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When you’re providing a service as important as water, there are no days off. “When you clock out, people still need water after that,” says Iredell Water Corporation General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Danny Sloan. “A lot of nights we're getting calls at 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning. It's a 24 hour a day job sometimes.”

Iredell Water Corporation was established 60 years ago as more people in rural Iredell County, outside of Statesville, North Carolina, needed access to water. Today Iredell Water serves over 28,000 people and 11,500 different properties of all kinds, including residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, schools, and hospitals as the rural population continues to grow.

Belonging to the Community They Serve

Although they are one of the larger nonprofit water utilities in North Carolina and have a service area of over 225 square miles with 450 miles of water mains, Iredell Water has a small, dedicated team that operates with extreme efficiency and prioritizes service.

“We’re here to serve. That’s the main thing, serving people in the community.” Sloan says. And the Iredell Water team knows the community they serve well—that's because it’s where they live and grew up, including Sloan.

“We're all part of the community that we serve. That is a big thing with our employees. Our staff lives here and most of them are from here and have grown up here. They know the area, the system and the people.”

Local expertise matters when it comes to understanding their members' needs and providing quick service across the 225 square miles Iredell Water serves.

But often times, especially with the growth from people moving into the community in the last few years, members don’t always expect to speak with someone local when they call the water utility company. Sloan says, “We might get a call from somebody and sometimes they're explaining their situation to me or a staff member like we are in a call center somewhere, and they don't realize that we're right down the road. We might go by your house every day.”

What it Means to Be a Member-Owned Cooperative

Iredell Water Corporation was formed by a group of forward-thinking community members in Iredell County who organized the water utility company as a member-owned cooperative, as it still is today.

As a CO-OP, Iredell Water's customers are members and owners of the nonprofit, and the corporation is governed by elected board members. Instead of profits going to shareholders, CO-OPs reinvest money back into the organization.

“The cooperative model is more community focused,” Sloan explains. “If we compare ourselves to a private type of utility or business where they have shareholders, they might be beholden to the investors, but everything we do is focused on serving our members and the community.”

This model helps Iredell Water keep rates and fees low for members, and funds updates to technology and infrastructure to improve service and prepare for growth. But not all members realize they are owners.

“Sometimes they don't understand what nonprofit, member-owned is, and they don't understand that they are actually a member, and they own a portion of the company," Sloan says. “This money is not going to shareholders or getting shipped down to Atlanta or Raleigh or Charlotte or somewhere else. It's reinvested into our water system in our community. In the end, it's for the community.”

Responsible Growth Means Planning Decades Ahead

Longterm planning allows Iredell Water to keep rates and fees low for its members while maintaining excellent service. Looking out for its members, Iredell Water implements small rate increases over a long period of time, so members aren't hit with a sudden spike in their water bill.

“We don't plan in quarters, we plan in decades," Sloan says. "We're doing an engineering study right now that is looking out to 2045. We are looking 20, 30 and 40 years ahead of what's coming down the line. The decisions we make today are going to affect people later down the road. We're trying to invest in our future and put reserves back so we can pay for future projects up front, which in turn save our members money by avoiding interest costs and unnecessary borrowing on short-term projects."

Those decisions include investing in technology and infrastructure to best serve its growing membership. Sloan explains that the new technologies they've implemented have allowed Iredell Water to detect and pinpoint an area that needs servicing quicker, which is critical in the case of a water leak that needs to be addressed. "Now we can notify a member within 24 hours that they might have a possible leak. That becomes a big advantage and a cost savings to our members."

Finding a Financial Partner That Operates the Same Way

Just as it's important for Iredell Water to keep rates and fees low for its members, they needed a financial institution that did the same for them.

Sloan says the water corporation was hit with heavy fees with the bank they were previously with, prompting Sloan to seek out a financial institution that could help the nonprofit save money on overhead costs.

Like Iredell Water Corporation, United Federal Credit Union is also a member-owned CO-OP. "The models are very similar with us being a nonprofit, being member-owned," Sloan says. “You all are able to offer higher deposit rates because you don't have shareholders that that require a portion of the profits. And it's the same way with us."

While not all credit unions serve large businesses and commercial organizations, United Federal Credit Union does. Sloan discovered the opportunity to move Iredell Water's finances to United when he was at his local Statesville Branch opening a personal account.

“We got into talking, from there, led to a conversation with Matt, on the commercial side, and found out as a business in our county, we could join. After they laid out everything to us, it wasn't hard at all to make that decision."

How Treasury Management Services Support Deposits at Scale

With personalized financial guidance from their dedicated team at United, Iredell Water Corporation moved their daily business banking over to United Federal Credit Union. They also set up cost-saving financial solutions that streamlined the way they collect payments, including remote deposit. The nonprofit not only saw meaningful cost savings but also setup new opportunities to grow their money.

Many financial institutions charge business members a fee for each deposit they receive from a customer, which really adds up for an organization like Iredell Water, that collects nearly 11,000 payment transactions from members paying their water bill. That high number of deposits was one of the reasons they were getting hit with major fees from their former bank.

With United, those individual deposit fees were eliminated and replaced with a much smaller flat monthly rate as a full-service business member. The credit union also helps Iredell Water earn interest on their deposits through their business checking and savings accounts. This allows the nonprofit to grow their money while still having access to it.

“It was a lot of savings on the bank charges. We saw tremendous savings on that," Sloan says. "And on top of that the rates that we were provided for money deposited were just awesome."

Sloan compares their experience with the credit union to the bank they were previously working with that didn't offer these solutions. "Our typical business checking, we were not earning anything. Now with United Federal Credit Union, we've been able to earn competitive interest rates. Even down to our daily checking account, we earn interest on that. Now we're also investing and building more reserves with the credit union."

A Financial Institution That Understands Their Business

While cost savings are important, Sloan says Iredell Water's relationship with United goes beyond banking. "It's that relationship. The thing that we value most is service, and we definitely get that with United Federal Credit Union. We're not just an account to them. They know our business, they understand our business."

Each United Business Member is given direct access to a team of financial experts invested in the success of their organization, including those who live in, understand, and serve their local community.

United empowers its Business, Commercial, and Treasury Management teams to apply their local expertise and provide personalized business solutions to business members that are most efficient for the way each business operates.

Just like when members call Iredell Water, when Sloan and his team call United, they reach someone who understands their business and community. “I don't know of any time that we've been with United Federal Credit Union that I have called and felt like I was calling into a service center. I am typically calling somebody directly. I'm going to call Matt or I'm going to call Ryan in Treasury Service. I have their number even down to their cell phone numbers. That's unheard of in the banking industry. They treat us as a member, not just an account."

Sloan says their positive member service experience is consistent, whether he's reaching someone by phone or visiting his local United Branch. “They know who I am. Walking into the door at the bank, they all know me by name. Overall, from a teller line up to Commercial and Treasury Services, everybody knows us and we know them, which I think is awesome. I feel like in the bank industry, that's just unheard of anymore to still have that level of service. I think it's awesome.”

Strong relationships build strong communities, and when we reinvest in our community, everyone wins.