Project Overview

AVANA CUSO, formerly known as Extensia Financial, is a 25+ year veteran CUSO and an integral part of the AVANA Companies ecosystem. A challenge to overcome for 10 to 1 PR was separating AVANA CUSO from the Extensia Financial name and customer perception. Extensia Financial was a CUSO that partnered with credit unions to expand lending programs beyond communities and mitigate risk, founded in 1998 to specialize in commercial real estate. In 2020, AVANA Companies became the majority stakeholder, enabling the commercial real estate-focused CUSO to offer comprehensive lending solutions nationwide. As a part of the rebrand from Extensia Financial to AVANA CUSO in the Fall of 2023, AVANA Companies also made changes to the operations of the CUSO to streamline processes and empower credit unions to make educated decisions regarding portfolio management.

An important differentiator between AVANA CUSO and Extensia Financial is that AVANA CUSO is a tech-enabled CUSO, delivering innovative technology solutions for credit unions to scale their commercial real estate lending. A cutting-edge, user-friendly Participations Desk was developed, allowing credit unions to enjoy a seamless experience in assessing and buying loan participations, updating their deal preferences, and monitoring the health of their portfolio through one consolidated portal. This was integrated with the goal of acting as a partner for credit unions to utilize new technologies to attract, retain, and serve their members.

The rebrand and name update acknowledges and reinforces how integral CUSOs are to credit unions and their members. Our team also needed to build credibility for the new CUSO, which included amplifying the hire of a new Chief Operating Officer, Chad Witcher. This became an opportunity for 10 to 1 PR to establish AVANA CUSO as a leader amongst other CUSOs, educate credit unions looking to partner with a CUSO and attract new partner credit unions.

Project Execution

Objectives

The objectives of this project included creating awareness around the rebrand from Extensia Financial to AVANA CUSO. This includes establishing AVANA CUSO as a leading CUSO, a CUSO that credit unions would want to partner with and utilize their services, and a CUSO that helps support smaller credit unions achieve their goals and help boost local economies. Moreover, this meant 10 to 1 PR needed to highlight the services and benefits that AVANA CUSO brings to their partner credit unions, which include portfolio diversification and management, over 150 years of industry experience in commercial real estate lending and loan services collectively amongst the senior team, streamlining loan originations, cutting-edge technology, and equipping credit unions with the tools they need to grow their commercial real estate portfolio. This stemmed from a goal to attract new credit unions to partner with AVANA CUSO and utilize their services.

Strategies & Tactics

The strategies and tactics necessary to meet those objectives included highlighting a partner credit union success story, where AVANA CUSO helped a partner credit union achieve its goal, like portfolio diversification) in a national finance outlet.

A press release announcing the reason behind the rebrand from Extensia Financial to AVANA CUSO was also drafted and shared with reporters to amplify the positive messaging around the rebrand. This included researching relevant reporters at national finance outlets that have written stories about CUSOs in the past and coordinating with a partner credit union to highlight their success story. In this case, Sunlight FCU (Federal Credit Union) was the partner credit union that AVANA CUSO chose to highlight; Sunlight FCU was working to grow its portfolio of commercial real estate loans. They are also a smaller, community-based credit union that does not have the capacity or resources that AVANA CUSO can handle. By targeting a national finance outlet that isn’t solely focused on credit unions or CUSOs, we can highlight that larger banks usually wouldn’t partner with a smaller credit union due to the smaller sizes of deals, but AVANA CUSO will. In contrast, AVANA CUSO plays a vital role in supporting the local economy, ensuring small businesses have access to capital to grow and help their communities thrive, which is what Sunlight FCU is more focused on.

Another audience that needed to be targeted was the credit union industry so AVANA CUSO could speak directly to the decision-makers at credit unions who are looking for CUSOs to partner with. This led to another strategy: highlighting a partner credit union’s success story in a national credit union industry outlet. This included researching relevant reporters at national credit union industry outlets, especially those that have written about the benefits CUSOs bring to their partner credit unions. By highlighting the Sunlight FCU partnership in an outlet focused specifically on credit unions, AVANA CUSO could speak directly to the leaders at credit unions that are looking to partner with a CUSO, giving those credit unions a chance to see a real example of an AVANA CUSO partnership and the positive impact.

Additionally, our team needed to highlight the credibility of the new CUSO, which meant drafting a press release announcing the hire of a new Chief Operating Officer, Chad Witcher. It was important for our team to emphasize that Chad brings an impressive background in the financial industry and extensive leadership experience over the past 20 years to AVANA CUSO. By highlighting Chad in credit union industry publications, he could be seen as an experienced leader who is adding credibility and knowledge to AVANA CUSO. Finally, by targeting the Greater Phoenix Arizona market (where AVANA CUSO is headquartered), AVANA CUSO could establish itself as a local CUSO leader that supports local economies, ensuring small businesses in the area have access to capital to grow their business and helping the Greater Phoenix community thrive. This included researching local reporters in the Phoenix area focused on community-based financial institutions like AVANA CUSO and writing stories about how local financial institutions are helping their communities thrive.

Results

The goals of placing a story in a national finance outlet, a national credit union outlet, and a local Phoenix outlet were all met.

• Stories based on the press release announcing the rebrand from Extensia Financial to AVANA CUSO were placed in local Phoenix outlets, including InBusiness Phoenix and the Phoenix Business Journal.
• In credit union industry outlets, the AVANA CUSO announcement press release was repurposed and shared in CUInsight and Credit Union Times.
• The press release announcing the hire of COO Chad Witcher was also repurposed into stories in CUbroadcast and CUInsight.
• In the credit union industry, our team secured an opportunity to record a podcast episode with a representative from Sunlight FCU and AVANA CUSO on one of the leading credit union industry podcasts, CUbroadcast. The partnership details were discussed in the podcast episode and how AVANA CUSO works to diversify Sunlight FCU’s portfolio outside its local market by still serving low-income populations in particular. This met another of our goals, establishing AVANA CUSO as a CUSO that helps smaller credit unions achieve their goals, boosting the economy by serving low-income populations.
• Alongside the podcast episode, we secured a story written by a credit union reporter at a national finance publication, American Banker.
  • This story also highlighted the partnership between Sunlight FCU and AVANA CUSO, reposted on other national finance and business outlets, including National Mortgage News, ReportWire, and WestLaw Today.
  • Around a month later, the story was included in another American Banker story, highlighting how lenders adapt to new technology to strengthen their underwriting activity, another strength of AVANA CUSO, also reposted again on National Mortgage News.

One of the major takeaways from this project was how the partnership story strengthened our efforts and secured more placements in national finance and credit union publications. Reporters were much more interested in the story when our team could offer up interviews from not only AVANA CUSO but also one of their partner credit unions that they are actively helping. The partnership strengthened AVANA CUSO’s story and credibility, ultimately helping us secure more interview and story opportunities.