“Bridge the Gap” campaign focuses on four key areas of engagement for 2021

Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions is launching its annual awareness and fundraising campaign called “Bridge the Gap” to help the global credit union movement bridge four key inclusion gaps that have been further exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the charitable and engagement arm of World Council of Credit Unions, the Worldwide Foundation in 2021 is focused on helping credit unions bridge the: 

• Digital Gap by striving to digitize credit unions worldwide and delivering services safely to millions seeking access to basic financial services through World Council projects and engagement experiences. This effort will also help World Council meet its Challenge 2025 goal of digitizing the global credit union system by 2025.
• Safety Gap by responding with relief support via Project Storm Break, the Worldwide Foundation’s disaster fund, to supply credit union systems with personal protective equipment and natural disaster support.
• Gender Gap by leveraging the Global Women’s Leadership Network (GWLN) to smash gender inequality for female colleagues and members.
• Leadership Gap by building our global young professionals’ network up to a community of 10,000 strong through networking and leadership opportunities driven through the World Council Young Credit Union Professionals (WYCUP) program.

In launching Bridge the Gap, the Worldwide Foundation has redesigned its website and a produced a new video to drive interest in the campaign. Its annual goal during 2021 is to raise $1.7 million dollars across those four initiatives and increase donor and industry engagement with the Foundation’s work by 25%.

“2020 shined a large spotlight on inclusion gaps that exist worldwide every day,” said Mike Reuter, Worldwide Foundation Executive Director. “Credit unions are community pillars that can help bridge these gaps and include everyone. With the Bridge the Gap campaign, our purpose is to give credit unions worldwide the resources they need to address inclusion gaps for their members, their teams and their communities. Our four Foundation initiatives continue our support of this critical work in 2021 and beyond. And because inclusion means different things to different people—and everyone is deserving of it—we are addressing the gaps with a multi-faceted approach.”