Credit Union Purpose And Strategy Go Hand In Hand At UFCU

What would a credit union look like if every decision started with purpose — and every line of business had to earn its place at the table?

That’s the question Michael Crowl asked when he stepped into the CEO role at University Federal Credit Union ($3.9B, Austin, TX). The longtime executive didn’t just tweak strategy — he overhauled it, challenging the credit union to rethink its priorities, its trade-offs, and how it serves members.. The result? A transformation that’s turning heads and proving that bold, purpose-led leadership doesn’t just sound good — it works.

Leading With Purpose

Crowl began his career at UFCU in 2005 as a senior analyst. In the past two decades, he’s worked his way up the org chart, becoming president and CEO in 2022. Once at the helm, Crowl collaborated with UFCU’s board and executive team to launch a transformational strategic plan that pushed the credit union to rethink the way it approaches decisions.

“We start with our purpose,” Crowl says. “The possibilities we explore as a credit union are anchored in that purpose.”

The credit union uses a Venn diagram to illustrate the logical relationships between purpose, possibilities, and performance and serves as a tool for evaluating how the credit union can impact the most lives — represented as “people” on the diagram.

“Our Venn diagram is more than just a picture on the wall,” Crowl says. “It’s a decision-making framework that influences the way we work and the decisions we make.”

According to Crowl, one of the first things he did as CEO was eliminate the dialogue around margin versus mission. In his vision, doing the right things and focusing on purpose would generate a greater impact not only on people but also on the cooperative.

Indeed, two years later, the credit union is reporting membership and loan growth.

Turning Purpose Into An Operating Plan

In addition to the Venn diagram, UFCU’s leaders keep front and center a one-page strategy document that connects the credit union’s purpose, values, and aspirations to long-term imperatives, strategic measures, and more. The framework provides strategic clarity and helps leaders identify trade-offs the credit union is willing to make. 

The strategy document clearly displays UFCU’s purpose at the top: “Empowering members to achieve financial success and brighter futures.” And according to Crowl, the specific phrasing matters. He never wants his team to lose the context that members are turning to UFCU for help with their life goals.

“When someone gets a loan, it’s not about the loan,” the CEO says. “It’s about what they’re going to do with it.”

Values and aspiration sit just under purpose as a part of the credit union’s strategic framework. UFCU’s ambition is to be “loved by millions of members and built to thrive for generations.”

“By adding “loved” to our aspiration, we have intentionally set a much higher bar for ourselves. Members often use the word “love” to describe their feelings about UFCU, and it is mentioned so frequently in our  NPS surveys that it places as a leader in financial services,” Crowl says. 

Embracing a change like this can be difficult. To help it take root, UFCU aligned its incentive and performance management systems to the new model. Every employee’s competencies are tied to it, from the CEO to front-line staff.

Tough Calls For Greater Impact

With clearly defined goals, the credit union started to put its new strategy into practice by asking where it could have the greatest impact.

“We wanted to be the best at the consumer banking experience, which includes both lending and everyday banking,” Crowl says.

That was a major challenge, one that would require trade-offs. Thus, UFCU made two significant moves to align resources with its updated strategic focus.

First, the credit union decided to exit a successful commercial lending business.

“At a time when many credit unions are rushing into commercial, we felt it wasn’t an area where we could be the best or truly make a difference,” Crowl says.

be expected, some left for commercial lending opportunities elsewhere. 

“We were really proud of their work, but the numbers alone can’t be the reason to keep something going,” Crowl says. “This was a hard decision but the right one in the context of our strategy.” 

The second bold move the credit union made was to exit its insurance services business.

“Again, this is an area where many credit unions are expanding,” Crowl says. “But for us, we didn’t believe we could differentiate or make a significant impact.”

UFCU sold its insurance services to a large national player, which welcomed the credit union’s employees and all were able to retain their positions.

“They now have access to broader products, pricing power, and development opportunities they didn’t have with us,” Crowl says. “That one felt better because of the outcome, but either way, both were the right decisions.”

Indeed, closing certain lines of businesses, even successful ones, better equipped UFCU to lean into areas in which it could make a bigger difference.

The Value Of Transparency

None of these decisions would have worked effectively without buy-in at all levels of the organization.

Crowl started working on buy-in with UFCU’s board first, sharing his ideas and why they were essential to the future success of the credit union.

“Once we had alignment, we shared the plans with the individual teams first,” Crowl says. “We wanted them to understand the why behind the decision, as hard as it was. We treated them with the utmost respect and integrity.”

When it was time to roll out the new approach to the broader organization, leadership was open and honest in its affirmations that the credit union was switching gears and not downsizing.

“The organization knows I am committed to transparency and clarity,” Crowl says. “That made it easier. This wasn’t about shrinking the business — it was about growing our impact in a very focused way.”

Yes, UFCU’s strategy is not about doing more. It’s about doing better.

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