mission driven
CU Pride™ is the LGBTQ+ association for credit unions. Supporting LGBTQ+ credit union professionals, members and allies, CU Pride™ has a mission to provide opportunities of education, engagement, sharing, and celebration allowing the credit union industry to embrace our diverse, vulnerable and inclusive community.
starting with a conversation
The conversation hit the main stage at the 2018 Underground Collision when co-founder Linda Bodie was asked to speak to her experience as an openly out CEO. Her words stirred the LGBTQ+ professionals in the room. After the Underground Collision, the Linda Bodie and another original co-founder Dan Marquez began conversations about connecting the LGBTQ+ CU Professionals bringing in Brandi Stankovic and Zach Christensen. In 2020, CU Pride™ was informally launched in Washington D.C. as part of a #MeetUp during Mitchell Stankovic’s Underground Collision RAW event, held in conjunction with CUNA’s GAC and then formally launched in June of 2020 with the 1st Annual Virtual CU Pride™ Event, with nearly 300 attendees from across the world.
CU Pride™ has evolved from industry affinity group to formal association focused on driving vulnerable collaboration around the critical issues impacting the credit union LGBTQ+ community and the members they serve. CU Pride™ is a critical component of all diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and will stand up to have a voice within the industry.
CU Pride™ has evolved from industry affinity group to formal association focused on driving vulnerable collaboration around the critical issues impacting the credit union LGBTQ+ community and the members they serve. CU Pride™ is a critical component of all diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and will stand up to have a voice within the industry.
Unique voice & contribution
- Inherent Diversity – The LGBTQ+ community represents the most diverse and intersectional demographics including age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, education, and geography.
- Industry Influence – Because of the LGBTQ+ community’s diversity, CU Pride™ is uniquely positioned to collaborate with other Diversity-centric organizations to provide best practices and education and seek out opportunities within the credit union movement as well as those organizations serving our members.
- Pioneers of Allyship – The LGBTQ+ community is passionate in the belief that all humans deserve equality and equity. However, change requires social change agents, and this community has become proficient in building allyship to meet a desired outcome. CU Pride™ seeks to do the same with the entire credit union industry.
- Grass Roots Cultivation – Credit unions were started as a grass roots movement and CU Pride™ was started with a call to the industry with the philosophy of people helping people. In less than two years, more than 1,250 credit union professionals and allies and over 250 organizations have joined the conversation and sharing the message.
- Strategic Level Understanding – CU Pride™ lives up to its tenets through strategic thinking and action designed to lift voices and enact change.
