Member growth for credit unions
You have members.Do you have a membership?
I ran membership at Amazon Prime, SiriusXM, and Walmart+. Now I help credit unions turn account holders into members.
69%
of credit union executives call member growth a top-three concern — the highest in a decade.
Source: Cornerstone Advisors, 2026
The book on membership. Literally.
Credit unions aren't losing members. They're losing the relationship.
More than half of U.S. credit unions ended last year with fewer members than they started. The reasons show up in three numbers:
Who you have
53 vs. 38
The average credit union member is 53. The average American is 38.
Who's not coming
Fewer than 1 in 5
Americans under 40 who bank with a credit union.
What you're losing
$3 trillion+
Deposits that have moved from traditional institutions to fintech platforms. Members rarely close their accounts — the account stays, the paycheck leaves.
Sources: Filene Research Institute, Cornerstone Advisors, NCUA data.
I've seen this movie. SiriusXM's audience was aging too — building the streaming business was how we reached the next generation. That's the work.
An account holder has a product. A member has a reason to stay.
Most credit unions run membership like a bank runs accounts: open it, service it, hope it stays. But membership is a system — join, activate, deepen, become primary, advocate — and when it works, it's a flywheel.
Your charter says membership. Your operating model should too.
I'm not a credit union consultant. That's the point.
I ran membership businesses at Amazon (Prime), SiriusXM (6x digital subscriber growth), and Walmart (Walmart+). I wrote Mastering Membership. It's the operating manual for how the best consumer memberships in the world are built. I've spent my career inside the operating systems — onboarding loops, gateway behaviors, retention science, weekly metric reviews — that made those memberships compound.
Credit unions don't need another industry insider. They need the playbook from the companies that redefined what membership means. That's why I built this practice — the frameworks, the audit, the roadmap — explicitly for credit unions: your charter requires a membership base by definition, which means no industry on earth should be better at this. My job is to make you better at it — and to make you look better doing it.
About LF Partners
LF Partners is a strategic advisory and executive search firm built for high-growth fintech, financial services, and tech companies — operator-led guidance on growth, financial operations, credit and risk, and executive search.
The Growth Gap for credit unions.
Durability
From one product to primary financial institution: does value compound, or age in place?
Clarity
Who is your next member — and why would a 28-year-old join?
Momentum
What happens in the 90 days after the account opens: designed, or accidental?
Clarity
Who is your next member — and why would a 28-year-old join?
Momentum
What happens in the 90 days after the account opens: designed, or accidental?
Durability
From one product to primary financial institution: does value compound, or age in place?
Accountability
Who owns member growth by name — and does the board see inputs or just outcomes?
01
A 30-minute scoping session.
Your current membership picture, your constraints, your timeline. I'll have looked at your public numbers before we talk.
You leave knowing whether this is worth pursuing — either way.
02
The Member Growth Audit.
Two to three weeks. Your data, my framework, one readout: the gap, where it lives, and the three moves that matter — plus what not to spend on this year.
You leave knowing exactly what's broken, where it lives, and what it's costing you in members.
03
The Member Growth Roadmap.
The audit, sequenced into a 12-month operating plan your board will actually approve.
You leave with a plan that has owners, sequence, and a number attached.
04
Member Growth Partner.
Ongoing advisory.
You get the operating rhythm that makes the plan actually happen.
I'll say the quiet part: this matters beyond any one balance sheet. Credit unions are the backbone of fair finance in this country — 140 million people depend on that. But you only stay the backbone if the next generation joins. That's the problem I want to work on.
I work with one credit union per market.
Book 30 minutes. Bring your numbers.
Leave with the playbook Prime, Walmart+, and SiriusXM already paid to test.