While every financial institution strives for solid performance, our credit union finds it equally important to nurture our members’ financial success. This mission keeps our focus where it needs to be – on service to our community and to the members who entrust their finances to us.

GFA’s commitment to enhancing members’ finances earned us the Credit Union National Association’s first Community Credit Union of the Year award in 2007. This commitment continued to win awards in 2009 for Social Responsibility and Philosophy in Action.

These recent awards were based on two GFA initiatives - an edu-
cational program that raises our community’s financial awareness and a second ‘Fusion Savings’ program that encourages members

to achieve their financial goals through systematic savings.

The Fusion Savings program helped us grow our member deposits by 17.22% in 2008 – more than twice the nationwide average for credit unions. This year, Fusion Savings has generated over $641,000 in new savings for 587 members, truly linking the strength of our community with the strength of our credit union.

Our Member Rewards program continues the Fusion Savings approach. When our members establish a deep relationship with GFA, we provide higher rates on certificates and lower rates on consumer loans. More than one third of our membership qualified for these rewards which totaled $125,000 last year alone.

It’s an approach that sets us apart from our competitors as well. Using strong partners, such as COCC, we are consistently first to market with products that serve the complete range of member financial need – from member business loans to an assistance program that has already helped 300 members through our challenging economic times.