Better Banking for Everyone
Looking back on nearly 90 years of serving our members and communities, we’ve seen our share of ups and downs. Through it all, we’ve not only provided uninterrupted support, we’ve expanded and evolved our services to meet members wherever they are. And 2025 was no exception. Throughout the year, we made day-to-day banking more convenient than ever while empowering financial health and confidence for our members and communities by ramping up our Steps Up program. And never have our products been more diverse and welcoming of all needs and financial journeys. Read on to see how we stayed true to our member-focused mission in 2025.
In 2025, SELCO continued to expand the reach and impact of SELCO Steps Up by investing over $433,000 in education, essential needs, and nonprofit partnerships across our communities. We also supported these efforts by donating our time—to the tune of 1,749 total hours from 260 volunteers across every SELCO branch and office. True to our origins as a credit union founded by teachers, support for students and educators remained a key priority, with more than $204,000 invested in student and educator initiatives alone:
- Classroom Makeovers. In Year 2, this program continued bringing fresh energy to learning spaces by awarding $15,000 each to schools in Eugene, Redmond, and Tualatin. The funding helped educators transform their classrooms into engaging environments designed to spark student curiosity, creativity, and collaboration.
- Creative Educator Grants. In 2025, SELCO awarded over $80,000 in educator grants, benefiting nearly 7,500 students statewide. Winning projects ranged from robotics and 3-D printing STEM labs to pollinator habitat restorations.
- Scholarships. We also awarded nearly $80,000 in scholarships to 21 students pursuing education at a trade school or 2- or 4-year college or university. As in recent years, scholarships were open to vocational, continuing, and non-traditional students.
Richard Metzler Opportunity Scholarship
Madison Chimenti was the 2025 recipient of the $7,500 Richard Metzler Opportunity Scholarship, awarded annually to a student who has demonstrated excellence in education, leadership, or civic responsibility despite adversity or a lack of opportunity. Reflecting on the call informing her that she received the scholarship, Chimenti said, “I broke down in tears in front of my teacher—it was a really amazing phone call to get, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt happier about something.”
Community Partnerships
Additionally, more than $230,000 was invested in community sponsorships—including during our inaugural Steps Up Celebration Week. Commemorating the anniversary of the Steps Up program launch in February 2024, celebration week saw SELCO team members shopping for nonprofit wish lists, fulfilling educator requests through DonorsChoose, and awarding donations to nonprofits selected by members visiting our branches. In the 10 months that followed, we continued to address educational and essential needs, including:
- Back-to-school support. From handing out 2,000 backpacks to providing hygiene items and matching community book donations, SELCO helped remove potential barriers to learning in a comfortable environment.
- Food drive. SELCO employees helped the Oregon Food Bank provide more than 19,000 meals to community members facing food insecurity.
- Punx in the Park. SELCO stepped in as the presenting sponsor of this annual Salem event, during which 800 meals were served to youths with live music as a backdrop.
- Financial Education Week. Continuing our partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Emerald Valley, our annual Financial Education Week culminated in a financial education fair supported by 16 SELCO volunteers.
Our Commitment in Action
As SELCO Steps Up continues to grow, so does our commitment to—and ability to meet—the program’s mission: to strengthen communities through education and meaningful partnerships. In 2025, that commitment was recognized nationally when SELCO was named a finalist for the CU Times Luminaries Awards for Community Impact. It’s an honor that reflects nothing if not the collaborative partnerships between team members, community organizations, and you, our members.
As part of our commitment to making everyday banking as seamless and secure as possible, we continued refining and expanding our comprehensive suite of tools and resources. Here are just a few ways:
- High-yield savings. We wanted to offer a flexible alternative to certificates, so we upgraded our Cultivate account to a high-yield savings option. Cultivate High-Yield Savings now offers an attractive rate structure regardless of balance, meaning members can grow their money quickly but still have easy access to it if needed.
- Enhanced tracking tools. We rolled out improved tracking for Link round-up savings and deposit matches, as well as Cultivate bonus rate opportunities. Members now get a snapshot of where they are and where they need to be to reach all the requirements.
- Zelle® integration. We launched Zelle®, a convenient way to send and receive money with friends, family, and others you trust, right from our app.
- Voice-driven phone system. We upgraded our touchtone phone menu with a secure, streamlined voice-driven system featuring our virtual assistant, Liv, who can answer general questions, authenticate members to answer account-based inquiries, and transfer to a representative when appropriate.
- Security enhancements. In our ongoing efforts to stay a step ahead of cybercrimes, we invested in multiple state-of-the-art technologies to detect and combat fraud. Stay up to date by tapping into scam awareness and prevention resources to help keep our members’ accounts safe.
In 2025, we continued growing our presence across social media channels, using intentional storytelling to spotlight business banking members, community partners, and SELCO Steps Up initiatives. Here are a few standout posts:
- We announced SELCO as the title sponsor of The Block Party in Springfield, bringing an evening of family fun and entertainment to downtown Springfield.
- SELCO team member Dannie volunteers over 500 hours a year with South Valley OHSET as head coach, using SELCO paid volunteer time to support their three annual meets.
- We surprised Tualatin High School’s Anneke Schoneveld with a $15,000 Classroom Makeover for her digital media lab.
- We gave a member shout‑out to Chef Billy of Dueling Spoons for bringing his delicious at-home meals to our Thurston Branch.
- We celebrated National Women‑Owned Business Day by highlighting business banking member Britney Phillips of Porchlight Coffee in Bend.
- We shared the story of Colin McCusker, MS IDEA Lab Teacher at Cascades Academy, who used a SELCO Creative Educator Grant to help students design and build a hydroponic classroom garden inspired by a TED Talk.
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To achieve our mission to improve our members’ social and economic position, we use four guiding principles to shape our strategic and operational decisions: Safety and Soundness, Strategic Positioning, Quality Personal Service, and High Return to Members. Below are just a few of our noteworthy accomplishments for 2025 in each of these areas:
Safety and Soundness: SELCO generated solid earnings and produced an ROA (return on assets) that met projections and a year-end capital ratio of 11.88%. This ratio is considered well capitalized per the industry’s standards for a safe and sound credit union as determined by the NCUA, the credit union industry’s federal regulatory body. In 2025, state and federal examiners once again provided SELCO with a fully favorable examination report.
Strategic Positioning: In 2025, SELCO continued to position the organization for the future while optimizing the member experience in the present. We made upgrades to our virtual chat assistant while fully transitioning to a more streamlined voice-driven phone system. Our digital banking also evolved, highlighted by integrating popular person-to-person payment service Zelle® into the platform. And in keeping pace with multiple interest rate drops, we fine-tuned our deposit accounts while offering flexible and competitive loan offerings.
Quality Personal Service: On behalf of our members, we processed nearly 1 million transactions in 2025. We funded 16,254 consumer and business loans, totaling $498 million, and SELCO Mortgage funded and brokered 535 mortgages, totaling $208 million. SELCO Insurance Services wrote 2,924 policies, and SELCO Investment & Retirement Services managed approximately $424 million in member investments.
High Return to Members: SELCO provided direct benefits to members through lower account fees, higher interest rates on savings and checking accounts, and competitive loan rates—despite a volatile rate environment. Our comprehensive product and service offerings continued to help SELCO members borrow sensibly, save smarter, and invest wisely.
Thank you for choosing SELCO as your financial partner. As a member-owned institution, these successes are yours as well, and we couldn’t have accomplished them without you.