The worldwide foundation for credit unions, inc. (wf) mission is to support credit union and financial cooperative systems in development activities, assist in times of disaster and to report back to donors on how their support helped the institutions and their members. Primary activities supported by worldwide foundation include the world council of credit unions' credit union development programs, international partnerships program, disaster relief, and educational opportunities for credit union staff and volunteers.

Credit Unions , Disaster Aid , Disaster Preparedness & Relief Services , Economic Development , International , International Economic Development , Microfinance

Partnership program the foundation's international partnership program brings together credit union leaders from developed and emerging economic systems to share cutting-edge technology and best practices, providing new knowledge and resources for all participants. In 2014, the international partnership program supported 16 credit union partnerships and facilitated 15 educational exchanges between emerging and developed credit union systems. For almost twenty years, the partnership program has been conducting trainings to equip future leaders and create long-term development solutions for credit unions in low-income countries. These technical trainings occur 3-4 times per year and often include 1-4 volunteers per exchange. This platform offers intensive technical and educational training on issues such as board development, governance, operations, marketing, financial management, risk analysis, membership growth and industry-wide regulatory trends. technical assistance credit union development the worldwide foundation provided funding to world council of credit unions to support its credit union development activities. Examples of world council's development initiatives include the following: in ecuador, world council brought digital financial services to remote areas of the south american country. In 2014, 70,000+ credit union members received debit cards for the first time allowing them convenient access to their accounts in hundreds of service points. Furthermore, over 80,000 international remittances were sent to ecuador credit unions via world council's remittance platform. 84% of the beneficiaries of these remittances are female. In mexico, world council piloted a mobile banking initiative that allows participating credit union members to transfer money from their credit union accounts to any person in mexico that has a bank account. This ability to easily transfer funds is opening the door to convenience and cost savings to over 3,500 users. Users are also able to check balances, pay loans and bills directly from their mobile phones. With the u. S. Agency for international development and fhi 360, world council increased availability of financial products and services among rural and agricultural areas in haiti. Through the project, 32 financial institutions are newly engaged in value chain finance providing $28. 5 million in agricultural loans to more than 56,473 microenterprises. In total, the financial institutions incresed outreach by 238% to 1,357,226; including 531,417 clients served in rural areas. Through support from the worldwide foundation, world council of credit unions launched the third phase of its build the brand initiative, which includes a new program, wecu2, with fresh digital strategies that help credit unions better understand and engage with millennials- and vice versa. Wecu2 includes a series of online podcasts with industry expert interviews, videos, product case studies, twitter chats, slideshare presentations, an interactive blog and direct millenial feedback from around the world. educationwf's support of the pacific technical congress demonstrated the foundation's ongoing commitment to training. The congress is designed to increase the technical capacity of staff and volunteers serving credit unions in developing countries. In 2013, wf supported the congress in fiji and continued to grow a network of credit union leaders in the pacific region. Wf also supported a women's forum held in conjunction with the congress. The global women's leadership network is a worldwide foundation program that advances credit union women in leadership. The network provides women with access to a global community of credit union leaders dedicated to advising each other and to cultivating the leadership potential of women worldwide. It engages credit union women in professional and personal development through social media and online resources, educational platforms and networking events. Global women's