Nearly a decade after opening its first Spokane branch, Boeing Employees’ Credit Union has expanded with a fourth location, continuing a strategy that blends moderate physical growth with steady community investments. 

The South Hill branch, located at 2501 E. 29th, opened in April and joins BECU's existing Spokane branches located in downtown Spokane, Spokane Valley, and North Spokane. The four locations represent the Tukwila, Washington-based credit union’s presence and expansion in the region, which entered the Spokane retail market in 2016 after years of operating a regional contact center in Spokane Valley. 

BECU has expanded its membership across Spokane and into Kootenai County to nearly 29,000 members with $242.7 million in deposits, up from just over 6,500 members in Spokane in 2016, and $49 million in deposits. BECU also has additional members across Eastern Washington in Adams County, Lincoln County, and the Tri-Cities region. 

Helping lead that growth is Kim Lybecker, vice president of retail strategy and operations, and Wanda Buddrius, senior manager of retail market development—two Eastern Washington natives.

Lybecker, who grew up in Harrington, Washington, about 60 miles southwest of Spokane, and has been with BECU for 16 years, describes the organization’s footprint in Spokane as strategic. 

“We are very purposeful and thoughtful in our investments and how we leverage that money and make sure it ties back into value for them,” says Lybecker, who is now based on the West Side.

Buddrius, a Washington state University grad who also hails from Harrington and was hired by Lybecker nearly a decade ago, adds that BECU has led a strategy focused on cultivating around the needs and opportunities of the communities it resides in. 

“We should always be growing our Spokane area to connect and participate and engage in our community partners,” Buddrius notes.

BECU first launched in Spokane in 2016 with two branches, one on the North Bank at 916 N. Division, and the second in Spokane Valley, at 615 N. Sullivan. Its North Spokane branch opened in 2017 at 9420 N. Newport Highway, in the Country Homes neighborhood on Spokane's North Side, and in 2018, the credit union added a Home Loan Center to its growing network located at 12111 E. Mission, a block west of the Pines Street couplet. Combined, BECU employs over 230 people in Spokane. Currently, the organization is assessing future expansion opportunities based on the needs of its members, Lybecker says. 

“Our goal is to continue to expand and deepen our connections within the community,” she says. 

BECU was founded in 1935 by 18 Boeing Co. employees and is currently the fifth-largest credit union in the country. It has over 1.5 million members nationally and is operated by over 2,800 employees. Although it is primarily Washington-based, BECU also serves members in 20 counties in Oregon, 10 in North Idaho, and any member with an affiliation with Boeing, such as in South Carolina, where Boeing has an airplane assembly facility in Charleston County. 

Community involvement

As BECU’s footprint in Spokane has steadily grown, its visibility in the community has grown through the partnerships and investments it has made into local nonprofits and projects. Over the past three years, the credit union has awarded more than $1 million in grants to local organizations, focusing on housing stability, access to education, and economic development, Lybecker says. 

Among the local beneficiaries are Feast World Kitchen, which received a “People Helping People” award from BECU last year; the Spokane Colleges Foundation; and the Scale House Market in Spokane’s Conservation District, a year-round community marketplace of which BECU is the project’s premier sponsor.  Scale House Market had a ribbon-cutting ceremony in May and is located at the Conservation District’s Quarry Campus at 4422 E. Eighth in Spokane Valley. 

“It’s just a wonderful piece for the community,” says Lybecker, who attended the ceremony. “We’re so excited to have been a part of that.” 

Other partners, Buddrius adds, include Joya Child & Family Development, Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners, the Innovia Foundation, the Downtown Spokane Partnership, and Greater Spokane Incorporated. 

BECU’s community-oriented message is also central to its latest Spokane-centered marketing campaign, “We’re here to Help”, which features Spokane residents on billboards, in-branch displays, and signage at Spokane International Airport, Buddrius says. 

At BECU, employees are also encouraged to volunteer in the community and are given 24 hours of paid “community time off” annually to do so. Lybecker says she uses a lot of her time to give back to her alma mater’s Women Leadership Network at Whitworth University. Buddrius says she dedicates her time to the Spokane Valley Chamber, where she serves on the executive board and is a vice president at the local WSU Alumni Association, which does scholarship and philanthropic work in the community. 

“We are member and value-driven, and we like to show up in the places to help people lead them to financial freedom,” Buddrius says. 

The credit union also offers a donation-matching program in which it matches up to $7,500 per employee per year in matching contributions to eligible nonprofits, Lybecker says. 

“I’ve never worked anywhere that has that kind of level of commitment to matching and helping communities,” she says.