Montana Credit Unions for Community Development
With challenge comes opportunity. Standing at the podium in front of hundreds of Conference attendees to accept the inaugural Affiliate Innovation Award, Jeanne Saarinen stood as a stark example of this simple phrase. Faced with the challenges of a vast, sparsely populated state, reduced funding and a ballooning travel budget, Saarinen came up with the idea that award judges found so intriguing: the Remote Quality Review Program.
Saarinen accepts the Affiliate Innovation Award
After not receiving IRS funding and losing a staff member late last year, the staff Montana Credit Unions for Community Development (MCUCD) grew concerned. “We were worried that we wouldn’t be able to provide the same level of service to our credit unions and clients,” said Rachael Milne, VITA Program Coordinator at MCUCD. With many single-volunteer tax sites, maintaining the level of service volunteers were used to was crucial.
MCUCD supports 24 credit unions with 26 VITA sites across the state of Montana. By providing the processes and expertise in organizing a VITA site, MCUCD empowered the 54 volunteers at these sites to prepare more than 2,000 tax returns.
The need was too great to have a drop in service. 47 out of Montana’s 58 credit unions have a “low-income designation” from their federal regulator, the National Credit Union Administration, meaning approximately 80% of the state’s credit unions have more than half of its membership earning below 80% of the national median income.
From this came the idea of having the reviewer log in to the volunteer’s computer remotely to view the return. After some brainstorming, Saarinen, who serves as MCUCD’s Executive Director, decided to reach out to some of her most experienced volunteers to help with quality review. Milne said they “thank the heavens” for Barb Bauman’s response.
MCUCD Volunteers
Bauman is a long-time volunteer from a border town near North Dakota. MCUCD had quality review calls routed directly to her house - more than 700 miles from some of the volunteers that were calling. The process was an overwhelming success. “Volunteers loved getting to know Barb through the QR process, and Barb loved the experience too.”
The program isn’t just innovative – it’s effective as well. Making the volunteer experience as pleasant as possible, both in training and in preparing taxes, has increased MCUCD’s capacity and impact. “We enjoy a 70% volunteer retention rate and 100% retention rate,” said Milne. ”It’s been a very successful model to address barriers such as the large and rural nature of Montana, limited resources from local partners and single-volunteer sites new to tax preparation.”
Milne said MCUCD plans to build on the program. Recruiting volunteers and developing training for the program are in the works. “We’re also planning to implement the Rural Alternative Strategy, where tax returns are prepared remotely, in conjunction.”
MCUCD has set ambitious goals for itself in 2012. It plans to increase its volunteers to 65 (a 20% increase) and its tax returns to 2,500 (a 22% increase). But the overall goal remains the same for MCUCD since their formation in 2003 – to improve the lives and financial independence of all Montanans.
