The Nonprofit Insider Podcast · Swim Karim

Episode 70 — Kicking Off 2026 with Sara Keller (Nusenda Credit Union Foundation)

January 14, 2026·49 min·1 clip

You must earn the right to participate in a community before you ask for anything from it.

Nusenda is a 90-year-old credit union, and its foundation was established in 2015 as a separate 501c3 beside the credit union's 501c1 structure. That setup gives the conversation its shape. Because credit unions are cooperative, member-owned, and board-governed, the foundation talks about its work as money moving back into members, programs, and communities. The host follows that thread with real warmth, especially once the conversation turns to who reviews grants and why that should change how nonprofits write. The executive director does not want one person making those calls alone. One person cannot carry the experience of a whole membership. So employees volunteer as grant reviewers. They come from different parts of the organization and different places, from Taos to El Paso, which brings more of the credit union's actual member experience into the room. That is where the episode gets most useful. Nonprofits are not writing for philanthropists or big agencies fluent in grant language. They are writing for peers: neighbors, people in the grocery store, and the person behind the teller line. Plain language is not a nicety here. It is the strategy. Applicants should explain the work the way they would to a best friend or someone they just met. The host clearly likes this turn and lingers on the mechanics of review. The close stays practical, pointing listeners to Nusenda's foundation site and inviting questions from nonprofits in New Mexico or west Texas. It is sector-insider friendly without getting buried in jargon.

As heard by us

A practical look at cooperative philanthropy, peer review, and grantmaking in plain language.

It presents Nusenda Foundation as part of a member-owned credit union while keeping the foundation distinct as a 501(c)(3) from the 501(c)(1) credit union. The cooperative logic is easy to follow: value is meant to flow back into members and the surrounding communities.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Want to hear how a member-owned credit union foundation asks you to write like you are talking to a neighbor, not a grant committee?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Nonprofit Insider Podcast