Membership & Affiliate Criteria

Criteria for Membership

Membership designation is available to non-profit community agencies, government agencies and consumer advocates. Non-profit community agencies include non-profit lenders whose mission is to serve very low- to moderate-income households, housing counseling agencies, community legal services agencies and other community service agencies.

Members must sign an agreement supporting the CRL's Mission Statement, Operating Principles and definition of predatory lending.

Members must have a defined role within the CRL. Defined roles include: providing services to clients affected by predatory lending, providing information about predatory lending to clients/the public, making referrals for assistance, and providing consumer education in workshops or on an individual basis.

Members must agree to actively participate on a CRL Committee, if possible, or define an alternative function that they can provide if they do not have the staff time to participate on a committee, such as taking a shift staffing a CRL booth at public events.

Members have the right to vote on CRL matters and may participate on the CRL Steering Committee as a committee representative.

Members will be listed on all CRL publications.

Members will pay annual dues to the CRL. Dues may be waived for a non-profit or individual consumer advocate member if it is a financial hardship to pay dues and the non-profit or individual can only give participation time for CRL activities.

Government agencies $100 per year
Non-profit community agencies $35 per year
Individual consumer advocates $35 per year

Criteria for Affiliates

Affiliate designation is available to for-profit companies in mortgage-related industries, including financial institutions, mortgage companies, real estate companies; escrow services companies and title companies. A non-profit trade association comprised of members from a mortgage-related industry, as above, that would otherwise be eligible as an affiliate, is only eligible as an affiliate organization.

Individual Affiliate designation is available to individual employees of an entity that is eligible for affiliate designation, as listed above. Individual affiliates do not officially represent their employer.

Affiliates must sign an agreement supporting the CRL's Mission Statement, Operating Principles and Predatory Lending definition.

Affiliates are expected to participate in Core Group Meetings of the CRL.

Affiliates may participate on a committee by that committee's request for the duration of a specific project or purpose.

Affiliates may bring issues to the CRL Steering Committee and/or the CRL Core Group but do not have voting rights.

Affiliates must agree to actively work towards ending predatory lending practices in Washington State through one or more of the following:

• Adopting and publishing institutional principles in favor of responsible lending practices, including a fair point structure based on actual credit risk
  
  
• Contributing resources to the CRL's efforts to educate the public, train agencies that help the public, and to provide services to clients that have been affected by predatory lending.

Affiliates will be thanked and listed as affiliates on select CRL publications. Listing will include a disclaimer that states that the Coalition does not endorse any particular for-profit financial institution.

Affiliates will pay annual dues as follows:

For-profit company in a mortgage-related industry $1000 per year
Non-profit trade associations $500 per year
Individual affiliates $35 per year