United Advantage Northwest Federal Credit Union is the 2013 Spirit of CU*NorthWest Award winner for their strong execution and performance in the face of adversity while demonstrating the credit union spirit. Despite 80% unemployment in their largest sponsor group over the last 10 years, United Advantage NW FCU has one of the highest ROA’s in their asset range now.

“After a grueling four years of uncertainly, it took the proverbial village to bring the credit union back from the brink of obscurity,” Evie Rasmussen, CEO of United Advantage NW FCU said. “The team’s hard work and dedication, mixed with the cuasterisk.com network, and a heavy dose of CU*BASE^® resulted in the most profitable year ever in the history of the credit union”.

The Portland, Oregon-based United Advantage has been a CU*NorthWest customer for six years.  It has $34 million in assets and 7826 members.

Introduced in 2012, the Spirit of CU*NorthWest Award is presented at the annual Leadership Conference. Additional criteria for award recipients can range from examples of collaboration and cooperation, exemplifying the Leadership Conference theme, a strong volunteer program, to being “all about the member”. The 2012 Spirit of CU*NorthWest Award winner was CALCOE Federal Credit Union in Yakima, Washington.