We’re all familiar with the saying “a little goes a long way.” For Charmain Hanners, longtime member of Alpena Alcona Area Credit Union in Michigan, a few $25 deposits earned her a $100,000 Grand Prize.
Through Save to Win, a program designed to motivate and inspire credit union members to save, Charmain experienced the benefits of positive financial planning. Charmain set out with the goal of saving money for her grandson Charlie’s education. Simply depositing $25 into a special savings account entered Charmain, as well as other savers who participated, in raffles for monthly prizes in addition to last Friday’s $100,000 Grand Prize drawing.
Charmain plans to utilize her winnings to help further offset costs for her grandson’s education and to charities assisting the homeless, battered women, and the American Cancer Society. Whichever reasons participants choose to save, Save to Win exemplifies an energizing and results-oriented approach to saving. In its second year, this prized-link savings i3 idea ended with 16,833 accounts yielding $28.16 million dollars in savings. Comparing that to 2009 with 11, 666 accounts producing $8.56 million dollars in savings—that’s a 144% increase in accounts and 329% increase in savings!
Congratulations to Charmain and the other 16,832 credit union account holders for another great year. Let’s make this year just as rewarding and successful as the last!
A special thanks to Michigan Credit Union League and D2D for their extraordinary efforts in making Save to Win a continued success.
Contact Michigan Credit Union League or D2D to get a Prize-linked Savings program started at your credit union.
To learn more about this i3 idea, click here.
Comments
4
Congratulations!!!
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This is so cool! Great to see how much this program has already grown. Who says you can’t make saving fun?
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Great initiative – but isn’t this type of scheme illegal in most states since it is essentially a lottery?
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Good question Daniel—
The Michigan program is running under a savings raffle provision. And, one important difference between a lottery and Save to Win is that people continue to earn dividends on their deposits in addition to the opportunity to win a prize.
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