Black Hills / Pfizer / Leadership Giving

Hi All--

What a great Sunday it is out there! They're aerating the lawn tomorrow so I had to flag the sprinklers. Got soaking wet, but it felt good -- especially considering what it will feel like in 6 - 8 weeks.

I have some campaign pictures to share later into the week. Today I wanted to post the following on Leadership Giving:

Emerging Leaders and Women in Philanthropy are individuals who give $500-$999. These individuals are the next level of philanthropists, pledging to take their first steps to Leadership.

Becoming an Emerging Leader can take as little as $500 a year, $42 a month or $21 a pay period bi-monthly.

$20 of your contribution will provide:
• a hot dinner for two homeless families of four.
• weekly hands-on cooking activities for 40 low-income preschool children and 24 toddlers.
• two weeks of water therapy for a person living with cerebral palsy.

$25 of your contribution will provide:
• five hot meals for a Meals-On-Wheels recipient.
• one Parent Care Kit for a family with a premature infant in the neonatal intensive care unit.

$50 of your contribution will provide:
• assistance to help keep a family's electricity on so that they do not have to leave their home and seek shelter elsewhere.
• one cancer patient with help paying for out-of-pocket costs for chemotherapy, radiation, transportation, transfusion and testing.

For the cost of a monthly massage, a round of golf or dining out, you could make an impact on our community. This is your chance to engage and become a Leader. Leadership is tested in difficult times. Are you ready to take the next step?

Some good bullets to consider. Try to target Leadership Giving as one area of focus in your overall campaign. It may be out of some folk's price range, but for those that can afford it. . .it can really pay off for our friends and neighbors in Lincoln and Lancaster County.

More in the days ahead. Thanks for your continued support of United Way and Community Health Charities. Dave

Eastmont Towers

Hi All --

Playing catch-up getting some campaign photos posted.

One campaign that wrapped up in August was Eastmont Towers. This is Eastmont's 2nd year of participating in the UW/CHC campaign. Activities at Eastmont included:

--An Agency Fair / Carnival (note the "Pig Race")

--Hat Day (I'm so glad that isn't a real ponytail on the man in lower left hand corner)

--Wii Bowling Tournament

--End of Campaign Lunch

Eastmont works with a campaign committee that does a lot of planning and organizing beforehand. This includes coordinating the activities, planning speakers for the agency fair, goal setting, etc. Eastmont also great management support -- another key component of a successful campaign.

Congrats to Eastmont Towers on another great campaign, along with congrats to all of our Pacesetter campaigns!

Thanks to everyone for your continued support of United Way and Community Health Charities. Dave

BNSF -- Good News

Hi All,

Lots of great success stories going on in the community right now. Lots! Much to share in the days and weeks ahead.

One GREAT story I heard about last week happened at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railyard in Havelock. The roof on one of the buildings needed to be replaced. And on this rood was 64 1/2 tons of river rock that needed to be removed. I did a rough calculation -- that would be about 2600 bags of rock if you went to Menards, Lowes, etc.

Sherwin Hudson, Site Head at BNSF, offered the rock to the employees at $20/ton (bargain) . . . and . . . this is the good part. . .all proceeds from the rock sale would go to United Way.

After all was said and done, BNSF presented United Way with a check for $1290 last week as a kick-off to their campaign. They'll run the pledge form portion of their campaign in October, but what a nice bonus in September!

This is one of those win-win-win stories. BNSF is able to remove their rock, associates are able to buy landscaping material for a song, United Way (and our community) benefit. The added benefit is the awareness and participation in United Way that BNSF provided to their associates.

Stories and events like this are happening all over our community. Much more to come. Big thanks to our friends at Burlington Northern Santa Fe, and big thanks to all of you for your continued support of United Way and Community Health Charities.

Dave

Coming Soon -- Success Stories!

Hi All --

I've been remiss in my blogging. August was a busy month.

I did, however, complete my pledge form this week. And I did "up" my pledge. I'm going to offer a challenge to you. Even if it's $1, I challenge you increase your pledge this year. Offer that challenge in your campaigns. It doesn't have to be a huge increase (altho' huge increases are welcome), but try to maintain or "nudge" up slightly. You'll see the paybacks every day.

I have MANY success stories to share -- Black Hills Energy, Eastmont Towers, Assurity, Union Bank and Trust to name a few. Pacesetter campaign results are starting to come in. We've had hits and misses. . .and hopefully more hits when all is said and done. And the General Campaign officially kicks off in just over a week. It's going to be action packed for the rest of the summer!

I'll start getting our successes posted this week. Also, if you have some campaign photos or a campaign story you'd like to share. . .drop me a line!

dave.zeplin@novartis.com or davezeplin@yahoo.com

I'll get it posted. . .and I promise, I'll do it before snow flies!

Thanks everyone for your continued support of United Way and Community Health Charities.

All the Best, Dave

Gail Stoklasa from the United Way Office sent this to me today. It's definitely worth a read:

We also are working on the goal setting process. Not sure where our goal will come in at, but I do know it will be above what we did last year.

This spring, all our campaign planning was around keeping and maintaining what we did last year. After a conversation with a mentor in which we discussed what success would look like this year, I began looking at our campaign differently.

Yes, times are tough.
Yes, the economy stinks.
Yes, employment numbers are terrible.
Yes, people are losing their jobs.

No, we didn’t run a campaign in every company.
No, we don’t have 100% participation.
No, our per capita gift isn’t where we want it to be.
No, we haven’t tapped into all the individuals outside the workplace.

I began to realize all the opportunities we had. I began to realize that if we set a goal at or less than what we did last year, we will be accepting defeat. Defeat not only for our organization but for our community.

We then began putting together a plan to increase our campaign and capitalize on our opportunities. Do I know that we will raise more than we did last year? No. But I know that unless we set a goal higher than last year, there is no way we will.

Every day I go between excited and terrified. It is my opinion that we as professionals must stay on the excited side of things and not cave into the pressure to accept defeat. Leadership is easy when times are easy, leadership is challenging when times are challenging. It is upon us to be the leaders of our organizations and ensure our communities have the resources needed.

David Nicole, Trident United Way
---
SO SET YOUR GOALS! They're a major component of campaign development. And don't let a bad economy make you hesitate setting both a $$$ and a participation goal.

Thanks for your continued support of United Way and Community Health Charities. Dave