“You’re either born into credit unions or you fall into them.”
It is a casual line in conversation, but it lands with weight. In that single thought, Sarah Snell Cooke captures both the loyalty and the looming challenge facing the industry. If younger generations are not growing up inside the credit union ecosystem, where do they learn about money anymore?
That question sits at the center of a wide-ranging conversation on The Credit Union Connection podcast, where Sarah Snell Cooke is joined by Chip Griffith, Chief Member Experience Officer at OneAZ Credit Union. The discussion moves quickly from personal stories to uncomfortable realities. Fewer Americans are working with financial advisors. Younger adults are piecing together guidance from family, friends, and whatever shows up in their social feeds. Credit unions, long trusted but often taken for granted, are standing at a crossroads.
Midway through the conversation, Sarah voices something many parents and professionals quietly worry about. Schools are cutting back on financial education, assuming it will be picked up somewhere else. Chip does not dodge the concern. With a background rooted in teaching and decades in financial services, he speaks with equal parts urgency and optimism about what credit unions can step into when those gaps appear.
What makes this exchange compelling is not just what OneAZ is doing, but why. Chip describes an internal shift that treats financial coaching as a core responsibility rather than a nice-to-have. The idea is simple but ambitious. If members are expected to navigate increasingly complex financial lives, the institution should meet them with real tools, real people, and real empathy. Not every member wants a lecture. Not every member is ready to open their books. The conversation explores how flexibility and trust matter just as much as expertise.
There is also a quieter thread running underneath the dialogue about employees themselves. As Chip talks about certification, growth, and pride inside the organization, it becomes clear that financial literacy is not only changing member relationships. It is reshaping how teams see their own roles. Learning becomes contagious. Confidence builds. Service feels more human.
By the time the conversation winds down, there is no dramatic takeaway or polished slogan. Instead, there is a sense that credit unions are being asked to remember who they have always claimed to be. Not just places where money is stored or borrowed, but places where people are taught how to move forward. In an era full of noise, that role feels both old-fashioned and quietly radical.
NOTE: The below AI-generated transcript to the video might not be 100% right, but are any of us really?
Sarah Cooke
Alrighty, hello. Welcome everybody. My name is Sarah Snell, cook, your host here at the cranium connection, I am joined today by the wonderful, awesome just met him, but no, he’s wonderful and awesome. Chip Griffith, welcome. Thank you for having me and thank you for coming and chip is our is the chief member experience officer at One AZ Credit Union. Tell us a little bit more about yourself in the credit union.
Chip Griffith
So I’ve been at the credit union for first seven years at One AZ, this is actually my first credit union. So I grew up in the mortgage business, went to the banking world. The secret of the beauty of credit unions was unique to me until I was introduced a little over probably eight years ago, to really see, you know, the people helping people approach and what truly makes it different in the in the financial industry space. And I’ve loved every minute of it, and I’ve been able to grow, grow along the way.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, no, I was talking to somebody earlier about how you’re either born into credit unions or you fall into them one way or the other. That’s how we find them. And so excuse me, one of the things that Investopedia has recently found that only 41% of Americans use a financial advisor, and it’s way lower than that for younger people. I know my kids don’t have them, but those are also the Gen Z people who we want to bring into our credit unions and who also want to be educated on this kind of stuff. I know my daughter calls non stop about questions about money and but that’s how it happens. People are turning to their family, their friends, you know, TikTok, if you will, sometimes. So this has obviously been a hallmark of credit unions overall as an industry. But how does one AZ View Financial Education and Literacy and wellness.
