Youth Week 2012 Poster
Youth Week 2012 Poster

National Youth Saving Challenge™

Steps to Participate

  1. Set goals. Set three goals for the Saving Challenge:
    • The number of members under age 18 you expect to make deposits
    • The number of new accounts you hope to open
    • Total amount you expect youth to deposit during April
    There’s no magic formula. The point is to set goals and plan for them. If this is your first year, look at what was deposited to youth accounts last April for your baseline. Then determine how much you want to raise those numbers. Here are the actual average totals (based on total CU membership—adults and youth) from last year, which   might also help:

    2011 Saving Challenge Results by CU Membership
    Members Median No.of  Youth Savers Median No. of New Youth Accts Median Total Saved
    <1000 13 2 $671
    1,000-4,999 38 4 $2,354
    5,000-9,999 72 7 $6,544
    10,000-19,999 128 14 $17,726
    20,000-39,999 286 17 $27,231
    40,000-79,999 994 74 $207,761
    80,000-149,999 653 103 $273,898
    >150,000 3,903 249 $932,421

  2. Register here. If you have not previously registered with CUNA’s Web site, you’ll first have to answer a few questions. Remember to return to this site to report your results in May. Only credit unions reporting actual totals are eligible for the $100 prize drawing.

  3. Select prizes. You may wish to award additional prizes during Youth Week (CUNA will award ten $100 prizes nationwide). For ideas on products to purchase, click here.

  4. Make the rules known. For the contest rules page, click here. You may add a link from your Web site to this page and print out copies for easy reference. Also, we strongly recommend that you add this message to all your materials announcing the challenge: "For contest details, visit www.cuna.org and enter Savings Challenge Rules in the search box."

  5. Promote the Saving Challenge. Hang a poster in your lobby (click here to order additional lobby and teller window posters). Announce the challenge on your Web site, using free Youth Week poster art.

  6. Determine a point person. Select one person to coordinate tracking the deposits. Check with your IT staff to determine if this can be done electronically in weekly or end-of-month reports. If not, we recommend that you have each child (with parental permission) complete a registration slip (click here for a PDF document with a registration slip that you can modify). Have children deposit registration slips in a central location (decorated contest box with slit on the top works well). Hang onto your registration slips; you do not need to send them to CUNA.

  7. Award prizes. The contest ends midnight, April 30. Your coordinator will have until noon Wednesday (May 16) to report totals online. That afternoon, CUNA will randomly select 10 participating credit unions to receive $100 prizes.

    IF your credit union is selected, you then randomly pick one child to receive the $100 prize. To collect the $100 from CUNA, you must respond with the name of the child on or by 4:30 p.m., Central Time, May 17.

  8. Shout out. Announce the results of your credit union’s Saving Challenge along with the national results. CUNA will send participating credit unions a press release with the national results, which you can modify by adding your results. Distribute this to local press. Publish the results on your Web site and in your newsletter. Send the results to your sponsor groups.

Return to Saving Challenge main page

Copyright © 2012 Credit Union National Association