Afena Cares
As a credit union, Afena is fully committed to our mission of providing high-quality financial products and services designed to improve financial equity for low-moderate income families in the communities we serve, regardless of their income level or credit score. For us, part of giving back to our community includes an employee charitable giving program that we call Afena Cares.
Each year, Afena staff raises money for charitable projects by paying for jean days or by voluntarily contributing a small amount of money from each paycheck. At the end of the year, employees provide feedback and ideas on how to spend the charitable funds that we raise.
In December of 2023, the staff chose to do a Christmas Care Package project designed to help families in our community by providing essential household cleaning supplies to help ease their holiday financial burden. This project was created from employee input and careful consideration, because we know that especially during the holidays, many families are working their hardest to make every dollar stretch as far as possible. For some, that means going without cleaning supplies and personal hygiene items such as, laundry detergent, bathroom scrub, and even body wash/shampoo in order to afford items for the holidays.
Karen Madry, Afena's CEO, purchased bulk items with the charitable contributions raised from employee donations to purchase household cleaning and personal hygiene supplies in bulk at a fraction of regular prices. Several staff volunteered to come in over a weekend and create the special Christmas Care packages for local families, which were identified and selected through Afena's partnership with the Training Center, a Marion-based non-profit that serves low-income families and their children.
