# International Credit Union Day

On Thursday 15 October, SCVO Credit Union and  our international counterparts will come together to celebrate [International Credit Union Day](https://www.woccu.org/events_and_engagement/icuday) and the role that financial cooperatives play in improving the communities they serve and the lives of their members the world over. 

This year’s theme – ‘inspiring hope for a global community’ - speaks to how credit unions around the globe provide a high level of service to their members. Credit union services became even more important over the past year due to the ongoing financial impact of coronavirus, which has set them apart from other financial institutions. For example at SCVO Credit Union, we recognised the enormous financial difficulties our members were facing as a result of coronavirus and treated all member requests with the courtesy and respect they needed during such a difficult time – accounts were frozen and extensions of both emergency loan amounts and payments were granted to help support our members.

We also want to use this important day as an opportunity to share some exciting news – we now have regulatory approval to open up our membership to include not just SCVO member organisations, but anyone employed within the Scottish voluntary sector!  This has taken a few years to complete due to the complexity of our membership base and we are delighted to be able to offer our services to more people than ever before.

Helping our members is part of our cooperative business objectives and in times of need we are glad to be there for them.  Our cooperative principles are similar to the aims and objectives of those Scottish charities that provide payroll deduction for our members. Sharing and meeting the delivery of mutual services within the voluntary sector is crucial as employers have the financial wellbeing of their employees at heart. With the creation of a payroll deduction partnership with SCVO credit union we can help alleviate some day-to-day financial concerns of many of those who work in the Scottish voluntary sector.

This day is a celebration of the impact credit unions and other financial cooperatives have made—and continue to make - for their members. It is also a chance to be thankful for the lives and communities and organisations that have been improved by our movement, and we would like to thank our colleagues across SCVO for their work and commitment over the last year which has enabled us to reach out to many more members.

[**Find out more about joining SCVO Credit Union.**](https://scvo.scot/services/credit-union)

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## About SCVO

SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations) is the national membership organisation for Scotland's voluntary sector.

Our role is to champion the role of voluntary organisations in Scotland and to support them to do work that has a positive impact.

SCVO supports members and the wider voluntary sector with all aspects of setting up and running a voluntary organisation. SCVO represents the needs and concerns of the voluntary sector to the Scottish government in Holyrood and UK government and Westminster. Through our learning and events programme SCVO offers training and development opportunities to the sector.

Members access an extensive membership benefits package including specialist, in-depth, 1-to-1 guidance from our Information Services team and from professional service partners.

Access to exclusive membership networks (including comms, employers, governance and policy) supports members to grow their connections, stay up to date, exchange ideas and views with peers, and learn through tailored learning opportunities.

SCVO members enjoy free access to Funding Scotland Premium to stay on top of funding opportunities to support their organisation’s financial resilience.

Discounts and savings on SCVO products and services (including our HR service, managed IT support, payroll service and events and training) and partner offers provide members with support to allow them to focus on delivering their organisation’s goals. Further SCVO products and services include [extensive digital support](https://scvo.scot/support/digital), a climate action resource [Growing Climate Confidence](https://climateconfident.scot), a voluntary sector publication [Third Force News](https://tfn.scot) and a voluntary sector jobs and recruitment service [Goodmoves](https://goodmoves.org).

For more information on SCVO membership, visit [SCVO membership](https://scvo.scot/membership)