Hello once again!  Thank you for visiting and taking time to read United Way’s ECM Blog during the busy campaign season.  There are many reasons to donate money and I think it is very important to communicate these reasons to your employees to encourage participation. 

Below are a few of the many reasons to donate.

• United Way builds stronger communities right here in the Capital Region.  All donations are allocated to organizations located in communities where we all live and work.
• Those in need are assisted in achieving a higher quality of life because United Way focuses on the key areas of education, income, and health.
• Rather them simply managing existing problems, United Way works to prevent them from happening in the first place.
• The allocation of our money is decided by trained volunteers from our communities.  You and I and our employees can volunteer to help make these important decisions.
• Non-profit organizations that receive money are held accountable by United Way for accomplishing results.

The above reasons can be communicated in many ways, including email, company newsletter, meetings, and United Way campaign events.  For our campaign at Pioneer Bank, we are pulling information from United Way’s document called ‘Top Ten Reasons to Support United Way’ which is found on this website.  Each time we send an email to our employees, we are pulling one of the reasons from this list and adding it to the end of our message.

Please feel free to comment or ask questions and I hope your campaign is a big success!

Thanks for reading,

Michele

Michele Lindow
ECM of Pioneer Bank

10 Ways to Live United lays out what it will take for us to turn outward and become more intentional in our choices and judgments in creating change so that we can have greater impact, increase our relevance and significance communities and Live United.

1. See and hear all people: We must help people in our communities to see and hear those individu­als who are different from themselves, or live in other parts of the community. At the heart of living united is the ability to see beyond ourselves so we can begin to understand and work on common challenges, or support others who face challenges different from ours.
2. Root our work in public knowledge of the community: We must root our work in the public knowledge of our community - for instance, in how people see and define their concerns, the values they wrestle with, the aspirations they hold for themselves, their neighbors, and their community. This public knowledge then must be used to inform the ways in which we do our work internally and the how we shape our programs and initiatives.
3. Span boundaries: We must act as boundary spanners in our communities, working to bring people and organizations together across real and imagined dividing lines. Too many efforts these days are fragmented, isolated, or even redundant. We must find ways to work across boundaries and leverage one another’s efforts.
4. Undertake “galvanizing projects": We must focus on undertaking “galvanizing projects” - efforts that by their very nature bring people together and demonstrate that we can step forward and work collectively. In these efforts, impact is less important than galvanizing people’s sense of connection and momentum. We need early wins and they must visible to everyone.
5. Orient ourselves toward the “public good": We must orient ourselves toward the “public good,” which in practice means seeing people as citizens not “consumers.” Too often our volunteer programs become more focused on the “volunteer experience” rather than creating positive impact for com­munities.
6. Be hard-nosed about selecting partners: We must be incredibly hard-nosed about selecting the right partners. Well-meaning partnerships and coalitions often die from too much talk, too little ac­tion, and overblown promises. Stay focused on who you can run with.
7. Root our work in people’s reality: We must not confuse our desire to imagine a better world with the need to root our work in the daily realities in which people live. False starts or false promises made because of our own hubris or fantasies will only bring about more cynicism and lead to further retreat from public life. For us to live more united demands our willingness to face up to the hard truths of reality.
8. Tap the energy and enthusiasm of young Americans: We must tap the energy and enthusiasm of young Americans, who bring into public life a sense of tolerance, can-do spirit, and a practical bent. Thus, our challenge is to redefine “public service” for this new generation, rather than trotting out warmed-over ideas from the past.
9. Learn to tell stories of hope and change: We must learn to tell stories of hope and change - what might be called civic parables - so that people can see themselves in public life. But this requires us to reject the usual hype and glossed-over public relations, and instead turn to authentic reflections of people’s journeys around change, including why they started out where they did, how they progressed, what went wrong along the way, and what worked. Then maybe more people will step forward.
10. Take on enemies of the public good: We must be willing to take on enemies of the public good - like inertia, cynicism, mechanized responses to human problems, false hope, distorted reality, and superficial efforts to take on real challenges. Bringing about hope and change was never easy, and there is absolutely no reason to believe that our current time will be any different.    

To “Live United” is a call for each of us to step forward to engage with one another and to do our best to repair breaches in our lives and society. It is an entreaty to turn outward, toward one another and make hope real.  

Hi!!  My name is Jana Behe and I have been active with United Way of the Greater Capital Region since moving to Albany almost 6 years ago.  Since that time I have been fortunate to be a part of United Way Young Leaders, become a member of the Leadership Team, participate in United in Action days, and to participate on the review panels for grant allocation of United Way funding.  But my first and primary continued involvement with UWGCR is as an ECM for my company, NYSTEC, and that is what I am here to discuss with you today!

