Georgia United Turns The Tide On Membership Growth

When rapid membership growth gave way to outright losses, Georgia United Credit Union ($2.4B, Duluth, GA) chose reset over retreat.

A decade ago, the credit union was posting annual membership growth close to 10%. By 2022, it was actively losing members, with the pandemic and a strategic pullback from indirect lending exacerbating growth challenges well into 2023.

Rather than chase volume, however, the credit union reset its growth strategy around something more durable: engaged, organically acquired members.

“If we’re not growing in members, we won’t have a credit union before long,” says Adam Marlowe, chief experience officer at the Duluth-based cooperative.

A two-pronged approach that focused on reengaging existing members while also pushing organic growth put member growth back in the black by early 2024, and by the third quarter of 2025, Georgia United reported growth of 3.39%.

Reaching New Eyeballs

Georgia United’s new growth strategy includes making it easier to join the credit union. For starters, it no longer pulls credit reports as part of the membership application. It also put in place a new online account-opening system and partnered with Plaid for funding to make those processes faster, as well. Members can now open accounts within three minutes using a mobile app.

The credit union identified rural markets as a subset it could serve well via digital banking and shared branching and targeted potential new members there with mailers and online messaging. Validation soon followed.

“We surprised ourselves, quite honestly, and exceeded our goal around June or July,” Marlowe says.

Georgia United’s roots is in serving educators, but today it holds a community charter that reaches into parts of Tennessee and Florida. Its market research suggested billboards could be particularly successful in rural areas, leading the credit union to center its marketing on the snappy phrase, “Y’all bank here yet?”

“You’ve got milliseconds to grab someone’s attention when they’re driving,” Marlowe says.

Rather than touting discount rates or deposit specials, the billboard drove traffic to the Georgia United website. The credit union deployed a similar approach for radio, including in Spanish-speaking markets. In place of the southern-fried “Y’all bank here yet?” slogan, it used a variation of, “Your abuela [grandmother] banks here, why don’t you?”

“We’re just trying to do things that are a bit more customized and relatable and funny,” says Marlowe, adding that an English-language radio spot bleeped out every instance of the word “bank.”

Reengaging Old Ones

Marlowe notes that some of Georgia United’s previous decline in membership growth is likely due to the credit union exiting indirect lending, although it’s difficult to quantify exactly how much. But the choice to leave indirect, however, did prompt the credit union to reconnect with members who had been dormant for at least 13 months with light-hearted messages like “We’re lonely, we miss you!”

The campaign encouraged members to reengage with the credit union, even by simply making a transaction using Georgia United’s plastic. The credit union also launched an outbound calling group to inform inactive members about various incentives — some of which they could capitalized on retroactively.

New technology has helped reinvigorate members, too. New account-opening technology allows Georgia United to present loan options at the time of account opening, “basically like a shopping cart,” Marlowe says. It can also make discounts on certain lending products — including GAP insurance or appraisals — and other discounts available to members with a checking account.

“We’re trying to reward members for having more with us and not necessarily have it only be rate-driven,” Marlowe says.  “A lot of people are more focused on the payment than the other stuff. If we can also help with an additional product, the likelihood is we’ll get more opportunities to do business with them.”

Georgia United also rolled out new benefits to many of its checking products, bundling in services like telehealth and prescription discounts.

“That’s what our members told us they were struggling with,” Marlowe says. “Insurance is expensive, people were saying they needed help with that.”

A Resounding Rebound

Georgia United’s efforts to revive its flagging membership growth have paid off. Year-over-year growth was 3.39% at the end of the third quarter of 25 — its second consecutive quarter besting asset-based peers — and Marlowe says the credit union finished 2025 higher than 5%.

“Take that, industry norms!” he quips.

MEMBER GROWTH
FOR GEORGIA UNITED CREDIT UNION
SOURCE: Callahan & Associates

The push for more organic membership growth has helped the credit union rediscover its roots while unearthing new opportunities.

“Even if you combine all the credit unions in Georgia — and there are some big ones — [the industry] still has a small market share,” Marlowe says. “There’s plenty of opportunity for us to grow. It’s just about whether you’re focused on it and willing to really try.”

Importantly, Marlowe says the credit union is attracting members who really need a financial partner, those who aren’t A-paper borrowers. In turn, they’re also building a deposit base, thanks to market-specific CD offerings that are helping fund loans throughout the credit union’s market.

Georgia United celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2028. Despite the longevity, the board worried the credit union wasn’t reaching as many people as it could. It needed a shift in mindset to ensure it could serve members for decades to come.

“We were created to help people,” Marlowe says. “We’re not in the banking business, we’re in the people business, we just offer financial services.”

Do You Have A Problem? Your Peers Have The Answer. Reaching out to rural members and reengaging dormant ones has helped Georgia United turn around lagging member growth; other credit unions are responding to the evolving needs of members in a variety of different ways. Callahan Roundtables put leaders in the same room to share solutions, solicit feedback, pose questions, and more. Inspiration is a Callahan Roundtable away. Learn more today.