Mutual Community Report Introduction

Credit Union Foundation Australia and Abacus Australian Mutuals will be conducting the Mutual Community Report 2008 to represent aspects of community investment and activity of the Australian mutual ADI sector - to demonstrate the effect the movement has in Australia.

Reporting is now active and is due by 5pm 29 August 2008.

Mutual ADI are encouraged to participate: access the 2008 Survey and Project Guide.

The headline results of the first Mutual Community Report conducted in 2007 suggested that:

• our sector had competitive levels of investment compared with non-mutual ADIs;
• the broad category of “community investment” measured against NPBT (Net profit before tax) averaged at 1.4%. This exceeds targets set by Westpac (1%);
• the range of investments varied greatly, mutual ADIs reported community investment initiatives that translate, in membership terms - from $11.76 per member to $0.10 per member; and in per FTE terms, from $3571 to $52; and
• total dollar investment in community initiatives from the survey group was reported as $4.4 million.

  Access the Mutual Community Report 2007

Information on community involvement is a critical component of Abacus’ promotional activities each year. It allows Abacus to not only to report on comparative statistics against the majors, but most importantly to showcase our industry’s community involvement as part of Abacus political representation programs and industry positioning activities.

The 2008 Mutual Community Report is an important part of this work and each credit union and mutual building society is encouraged to complete the simple survey.

This years excercise is very simple with reporting scope reduced to a one-page survey of less than 12 questions. To ensure that effective support and advice is provided for this exercise, feel free to nominate an appropriate contact involved with your organisations community investments, and advise Philip Lambert of CUFA by email. Download the 2008 Survey and Project Guide.

A new feature has been added to the 2008 reporting that enables the provision of case studies to demonstrate your organisation’s community involvement. Some of these case studies will be reproduced in the public reporting document to illustrate in real terms, the impact that the mutual banking sector has in the daily lives of the communities you serve. All case studies will be presented on-line at cufa.com.au and within the CUFA CSR Toolkit, and may be a valuable way to showcase activities through the mutual sector in Australia.

For further details of this program, please contact:

Philip Lambert | Project Officer | CUFA

Phone: 02 8299 9031 | Email: plambert@cuscal.com.au

Reporting is now active and is due by 5pm 29 August 2008.