MISSION SF Community Financial Center
In late 2006, Mission SF Federal Credit Union’s board of directors began a strategic planning process with guidance from field leader Bill Meyers, then an Aspen Institute Fellow and the CEO of Alternatives Credit Union. A best practices scan revealed that the most effective players in the community development field were using a community development credit union and non-profit partnership model.  In January 2007, Margaret Libby was hired to launch the credit union’s non-profit affiliate, Mission SF Community Financial Center (Mission SF). Ms. Libby has led the transformation of Mission SF from an organization with a single program and a part-time staff person to a vibrant organization with five staff people operating four program models reaching extremely low-income children, youth and families in the Bay Area and supporting them to achieve significant outcomes. Mission SF has grown in a time of dramatic budget cuts and reductions, due to its focus on creating new innovative products to address unmet needs and its strong evaluation systems to measure outcomes. In just four years, Mission SF has distinguished itself as a field contributor and leader, designing program models that have been recognized locally and nationally for their innovation and impact.

Mission SF achieves its impact through strategic partnerships. Our work is carried out in close partnership with a community development credit union partner. In April 2011 our former credit union partner Mission SF Federal Credit Union merged into Self-Help Federal Credit Union, a community development credit union with an 18-branch network across California and an affiliate of Self-Help, a leading CDFI with a 30-year history serving low-income communities with high quality financial services. This partnership is critical to Mission SF’s approach, which always combines financial education and counseling with appropriate financial products and service linkages, for example savings accounts for children, credit-builder loans for financial counseling clients and various products for youth.
In addition to the credit union partnership, Mission SF reaches clients through strategic partnerships with agencies already serving our target population. Unbanked and underbanked individuals face multiple barriers to accessing financial services, including a sense that financial services and education are for “other people”, or “people with money”. Mission SF’s youth and adult program models are designed to be delivered through trusted settings where youth and adults are already seeking services to both enhance client receptivity and engagement and to bundle financial services with existing services to enhance client outcomes. For example, Mission SF partners with Year Up, a transitional-aged youth employment-training program, where our credit-building services will enhance Year Up’s employment barrier removal strategies, as 50% of employers now consider credit reports in their hiring decisions.