A COVID origin story
Sarah Snell Cooke, Founder/CEO, The Credit Union Connection
I invented the virtual happy hour. I swear.
It was April 2020, and we were all trapped inside. I swear I invented the virtual Happy Hour. Credit union friends, clients and colleagues gathered just to talk. No agenda. No pitch.
Those happy hours were the genesis of The Credit Union Connection—not as a business plan, but as a passion project. Hat tip to Samantha Paxson for planting that seed.
I wanted to create something different than every other credit union media outlet out there. And there are a lot of them, which honestly says something wonderful about our industry. For an industry this small, it means a lot of people care deeply about credit unions from the inside out.
My husband, John, thought I was out of my mind, but that’s not really anything new. He could stand to watch this thing cost money until he couldn’t. By September 2021, he left his job to help, and that’s when we really started to take off.
You’ve come a long way, baby
I’m telling my age with that tagline from an old cigarette ad, but it fits. What started as a website with a handful of blog posts on it that nobody visited now reaches more than 24,000 credit union people a month. Thank you to our readers for your support, because we love what we do and we’re glad you do, too!
From zero Club Members (sponsors, and there’s gonna be more to that name coming soon) to more than 40 this year, with 4 months to go. While we appreciate all our Club Members, I especially want to highlight CU Strategic Planning and LaCorp, which took a chance on us as founding sponsors. Jamie, Vanessa, David and Erin – you’re very special people.
Our paid thought leadership articles now reach an average of 4,000-plus readers from our audience. Industry decision-makers don’t just scroll past our headlines.
On LinkedIn, we’ve organically built a highly engaged community of more than 19,000 followers. They’re more engaged with us than with any other credit union media outlet, averaging 8-10 comments per day. Sixty-four percent work in banking and finance, plus many, many more who consider themselves accountants or technologists in addition to their credit union love. Vice president or higher? 55%.
Every year, we add something new. This year alone brought sponsored podcasts from The Credit Union Connection, our distribution partnership with Andy Janning’s investigative podcast Overdrawn and Will Wille joining as Managing Editor. We’ve hosted virtual roundtables and webinars. We launched a LinkedIn newsletter. We can create custom content for credit unions and business partners alike. And we’re just getting started.
You’re going to start seeing more from us soon about our efforts to democratize education in the credit union community. I can’t wait to share!
Why we do what we do
At our core, John and I are realistic credit union purists. We believe credit unions have the power to change lives and communities. But that power only means something if credit unions have the right people, technology and services to stay relevant—and that means knowing ALL of what’s available, not just the advertisers with the biggest marketing budgets.
That’s where we live. Connecting credit unions with the business partners who can actually help them thrive.
We also want to help solve for the biggest threats facing the credit union industry right now:
- Increasing public awareness
- Succession planning and leadership development
- Maintaining relevance
We do that by highlighting career opportunities, educational opportunities and leadership development. We offer:
- The most comprehensive and user-friendly credit union careers listings
- The easiest-to-use credit union events calendar
- Low pricing so all business partners that want to serve credit unions can get their brand and thought leadership known with personal support
And we do it with personality. Teal and orange bubbles floating around LinkedIn. A brand voice that actually sounds like human beings. And truly multimedia content options for every type of learner.
We wanted to build something different, something that serves this community the way it deserves to be served. We are not a news outlet but an information outlet that happens to include news. Here’s a sneak peek: We are going to begin providing Masterclasses that every credit union or even an employee or board member on their own can afford!
Five years in, we’re still doing it differently. We’re still very affordable and transparent. We post our pricing right in the media kit because we’re not interested in horse-trading – no negotiating BS pricing. We would rather spend our time supporting credit unions and the partners that show up for them. (And, I’m not gonna lie, ourselves.)
Wait until you see what’s coming the rest of this year and into 2027. We’ve got a special anniversary announcement coming your way, readers, that you’re really going to want to participate in, and you know late Q3 wouldn’t be complete without a fresh 2027 media kit.
Thank you for five years of showing up, reading, watching, listening, sharing and believing that credit unions deserve better storytelling. We’re just getting started, thanks to your continued support and engagement.
What started as a pandemic happy hour discussion became a mission. Five years later, The Credit Union Connection reaches tens of thousands of credit union decision-makers every month, and we did it by staying true to what makes this industry worth covering: people helping people, done differently.