When credit union industry veteran Maureen Wilkinson told people she was going to head up HarborOne U three years ago, more than a few were skeptical.
After all, the idea of launching a center devoted to financial education, life and career management and small business development seemed like a noble idea, but not a particularly profitable one.
It has, however, turned out to be both.
HarborOne U has become a model of community education outreach. And it’s generated $20 million in new deposits and loans for HarborOne doing it.
The community education/outreach center shares space with the Mansfield branch of HarborOne, a Brockton-based credit union on the brink of becoming a cooperative bank. HarborOne U has two classrooms, a boardroom and a schedule filled with financial education and lifestyle/career management classes.
Since 2010, about 5,000 people from have attended classes at HarborOne U. And another 6,000 have used its facilities to attend networking groups, community and nonprofit group meetings and even art exhibits.
Before the Mansfield center opened, HarborOne had already drawn national acclaim for its Multicultural Banking Center, which provides financial education, English and computer classes for Brockton’s immigrant and minority communities. So, CEO James Blake’s idea of developing other kinds of educational outreach programs seemed like a logical next step – at least to Wilkinson.
“I think one of the keys to our success is that we do it consistently,” Wilkinson says. “This is my full-time job, while in some other organizations, while they might do brown-bag lunches with a topic, but it’s something they do once every six months or something like that.”
Upcoming offerings include a Small Business Administration workshop; a marketing seminar; a session on mobile technologies and a class on blog strategies. There’s also a presentation scheduled for June 13 on group strategies using social media by the “Social Divas,” a group of local professional women who promote each other’s businesses.
“We’re always looking for classes that are the next thing,” Wilkinson says.
Many of the business-development classes are offered in partnership with the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center, which also schedules individual client meetings at HarborOne U every Wednesday.
And then there are the 20 to 25 meetings a month held in HarborOne U’s facilities by community groups, ranging from the Hockomock YMCA board to local scout troops.
All of those activities bring thousands of people to HarborOne U, where – without selling a thing – HarborOne exposes potential customers to all the banking services it offers.
‘Anything That Piques My Interest’
Michael Wilson, a Raynham resident, began taking classes at HarborOne U two years ago when he started a coaching business for personal and professional caregivers. He has taken several classes there, including one on video marketing and another on developing a website.
Sometimes, he’ll register for a session on a subject not directly related to his business, like one June 23 on estate planning.
“Anything that piques my interest, I sign up,” he says.
Wilson, along with about 1,500 other people, receive HarborOne U’s e-newsletter, which lists all the center’s classes – about a dozen each month, all of them free.
Daytime classes are mostly aimed at small-business owners. Evening classes focus on personal enrichment, such as information for first-time homebuyers, or college and estate planning. There has even been a class on how to organize your garage and basement.
About 60 percent of attendees are women – the fastest-growing segment of small-business owners in the area, according to Wilkinson. They’re also the ones who typically sign up for the personal enrichment and financial education classes, and then bring their husbands with them, she says
Currently, about 15 percent of attendees are from Rhode Island. As a credit union, HarborOne has 14 branches in southeast Massachusetts, but can only sign up members who live or work in four counties in Massachusetts. Once the charter change to a mutual cooperative bank is finalized, however, non-Massachusetts residents can become HarborOne customers.
“Now, with the bank charter, we will be able to do business with anyone,” Wilkinson says. “And then, as we expand, we can bring the concept of HarborOne U to other locations where it makes sense.”
Some of the $20 million in new deposits and loans HarborOne U has generated comes from existing customers who increase their banking business with the credit union after attending classes in Mansfield. And some is from people who become customers after they visit the center.
“At the end of the day, HarborOne does well by doing good,” Wilkinson says. “All those programs are free, and people grow to love HarborOne, even if they’ve never heard of us before.”
People are still skeptical sometimes about the idea of a financial institution having a year-round community education/outreach center with a full-time director.
But now, Wilkinson has an answer for them. In fact, she has 20 million reasons why HarborOne U is a great idea.
