New paper now available: Purposively Purposeful: the case for credit union clarity of purpose, by Matt Bland, CEO of Co-op Credit Union in Britain.

This is the second in our Reflections series, based in practitioner experience rather than research. In this piece, Matt offers his reflections on why credit unions should invest time and energy in defining and codifying their purpose as organisations, offers suggestions on how you might go about doing so and proposes his own framework for the movement’s social purpose. He ends by sharing The Co-op Credit Union’s recently-published purpose statement – Defining our Purpose – as an example of what this kind of project might result in.

Swoboda is very grateful to Matt for sharing his thoughts on this critical topic, and we hope you find it as stimulating as we did. If you have a topic you would like to ‘Reflect’ on in this way to the benefit of other credit unions, please contact Dr Paul A Jones, Director of Research at Swoboda (p.a.jones@ljmu.ac.uk).

Download the report here or click on the image.