credit union type credit union industry financial services founded 1979 headquarters ithaca new york united states key people tristam coffin chairman products savings ; checking ; consumer loans ; mortgages ; credit cards ; online banking ; mobile banking ; business banking aum b usd 2012 website afcu alternatives federal credit union was founded in ithaca new york in 1979 . their primary focus is on providing low cost services to small business low income households and non profit organization . 1 2 history edit alternatives federal credit union initially focused on local co ops and employee owned businesses experiencing rapid growth in their first decade . by 1990 they almost 5 000 members and deposits totally over 12 million . part of this community initiative was to start the socially responsible investment club which itself was a credit union for young people . it assisted in starting other credit unions as well offered seminars on personal finance low income housing and entrepreneurship . 3 in 2014 the credit union national association cuna awarded afcu their 2014 community credit union of the year award . 4 references edit jones ellis ; johnson brett ; mcintosh diane 2007 . the better world handbook . new society publishers . pp. 61 62 . isbn 978 086571 575 2 . sbill myers named to state of new york mortgage agency . real estate weekly . january 7 2009 . retrieved october 15 2014 via highbeam research . subscription required help . mahalingam s. 1993 . labour participatory economy . mittal publications . p. 265 . isbn 81 7099 414 4 . cerquone suzanne 10 october 2014 . alternatives wins credit union of the year . lansing star . retrieved 13 october 2014 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title alternatives federal credit union & oldid 737224287 categories credit unions based in new yorkithaca new york1979 establishments in new yorkhidden categories pages containing links to subscription only content navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 1 september 2016 at 13 10 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view