When Rui F. Domingos first walked in to Cambridge Portuguese Credit Union’s Somerville branch 18 years ago, he was just another hard working immigrant kid looking for a job. Today, he’s CEO, and CPCU is thriving – the credit union’s year-old commercial lending arm has been particularly successful – even as the demographics of the neighborhood and the credit union’s membership continue to change. Domingos gives speeches to credit unions across the country on how to leverage community partnerships.

Rui F. Domingos

Title: CEO, Cambridge Portugese Credit Union; Cambridge

Age: 41

Experience: 18 Years

Eighteen years is a long time to be with one organization. How did you get your start?

I started working here as a part-time teller in 1991. I had moved here from Portugal in 1988 and my English was not that good yet. I happened to get an apartment right next to the credit union, and since they spoke Portuguese here I applied for a job.

The opportunities started coming and I shifted from going to school full-time to going at nights so I could work here full-time. In 18 years, the only position I’ve never held here is collections, and for the last five years, I’ve been CEO.

What kind of challenges has CPCU faced since then, and what have you done to address them?

CPCU obviously started as a credit union for Portuguese immigrants and Portuguese Americans, but now the number of people emigrating from Portugal has diminished. I would say that we started to notice this in the mid-1990s.

We offered good products and services, but we were not growing and we couldn’t sustain with that model. It took until 2005 when we re-branded and changed our field of membership to include just about anyone who works or lives in our community, as bounded by the counties around Boston.

We think we’re a good fit for the Cambridge and Somerville area because of its composition. The small businesses, the ethnic restaurants, it’s a good combination for us.

A lot of our members continue to be immigrants; we have members who have come from Central and South America, Haiti, some groups from Asia. Most of the people who work here are immigrants and speak two or three different languages.

How does knowing your community help you stay grounded in a tough economy?

I would say that most of my business is within a mile radius of each of the two branches.

Being that close keeps you engaged, and we know what the needs of our community are. We launched a business lending program just this past year. People said we were crazy for doing this. I think it was a perfect opportunity.

We’ve had business owners come to us who have gotten their business loan with us for the first time, and they seem pleased that there’s a local organization that will lend to local businesses and provide them a way out of this crisis, getting them refinanced on terms that they can afford. We’ve done $6 million on a program that we just introduced last spring.

You’ve been giving a speech on community partnerships to Credit Union Associations across the country. What’s your insight?

The topic is how to leverage community partnerships. What credit unions have done in the past is go over to nonprofits and try to get their business, and usually they have not been very successful. What we like to do is to not just do a one time donation of $1,000. We like to form a partnership that’s a give and take.

How did you come about that strategy?

I was at a conference with other credit unions and a lot of us were looking to raise our visibility. [But] we were seeing that we would give a donation to some organization and… they would put the credit union’s logo on a newsletter once. What kind of partnership is that?

A lot of folks in and around Cambridge have probably seen CPCU-sponsored vans driving around town. Tell me about that partnership.

Our partnership with Door 2 Door Transportation by SCM], is a perfect example. They’re a local nonprofit that helps seniors and people with disabilities get around Greater Boston.

They came in and they asked for a donation and I said: ‘I don’t want to give you $1,000. I want to give you $10,000. How about we help you re-brand and paint those old vans and make them more attractive, and you put our logo on those vans? So I will sponsor that, and you in turn can establish your banking relationship with us.’

The SCM relationship has translated into tens of thousands of dollars of business, and there are other benefits as well; from the marketing to the business that they’ve brought over. We’ve both benefited.

Rui Domingo’s top five reasons that Credit Unions are key to the economic recovery:

• Credit unions are not-for-profit organizations focused on providing financial counseling to assist consumers in the long term.
• Credit unions are community-based organizations who know their members and take the time to understand their needs and challenges.
• Credit unions have the capacity to lend to individuals and businesses, therefore saving and creating jobs.
• Credit unions offer fairly priced financial products and services geared towards individuals and businesses.
• Credit unions form cooperatives who work together to develop real solutions to current problems.