Overview
Wings Credit Union is a not-for-profit, member-owned credit union headquartered in Apple Valley, Minnesota. With assets of $8.4 billion, the credit union serves eligible Minnesota and Wisconsin counties, the metro areas of Detroit, Orlando, Atlanta, and employees in the air transportation industry nationwide. As part of its commitment to higher education, the Wings Financial Foundation proudly awards scholarships to outstanding undergraduate and post-graduate members who plan to attend an accredited college, university, or post-secondary technical school.
Headquarters: Apple Valley, MN
Dollars Awarded Annually: $30,000
Highlights
- Wings Financial needed a platform to help them navigate issues after transferring from a paper-based to an in-house developed scholarship application. 01:22 – 03:24
- The Kaleidoscope platform provided them the support they needed to relieve staff resources and support an increasing application volume. 03:24 – 04:11
- The Kaleidoscope team established cost justification and provided an easy transition to an automated system. 04:11 – 06:00
- Through dedicated support, Kaleidoscope created a seamless member experience working closely with Wings to design a customized application tailored to fit their specific needs and goals. 06:00 – 07:43
- Because of Kaleidoscope, Wings Financial had a record growth with scholarship applications, a 44% increase from 2023-2024. Establishing the partnership as a long-term investment for sustained growth and success in the scholarship program. 08:12 – 10:48
Challenge
The Wings Financial Foundation awards 11 scholarships totaling $30,000 to outstanding undergraduate and post-graduate members who plan to attend an accredited college, university, or post-secondary technical school.
The scholarship application process was entirely paper-based, requiring applicants to submit physical packets, which created significant logistical challenges. Managing the applications was cumbersome, requiring manual redaction of personal information, distribution to committee members, and coordination of the selection process. The growing number of applications increased the demand for staff time, causing inefficiency and added costs, especially with a lack of dedicated employees for the process.
“I had to reach out to the rest of the organization and try to form a selection committee, which can be challenging too because if you don’t have a dedicated staff that can do this, now you’re pulling other front line and back office staff away from their full-time jobs, and you need to get the support for that. You throw into the fact that they’re hourly employees and have to work overtime to complete this, now there’s an additional cost for this,” said Olson.
Wings transitioned from a paper-based system to an automated application process integrated into the credit union’s online banking system, initially developed by their app development department.
After facing challenges with maintaining this system, especially when the original developers left, they decided to invest in a partner who could provide the support and the knowledge they needed to make the application work as seamlessly as it’s supposed to.
Solution
Wings Credit Union partnered with Kaleidoscope in 2023.
Through this partnership, they worked to address several initial issues:
Relieving Limited Staff Bandwidth
The first priority of the partnership was to lift the burden of burden and costs for the Wings Financial team to make selections internally.
“The first year when we used Kaleidoscope, as I mentioned, it was all for the review process, and that was so fabulous that it just was almost a no-brainer for us to go ahead and take the plunge and do the entire process with Kaleidoscope from top to bottom. So it was an easy transition for us. It freed up a lot of staff time, and it made the most sense for us to provide the best possible experience for our members,” said Olson.
With the growing number of applications year over year, Kaleidoscope was able to provide a more streamlined and automated solution for managing the review and entire scholarship process.
Eliminating Reliance on In-House Technical Knowledge
The second priority was to ensure a more stable and reliable system by taking over the process. Wings had initially developed an online application system with their app development team. However, when key developers left, the remaining staff struggled with maintaining and troubleshooting the system due to a loss of “tribal knowledge.”
“The problem that we had with that was when those app dev individuals moved on and went to other organizations, we did not have the support that we needed, nor the knowledge. So once you lose that tribal knowledge of how this process actually works and how the application works behind the scenes, it becomes a little bit more clunky and a little bit more cumbersome for those of us, meaning me primarily at the time, to go through and try to help troubleshoot and make this process as seamless as it’s supposed to be,” said Olson.
By taking over the entire process, Kaleidoscope eliminated the reliance on in-house technical expertise, ensuring a more stable and reliable system.
