Two Minnesota Credit Unions Place Nationally for CUNA’s Desjardins Awards

CUNA's National Awards Committee announced the 2020 recipients of Desjardins Awards for Financial Education, including HomeTown Credit Union and TopLine Federal Credit Union.

The Desjardins Awards honor credit unions, chapters, and leagues for their commitment to both youth and adult financial literacy.

HomeTown Credit Union placed second overall for their Virtual Lunch and Learn Program, which is a social distancing- friendly adaption of their financial education offerings. Each session is free of charge and highlight a personal finance topic or expert on a related topic. These live and recorded sessions are shared with our community partners that we provide financial education for, such as schools, non-profit agencies and social-service organizations.

TopLine Federal Credit Union received an Honorable mention for the Youth Category for their YouthCare C.S. Star Program. The training program provides meaningful employment and service-learning opportunities for urban youth, from diverse backgrounds. As a part of the program, TopLine holds a financial literacy workshop for the youth emphasizing goal setting, how to budget, saving and many other relevant financial topics for youth.

“The Desjardins award winners illustrate how credit unions live the “people helping philosophy” through their everyday operations, community service and education,” MnCUN President & CEO Mark Cummins. “We are proud of the work that they do to improve their members’ financial well-being and communities as a whole.”
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The awards, which are given in several credit union asset sizes, were selected among state-level winning entries to compete nationally. The Minnesota Credit Union Network and the Dakota Credit Union Association have a reciprocal judging agreement to ensure impartiality.