Chip Griffith
Well, I think you call it out. I mean, I think the challenges are very clear. I mean, the stat that you mentioned, obviously is impressive in a negative light, of course, on what the opportunity is and honestly, credit unions have, have generally tended to support more of the baby boomer era, and those are the ones that got the most education early on and are the most equipped. So as we look at the future, as we look at growing our membership to be more diverse from an age and the Gen Z that 18 to 29 year olds are not getting a lot of that education in in high school and prior and in many cases, they’re not getting it home either. So if we want to be a financial industry institution that truly supports the community, we need to step up and provide some resources and some tools to really bridge that gap, you know, so folks can grow and grow with us and we’re growing with them at the same time.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, yeah, no, I always give my Boomer dad, a hard time, because he’ll, he’ll give me lectures on money management and stuff. I’m like, you had a defined benefit plan for retirement? I don’t. I’m so employed, you know? Yeah. So I think there are different tools that have evolved along the way, including retirement plans. And so from what I understand, One AZ offers this really personalized in depth financial coaching on various topics, from money management to debt reduction. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Chip Griffith
Yeah, so I think it came in the heart of hearing some of those stats that scared us. And when we looked at, you know, the our credit union has been around close to 75 years, and if we want to be around another 75 years, we’re going to need to make sure that our members have a have a good level of financial education. And so we identified some of those gaps. And there was a program, you know, in the in the credit union industry that allowed our associates or employees to get certified, and really to be that steward of education for the communities that we serve in. And so I actually was, personally the first one for our credit union that went first through the program, 12 week program, again, just to get through the certification. Really wanted to understand and see how it fit, see how it fit the need, and obviously measure the quality and all of that, and finish with the proctor exam. And kind of went through that process and then rolled it out to our organization, and with the goal of having every single banker in the entire organization be certified as a certified financial coach and be able to deliver these workshops that now we’ve created three, three workshops in house to be able to deliver that that to the community. So we do a little bit online and definitely support our teams that are more member facing and forward facing, whether it’s in the branch or our call center or even our virtual. Team that are certified to be able to help as our as our members need it, ultimately.
Sarah Cooke
Right, right. And so how do you go about delivering that to your members? Because you’re a larger credit union too, lots and lots of members out there to reach.
Chip Griffith
We are, which means there’s a lot of opportunity as well. So we’ve put it on, I mean, it’s an appointment that you can schedule with us. So similar to I want to open a checking account or I want to do a auto loan application, you can sign up for one of our three offerings which we have, one on building credit, one on creating a budget, and another on managing debt, all of which are very important. So we’ve got that tool. If you’re someone that really wants the hands on personal, personal approach, you’ve got someone there that really can walk you through these step by step programs. And we even have follow up information and emails that they can once they’ve had the appointment, follow up, follow up on and do some self, self serving themselves. Or we have tools on our website too. There’s some that don’t want to you know, it is a little bit personal, right? And so if you don’t want that in person, you’re not ready for that. We’ve got some tools online that you can use as well.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, it certainly feels less judgy doing it online, I imagine. And what you mentioned earlier, too, is kids aren’t getting this in school either. Like my kids, I know we went to, we moved to where we did, because it was some of the best schools in the country when it came to home economics class and their financial literacy segment, the teacher was like, Yeah, let’s, let’s bake cookies instead. And I’m like, my daughter was, like, freaking out because she because of what I do, she knows all about credit unions, and then I consequently freaked out as well. Do you see that kind of, maybe resistance in the school systems to working more closely with credit unions on the financial literacy side?
Chip Griffith
I mean, I was fortunate. Both my parents were teachers, so I grew up in schools, you know, almost seven days a week, depending on what was going on with schools or sports or anything like that. And my wife’s also a teacher. I started that route and thought that was going to be my path. It ended up being a little bit of a change, which is why I’m, I think, so passionate about this, this topic is because I definitely see myself as a part time teacher, even in the in the business sector. But I think what I what I see today is, is as costs have elevated in schools and funding has been so scrutinized over the years, a lot of the things that get cut are some of these. You know what we’re what are called special programs. And so they make the assessment the assumption that they’ll get it elsewhere, and maybe that, you know, in a lot of cases, parents step up and fill that gap. But other cases, depending on education levels or knowledge or opportunity, they just don’t have that, and they have to lean on a tick tock or YouTube or something like that, or find out the hard way after, after something negative happened in their in their financial situation, to reach out. So, yeah, I think it is, it is a challenge. It’s a real problem. And I’m happy to see credit union stepping up, and, you know, trying to address it.
Sarah Cooke
Oh, yeah, absolutely. And as we should. And so talk a little bit about what that coaching process looks like. I mean, you’re digging into there. Look at this. Is what we see in your account, and you shouldn’t be spending this or whatever. I don’t know. How does that look?