The motto of United Way – Give. Advocate. Volunteer.  Live United – is a great starting point for any campaign, and I feel even more important for the smaller campaigns.  In this blog entry I will talk about Giving first.  Look forward to discussions on the rest of the United Way motto and how it can help in your campaign in later blogs!!

I want to let you know that giving to United Way is important, no matter the size of your company.  Sometimes campaign suggestions seem to revolve around large scale full year ventures and some of you may be thinking – OK that is great.  If we were a huge company I would totally start up some of those initiatives.  But our company is so small, our donations are really going to get lost in the sea of the larger contributors, so why does it matter what our campaign does? 

I am here to tell you that it does matter and I have some ideas just for you.  Our company is very small, and although we might never be in a position to contribute as much cumulatively as some of the larger and equally wonderful companies in this area, every donation is important to United Way.  As an ECM, your role is to help employees understand the impact of the individual donation. 

A few years ago NYSTEC was first honored as a Gold Sponsor.  This means that on a per capita basis, our giving was between $100-$199 per employee.   To be honest we were so thrilled about this and spent weeks patting ourselves on the back….Then we realized: Hey what is better than gold??  PLATINUM!!!!   Platinum Sponsors means that on a per capita basis, your corporate giving is in excess of $200 per employee.  Since that light bulb went off, achieving Platinum Sponsor level has been a goal that I am happy to report we have consistently achieved.  We know we will never be in a position due to our size to raise more money than other larger companies, but we do know that we can make a difference and distinguish our organization by the way we donate. 

GIVE - The first thing I do when we kicking off our campaign is to remind people what their giving levels were last year (by providing them a copy of their form from last year) and what our corporate goal is for this year.  For those of you that are not able to quite give at the Platinum level - yet– set a smaller goal to start off your year. If you need to start really small, set $50 as the average contribution – or reach higher and aim for Gold Sponsor status!!   Achieving Gold Sponsor status equates to an average giving of $100-$199 per person per year. 

Break that down on a poster for your employees.  What that really means is that on average employees need to give an average of $8.33 per month (or $4.16-$4.17 per bi-weekly paycheck). For example,  I am addicted to Starbucks Venti Skinny Vanilla Lattes – and $8.33 would not even be enough for two a month.  Try to come up with other examples to show how this level of giving really is achievable.  Here are some other examples to get you going to show how that amount is lower than other items we typically purchase in a month – A large pizza, one movie ticket, one CD or album on iTunes….

Hopefully I have given you a good starting point and some ideas!  If you have any questions or discussion topics feel free to post here or contact me!

Greetings Employee Campaign Managers and welcome to United Way’s first ECM blog!  I hope you will find this to be a helpful campaign resource during the upcoming weeks.  I encourage you to become involved by asking questions and posting related comments for the benefit of all ECMs.

This year will be my seventh campaign as ECM of Pioneer Bank and each year I try to find ways to shake things up, but at the same time implement ideas proven to be effective from previous campaigns.  Following is one idea you may find helpful for your own campaign.

Every year, Pioneer’s campaign includes a Team Leader meeting.  Our Team Leaders comprise of employees at all different levels, from entry level to managers, and each one represents their department/branch.  They assist with the campaign by distributing materials, encouraging donations from other employees in their group, and collecting pledge forms.  We have 17 Pioneer locations and because our employees are decentralized, it is difficult to gather 300 employees for a meeting.  Therefore, we address this challenge by designating these Team Leader representatives to bring the message back to their work location.

Our meeting gives Team Leaders the opportunity to learn more about United Way and their role in the campaign, so my goal is to make sure we generate enthusiasm by making the meeting fun and informative, without breaking the bank (no pun intended).  Following are just a few simple, low cost ideas that have helped us carry out a successful meeting:

Food

• We provide either a catered hot breakfast or simple coffee, juice, and donuts

Guest Speakers

• United Way Representative ~ Provides UW facts and explains how those in need are assisted.
• Direct Recipient ~ Last year, a woman spoke about how UW funds directly impacted her life (very effective!).
•  CEO ~ It is important for employees to know that support for the campaign comes from the top.
• Employee Donor ~ Choose an employee who you know gives generously and would be willing to explain why they contribute.

Incentives

•  We thank our team leaders by holding a gift card raffle drawing at the meeting.

The Team Leader meeting is just one component of our campaign, but certainly an effective one.  Again, please feel free to post your comments/questions relating to the above. I hope you found this to be helpful and best wishes with your campaign!

Michele Lindow, Pioneer Bank

Did we take your picture at our Employee Campaign Manager Orientation on September 17 at RPI? Click the pics below to find out!

ECM guest bloggers will post a new comment, topic, story or suggestion each week throughout the 2010 Workplace Campaign. Need an idea? Want to share a success? Read posts from the ECMs who have been there and can share their experiences. Post your comments and feedback to start a conversation and to let us know how we can make your campaign a success!