DIVERSITY, INCLUSION & BELONGING. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 2022 REPORT.

Minnesota’s First Black-Led Credit Union

Affinity Plus donated $250,000 and financial expertise to Arise Community Credit Union. It’s being established by the Association for Black Economic Power to address systemic financial challenges impacting Minneapolis residents, particularly people of color.

Financial Education

The Affinity Plus Foundation contributed over $18,000 to Junior Achievement North, making their proven financial education, career readiness and entrepreneurial curriculum available to more than 2,000 Minnesota students.

Special Olympics

The Polar Plunge raised nearly $800,000 for Special Olympics Minnesota, and Affinity Plus helped through the fundraising efforts of our employees and the second annual Kickstart campaign. Fourteen teams and 160 employees took the plunge.

Inclusive Playground

Through a $15,000 donation from the Affinity Plus Foundation, Jefferson Elementary gained an inclusive outdoor playground, friendly for kids on the Autism Spectrum Disorder. It’ll feature music, shade, spinning toys, rock climbing walls, swings and slides.

Tech Drive

The Tech Drive for Education program gives the community a convenient place to drop off unwanted computer equipment to be repurposed, repaired or recycled. Several hundred students have already benefited from these invaluable technology tools.

Healthy & Accessible Food

The Affinity Plus Foundation provided a $15,000 grant to the Du Nord Foundation in Minneapolis to support its Community Market. The community-driven organization will use the grant for its barrier-free food shelf that engages the community in healthy eating by providing fresh fruit and vegetables at no charge.

Goodbye Fees

To help members who need support the most, we eliminated our returned item fee, and we reduced our courtesy pay fee for overdrafts. And members eligible for courtesy pay are now allowed a $100 buffer on their account, without incurring an overdraft fee. Affinity Plus was Minnesota’s first credit union to eliminate outdated non-sufficient funds fees, and to dramatically reform charges for courtesy payment services like this.

National Certification for Dora Everyday Checking

The Affinity Plus Dora Everyday Checking account, offered exclusively through Bank Dora Financial, received national certification by the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund. Dedicated to financial inclusion, Bank Dora provides a fully bilingual digital banking experience for low-moderate income individuals. Affinity Plus is 1 of 4 regional credit unions that sponsor Bank Dora Financial.

Early Pay

Now members can get their paycheck and other direct deposits up to 2 days early, when they set up direct deposit with their payer – at no additional cost.

Language Preferences for ATMs

Members can now save their language preference as Hmong, Spanish or English on all 58 Affinity Plus – owned ATMs. And enhanced graphics and new screens help make the information easier to read, too.

Credit Score Model Change

Transitioning to a new credit score model – from FICO 08 to Vantage 4.0 – lets us score more members, and make our products and services available to more people in our communities.

New VA Loan Options

Veteran members of Affinity Plus can now borrow up to 100% of a property’s appraised value, with no down payment and no private mortgage insurance required.

Easier Path to Citizenship

We recently partnered with St. Paul to introduce the Citizenship Loan, which is part of St. Paul’s New American Loan Program (NALP). To help cover the naturalization application cost, U.S. legal permanent residents living in St. Paul can get a no-interest loan of up to $2,000.