Chip Griffith
Well, we are. I mean, I think the more information you know, the more real the experience is, and the interaction is, the more value that we can add on our side. So we do offer an appointment set. There’s pre work that we ask, you know, for instance, if it’s, you know, creating a budget, we want to know all of their, you know, the bills that they’re paying, and what is a need versus a want. So we can talk through what that, what that looks like. And so I think there’s a, you know, what they put in is what they get out of it. But the more prepared they come to the appointments, the better their feel when they go away. But we see all levels, some, some come in with nothing, with a little bit more of a standoff approach. I’m going to wait and see summer, you know, open book, and they, they bring a you know, pad folio with all of the information for the last five years. And it’s a little bit overwhelming to go through and everything in between. So we’ve been happy so far to see, you know, again, the opportunity that’s there, but the willingness that our that our members have to listen to tools and solutions to some of their challenges.
Sarah Cooke
And I mean, do you know how many of your team are actually working on this, with the with the different members?
Chip Griffith
Yeah, we have today, I think we have about 60 certified financial coaches. So. It really has grown, and those are all in member facing roles, whether it be by phone, in person. So it’s growing every, every single day. In fact, I was just in a branch yesterday and heard, heard a cheering, and it was the pushing the button to be to pass the certification test. So it’s a big deal internally. We know we have, you know, an opportunity to really be stewards in the community, and this is just one way we can do it.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, yeah. And how does that affect the employee experience, too? I imagine they’re, like you said, they’re pretty excited to be able to better serve members. Absolutely.
Chip Griffith
I mean, I think they’re going through it. They’re, they’re learning so much, you know, throughout. I mean, I personally have 25 years in the financial services industry, and when I was going through the program at the start, I thought, Okay, I’m going to do this to make sure that I understand what my team’s going to go through. But I was learning throughout. So as much as, much as I, you know, I can only imagine what that’s like for you know, some of our teammates that maybe only have, you know, three, 510, years in the industry, there’s probably a lot they can learn. So to truly be that that expert is it’s something you’re constantly learning, constantly growing. And I think our members are appreciative that we’re taking that approach Right.
Sarah Cooke
And investing in your employees is always good to give them another skill for yourselves, as well as just for to make them feel invested in like I said. And so why? Why is it important for one AZ and every credit union serving their communities, to really dig into this role of provider of financial education and literacy.
Chip Griffith
I mean, I think just the overall financial health of, you know, we serve the state of Arizona. So we want the state of Arizona to have a fantastic financial health throughout, of course, we, you know, we support our members and even those outside of the community that aren’t members yet, and so, so we really want to be there for them and understand and we’re open to making adjustments to the offerings that we have, as well. If there’s a need that we didn’t identify initially, we’re open to making those updates, creating new curriculum and really supporting because we see that depending on the age group, it really does change the type of curriculum that we push out and that we offer. And so we do, you know some that are in the schools and high schools where we offer financial education. We offer some to our members. We also offer workshops to our wealth our Wealth Management Group offers workshops for their members as well. So a variety of different, different timelines depend. You know, for some they might be looking just to buy their first vehicle. For others, they’re looking for a full wealth plan and a retirement plan for themselves too, and everything in the middle too. So we have to be flexible, you know, flexible throughout.
Sarah Cooke
And one of the things people typically think of the kids, kids, high schoolers, 20 somethings, when you’re talking about financial literacy, but it’s everybody, everybody, so and not a lot of credit unions offer financial management options, as far as like longer term financial planning. How is that helping your credit union and your members by offering that?
Chip Griffith
Well, I think we want to offer everything from start to finish, from your first savings account as a as an infant, that you’re, you’re, you’re putting money in for maybe that college education all the way to the full retirement plan and adult care and all of those things that go, go in it. But we want to be available every step of the way and not push someone elsewhere, you know, just based on the products and services that we don’t have. So I think that’s really important to understand the needs of our members, the community, our future members and, you know, having those touch points all the way throughout is important.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I always allow my guests the final thoughts. What would you like to leave our credit unions with today?
Chip Griffith
Well, I just think I’m really happy again. The teacher at heart for me really is proud of this program, but also proud of the credit union industry, and want to keep pushing things forward and demonstrating how we are different. Today, my credit union is celebrating the acquisition of a local bank, so we’re able to tell that story. And so that’s fresh, fresh in my mind, and certainly, you know, capacity as well. But you know, spread, spread that story and let everyone know all the good work that’s happening.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, awesome. Thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it. Chip. Thank you. Bye.