Credit unions and their members are givers – that’s just a fact but that fact also is central to the self identity of credit unions and how they see their role in their communities.
Enter Givio, an entirely different kind of fintech. Over the years of this show we’ve poked into all manner of fintechs but Givio is different, it’s something we haven’t seen before and it is exciting because Givio (as the name hints) is a new take on giving.
I became acquainted with Givio when a longtime friend asked me to take a look at Dig Deep Vermont, a grassroots effort to raise $45 million to help farmers across Vermont deal with the massive damages done to agriculture by recent flooding and extreme weather. Vermont is a state where farming matters, to the economy and also to the aesthetics. Vermont farms are just pretty. Most are still family owned and operated.
And now some 350 Vermont farm families are fighting to survive.
Enter Dig Deep Vermont, which is backed by a cross section of important local institutions, from the state’s ski resorts to the Association of Vermont Credit Unions (and there’s a show in the library with Joe Bergeron, CEO of the Association, who tells why Vermont credit unions are involved in Dig Deep. Here’s the link).
How would people who want to help those farmers donate? That’s where Givio enters the story. Literally within a couple days of entering the project Givio had created 15 website buttons that direct donations to 14 Vermont counties along with a state fund. Donations pass through a 501 C 3, meaning they are tax deductible.
Requests for aid also are vetted before money is turned over.
Find the donate button here and see how smooth this transaction is. Know you’ll also be helping Vermont’s needy farmers.
As I learned about this I knew I had to talk with Gary Carr, Givio’s CEO – and I had a question to ask him: Could Givio’s tools help any credit union in the US raise donations to help cope with a disaster in its community?
The answer is yes – and a mechanism can be set up literally in a day or two.
There’s also Givio’s app – available in the leading app stores – which is free and it allows users to direct donations to literally thousands of charities with a few clicks on the screen.
Givio also has a donation tool – now installed at 30+ credit unions and banks, including Visions in New York State, Stanford Federal Credit Union, and American Airlines Federal Credit Union. This version of Givio is behind the institution’s firewall – accessible only by members – and it can be deployed in various ways including a targeted campaign to assist a specific organization or a la carte donations by a member to his/her favorite charities. Costs of installing Givio at a credit union are very, very low.
Remember, credit unions and their members are givers. Givio makes it easy to give and to give wisely.
