Giving back

Since launching our Community Fund in July 2022, we have awarded more than £100,000 to the charities, communities and causes our members care most about, including foodbanks, children’s groups, disability projects, sports clubs and primary schools. Local grant recipients include Northamptonshire Children’s Trust, The McCarthy-Dixon Foundation, Teamwork Trust and The Never Alone Project.

Fishing partnerships

After several years of planning, Nautilus International members with a UK address are now eligible to join Commsave Credit Union. We launched this partnership earlier this year and it’s great to already see so many maritime professionals already onboard as Commsave members.

We are also proud to partner with the Seafarers Charity. We have been supporting their fishing families with regular saving accounts, helping them save for the future and plan for any unforeseen challenges. In the last two years we have also provided loans of more than £1million to around 50 fishing families. More to come in 2025.

Sporting success

Commsave supports the Cobblers and is the training kit partner for both the women’s team and the men's first team. Commsave Partner. This year the club came on board as a Commsave Partner.

James Corrigan, Commercial Director of Northampton Town explains: “The club has become a Commsave Partner, and we are excited to explore further benefits for our staff to understand and access a more sustainable and affordable loan and saving options. We thank Commsave for their continued and dedicated support.”

Also, a first for this year - football fans were asked to vote for their Cobblers Women’s Player of the Season via the Commsave website. Great teamwork.

Commsave Educates app

Our new financial education app is now live, launched during Talk Money Week 2024. Commsave Educates is the name of this new, free app, and our interactive content is designed to appeal to both young and old. Commsave Educates can be downloaded from any app store – simply search for ‘Commsave Educates by Doshi’.

Talk Money Week

To mark Talk Money Week, a national week-long initiative designed to get people of all ages talking about money, we issued the first in our new series of Commsave Conversations webinars, this first one being focused on #DoOneThing and the launch of our new app. You can view the webinar here: https://youtu.be/DF0DhxGLlmM

Opening up our HQ

The Mayor of Northampton, Cllr Paul Joyce, popped into our Northampton HQ earlier this year and pledged his support for Commsave. Cllr Paul Joyce has been a Commsave member for many years and popping into Commsave was one of his first visits as the town’s 78th mayor. This year we also hosted a business event at our new HQ, hosting a Chamber of Commerce business breakfast.

Working with our Partners

One of our new 2024 Partners is Travis Perkins plc, the UK’s largest distributor of building materials. Paul Williams, Head of Financial Wellbeing at Travis Perkins, explains: “This new partnership with Commsave gives our colleagues access to more sustainable and affordable loans and savings options and helps to build their financial resilience by developing their credit rating from day one. We have found in Commsave a credit union whose core objective is 'people helping people' which aligns well with our own values and purpose to build better communities.” https://www.commsave.co.uk/partners

Other Commsave Partners to have come on board this year include Royal & Derngate Theatres, Northamptonshire Children’s Trust, Goodwill Solutions, Hireful, 3RS IT Solutions and BEES.

Charity of the year

Every year our Commsave colleagues choose a charity of the year and this year’s has been the amazing Cynthia Spencer Hospice. We’ve been holding a host of staff fundraising activities, including our monthly dress-down days and this year we are donating around £600 to this life changing, lifesaving charity.

New look, new website

It’s been a lot of work, but worth every minute. Our new Commsave website is now LIVE. Check out our new look, our Commsave Educates hub, our Partner profiles, Community Fund and much, much more. www.commsave.co.uk

Helping the financially vulnerable

More than a third of Northamptonshire people are now living in ‘financially vulnerable circumstances’. These were the results of a two-year UK study from not-for-profit financial inclusion organisation Fair4All Finance, which concluded that 37% of people in West

Northamptonshire and 39% of people in North Northamptonshire are now financially vulnerable. The report concluded that credit unions are ‘a vital source of support for communities and households who have been rejected by mainstream banks’. We are here to help. You can read the Fair4All Finance report in full here: https://fair4allfinance.org.uk/financial-vulnerability-across-the-uk/

Looking ahead to 2025

We now have more than 36,000 members and in the New Year we will launching our all-new membership drive campaign. Keep an eye out for our new branding on Northants buses. We will also be featured on Heart Radio, and we will be launching our new 321 Prize Draw campaign on January 1st, 2025.

This prize draw includes prizes of £3,000, £2,000 and £1,000. So, whether you’re already a member or just joining us, this is your opportunity to win big while sharing the benefits of being part of a credit union that puts you first. Visit our website for all the details and keep an eye on our social media channels for all our updates