Minnesota’s first Black credit union opened its doors on Juneteenth 2025, and the people behind it are clear about why it exists and who it serves.
Benson B. Webb Jr., vice president, co-founder and branch manager of Arise Community Credit Union, joined host Tracey Williams-Dillard on Tracey’s Keepin’ It Real alongside Joshua Franklin, a Minnesota attorney and Arise member. The conversation covered why the credit union was built, how membership differs from traditional banking, what Arise is doing to earn community trust, and the financial habits that actually move people forward.
Finding the Purpose
Webb grew up in Selma, Alabama, where he said the divide between the haves and have-nots was visible from his front door. Some classmates had pools and basements. Others came to school because that was where they got fed.
“I had to really think about how can I help,” he said.
He tried a few directions before finding finance at Alabama State University. An investments class changed everything.
“When I figured out money can make money for you without you having to do physical work for it, I was hooked,” he said. “At that moment it clicked for me. This is how I can help somebody.”
His conviction is straightforward. Everyone, regardless of background, eventually has questions about money.
“People deserve to have the answers to the questions they are willing to work to receive,” he said. “If we can provide that path to just have a chance to get a life you deserve, I feel like I’m living my purpose.”
Franklin came at it from the legal and strategic side.
“If it’s not run on law, it’s run on money,” he said. “Business and finance are two things that I recognized very early on were the drivers of not only economic mobility, but also self-determination.”
Why Arise Exists
Webb traced the credit union’s origins directly to the killings of George Floyd and Philando Castile, and to a longstanding sense that the Black community’s voice was not being heard in banking.
“We can just go down the laundry list of banks and other institutions that have taken advantage of people that look like us,” he said. “How long we going to keep letting that happen?”
He described the predatory interest rates that trap people at their most vulnerable moments.
“People just can’t afford paying 200% on interest, 300% on interest just because you were at your lowest, trying to make a way forward,” he said. “We shouldn’t be punished for having ambition.”
Markets shift. Administrations change. Jobs disappear for reasons entirely outside anyone’s control.
“Are they bad people because they lost their jobs, something they had no control over?” Webb said. “Their bills have got to get paid. They still have obligations. People are taken advantage of in those moments knowing they need it.”
Franklin framed the Juneteenth opening as deliberate.
“This was a very clear opportunity for the Minnesota community, for North Minneapolis, which is a growing and rising community, to really understand the truth and the economic power that can come about from that,” he said.
Member Versus Customer
Williams-Dillard asked about the difference between being a customer at a bank and a member at a credit union. Both guests had answers.
“A customer comes in for a service, gets a service, and then goes about their day,” Franklin said. “A member shows a sense of similarity, a sense of community, and a real sense that two people together are seeking the same focus and the same mission.”
Webb got into the structural difference.
“Banks have shareholders that they basically work for,” he said. “But as a member of a credit union, you are the focus. You are the credit union, honestly and truly. We just work there, but you all make up the community.”
He added that the obligation carries legal weight.
“With credit unions, we’re kind of legally bound to make sure our members are taken care of as they need to be,” he said.
His ambition for the institution is specific.
“I personally want to see this become a $2 billion institution in the next 10 years,” he said. “And I want people to say, ‘That’s my credit union. That’s us. That’s my money.’”
Building Trust
Williams-Dillard raised the obvious obstacle directly: The community does not trust financial institutions, and with good reason.
Webb did not argue with the premise.
“I understand if you are hesitant now because you might have been caught up in the 2007 and 2008 crisis where your house might have got foreclosed on,” he said. “You went back to those bank people and they treated you like you were nobody on the street. I understand that. So we try to meet people where they are.”
The Arise approach, he said, pairs rate reduction with education.
“We like to say we’re going to lower your rate and re-educate you,” he said. “Not us selling you a product. How can we help you know what you need to do to get to where you want to go?”
Franklin emphasized that the mission runs through every level of the organization.
“The mission and focus of Arise is truly community-centered,” he said. “We’re focused on this community, their daily life, what they need, what they have, what they don’t have, the resources that it takes to get someone who lives over north what they want out of life.”
How the Rates Work
Asked what makes Arise different on lending, Webb explained the mechanics plainly.
“Number one, they’re going to get a rate from people that actually want you there,” he said.
He described one member who came in with a 22% loan that Arise brought down to 8%.
“Now the member is saving 14% on the dollar,” he said. “Any other investment, you have a hard time getting that.”
The credit union’s model depends on recycling that money back into the community.
“We make money by loaning the money out,” he said. “The more money we can give back out and gain interest on, we can get that back to you in higher rates on your share accounts, higher rates for CDs.”
Members earn dividends on share accounts and CDs, paid out monthly or quarterly.
Arise also offers a credit builder loan designed for members who have been shut out elsewhere.
“You might have gotten in a situation where you’re a good person but bad things happened to you, and you just need a chance to get right back up,” Webb said. “I know what it feels like when your credit score is close to a 400. You still need help. You still have life you need to live, and you shouldn’t be punished just because life didn’t give you the best deck of hands in the moment.”
Access Beyond the Branch
Arise operates primarily online but participates in a shared branching network, meaning members can conduct transactions at Blaze, Affinity Plus and TopLine locations and be treated as if they were members there.
The credit union also partners with outside organizations to provide free one-on-one financial coaching, since Arise itself does not hold the licensing required to give investment advice directly.
Building the Habits
Webb, who teaches core financial management as an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas and instructs securities exam prep courses, said Arise plans to launch community classes covering investments, taxes, estate planning, insurance and retirement.
But his primary focus is behavioral.
“All these tools, all this information, doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have the habits built up to implement this,” he said.
His core advice is deceptively simple: Pay yourself.
“We pay everybody. Everybody gets paid before us,” he said. “When are you going to put money away for ourselves to say, ‘This is for me’? I know you got family. You have obligations. But when is somebody going to put some money away for themselves?”
He recommends setting monthly, quarterly or yearly goals, saving consistently, and then actually rewarding yourself at the end.
“Then you don’t have to go into debt to go on a family vacation,” he said. “If you can set money aside for yourself and you know it’s there just for you and no one else, it builds confidence. It builds the idea that, ‘Okay, I can do for myself.’”
He described that outcome as something money cannot buy.
“That financial peace, just peace of mind, there’s just something that you can’t put a dollar sign on,” he said.
Closing Thought
Asked what legacy people should be working toward, Webb left the audience with this.
“Without equity in the system, we’ll never have equality,” he said.
He pushed listeners to think past the dollar amount.
“Money is just a tool to get the resource. We focus too much on money and not what the money buys,” he said. “Focus on what your resources are.”
Learn More
Arise Community Credit Union is located at 227 Colfax Ave. N., Suite 30A, Minneapolis. Visit ariseccu.org to open an account or learn more.
