August 31, 2005 - Helping CUs devastated by Hurricane Katrina

INDIANAPOLIS – Hurricane Katrina is already being called the most devastating natural disaster in U.S. history. We have received preliminary reports from the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama leagues about many credit unions that are dealing with no power and minimal communications capability. The lack of electricity and communications makes it difficult to get a more complete damage assessment.

The Indiana Credit Union Foundation (ICUF) Board has approved making a $5,000 contribution to assist credit unions impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Additionally, the ICUF has established the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Fund in order to coordinate contributions from Indiana credit unions' and business partners' fundraising efforts in response to this disaster. Servicecorp is contributing $4,000 to this fund. Attached is the form to use for making contributions to this fund at the ICUF. This designated purpose account will be operational until March 31, 2006. All contributions received by that date will be forwarded to the National Credit Union Foundation with all of the money being applied to credit union disaster relief in the states impacted by Katrina.

Contributions made by individuals or companies to the ICUF qualify as tax deductible because the ICUF is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Consult your tax advisor about other laws or regulations that could impact the tax deductibility of your contribution. If you collect individual contributions and send them to us as one total amount, please include a list containing the name, address, and contribution amount for each individual who would like to receive a letter from the ICUF to serve as a receipt for tax deduction purposes.

Additionally, information is being collected by CUNA about any credit unions that can provide mobile generators or portable/mobile branches. If you can provide any of these items, send an email to me at johnm@icul.org listing the equipment you can make available, the dates it would be available, and your evening phone contact information. I will pass the information along to CUNA.

If you have any questions, please contact League VP of Consulting and Education, Joe Guilfoy, who functions as the executive director of our Foundation, or me. Joe can be reached at (800) 285-5300, ext. 5313, or joeg@icul.org. My phone contact information is (800) 285-5300, ext. 5320.

On behalf of the ICUF Board of Directors, thank you for your consideration in helping with this disaster relief effort. ICUF Board members and their credit unions are: Ron Budzinski, Chairman (La-Porter FCU); Larry Zehrung, Vice Chairman (General CU); Barb Berghoff, Secretary (Professional FCU); Lamoura Munse, Treasurer (Capital Plus CU); Angie Dufour (Central FCU); Sandy Heller (Northern Indiana FCU); and Donna Tichenor (Evansville FCU).