth for all.