Justifying the Investment in New Technology
Convincing a board or executives to invest in new technology solutions like Kaleidoscope is challenging, especially when considering the upfront costs.
“How do we actually sell that to our board or to our executives to leap to make that investment? And I would say, if you truly sat down and looked at how much time it takes to go through every application and you looked at everyone’s salary that’s on your selection committee, you will see that the initial investment and ongoing investment for this type of software is significantly less than the staff time and effort that has to be put into the process,” said Olson.
From day one, the Kaleidoscope team worked to understand, support, and provide value to Wings Financial.
“You have to do the work to show what the value is in bringing an outside partner like this to facilitate an inside program. When we started the review process with Kaleidoscope, it was amazing because there is no way that we could have gotten through all of the applications that we had received in the time frame we had promised our members that we would announce the winners for,” Olson stated.
Creating a Vision for the Future
Kaleidoscope provided dedicated support for Wings Financial to customize and enhance their application experience.
“We decided that we wanted to have a dedicated account manager for the strategic planning and our vision of where we wanted to see our scholarship program go. And so by having someone designated like Megan, what was great about it is it allowed us to not only create a relationship, but it also allowed her to understand what the credit union’s visions were and how we wanted our winners to be chosen, what we wanted them to actually look like, and what we were looking for when we were going through the process,” said Olson. “We also had other great conversations about what else could we see in the future. What are some other ways that we could offer scholarships? Was it through a video platform? Was it just through the short essay? and in addition to that each year over year these last couple of years now we have added a few more pieces to our application that has allowed us to understand who the students that are applying for our applications are and what are their actual needs,” she added.
With one-on-one support from Kaleidoscope, credit unions like Wings Financial can maintain their commitment to members, delivering timely and efficient scholarship application reviews, and ultimately enhancing the overall experience for both the staff and applicants.
Results
1. Significant Time Savings and Reduced Staff Involvement
The transition to Kaleidoscope resulted in significant time savings for Wings and reduced the need for additional staff involvement in the scholarship process.
“It was really an easy transition for us. It freed up a lot of staff time, and it made the most sense to provide the best possible experience for our members,” said Olson.
In addition to managing the Wings scholarship application and process, Kaleidoscope also took on strategic planning, helping create a vision for the future and understanding the actual needs of students who are applying for their scholarships.
2. Substantial Growth of Applicants
The partnership with Kaleidoscope enabled Wings Credit Union to handle a substantial increase in applications, from 726 to a 44% growth in the following year.
“When you look at it, you have to look at it as an investment for long-term growth. And if I’m confident that you would see the same type of growth that we saw, regardless of how large or how small of an organization you are when you start a new scholarship program,” said Olson.
3. Maintained Commitment to Members
The improved process allowed Wings Credit Union to maintain its commitment to members, delivering timely and efficient scholarship application reviews, ultimately enhancing the overall experience for both the staff and applicants.
“It was amazing because there is no way that we could have gotten through all of the applications that we had received in the time frame that we had promised our members we would announce the winners for,” said Olson. “And obviously as an organization and a credit union, people helping people, we always want to make sure that we are living up to our promise,” she added.
4. Immediate Support For a New Program
Kaleidoscope’s expertise and tools bridged the gap in knowledge with switching platforms. These competencies allowed Wings to transition seamlessly and focus on improving their applicant experience.
“I think when you’re starting something off, going to an organization like Kaleidoscope that has all of the pieces in place already and has already worked out all of the kinks, it makes a huge impact on how a new scholarship program is going to be rolled out and how it’s going to look and feel to those applicants that are applying for your funds,” said Olson.
Wrapping Up
As a final note on the partnership, Olson shared, “Kaleidoscope again has been such a fabulous partner, and they allow us to push the limits and think outside of the box a little bit. At the same time, they’re trying to really understand and get a good grasp on what the credit union industry is looking for, what we stand for, what our principles are. And when you find a partner that can do that with you and you can show the success and the growth that we’ve had, it really to me is truly a no-brainer as to why you wouldn’t go with an organization like Kaleidoscope that really does take the time to understand what their clients wants and needs are.”
