Newsroom

Making Austin greater – 2012 Employee Campaign

Leadership Makes Austin Greater Kevin, Webb Middle School student “I’m in the United Way Volunteer Project Leader program because I want to be a better person. When I grow up I want to be a professional soccer player but I worry I won’t ever be able to. Lots of times, money is tough even though my mom works really hard. She motivates me because she works so hard – she’s my mom and my dad at the same time. People from UWATX and my school who care about me say I should stay in school because even though I don’t need math to play soccer, I’m still going to need it at some point. Thanks to the UWATX program, I’ve already done some volunteer projects and it made me feel really good because I could talk to the people that couldn’t speak English so it made me proud to be bilingual. ”   Education Makes Austin Greater Beth, mother of 4-year-old Katelyn “My daughter is becoming more social and independent thanks to United Way’s Play To Learn project. A few months ago, my mother passed away and I was having a difficult time finding a caretaker for my 4-year-old daughter Katelyn until I discovered United Way’s Play To Learn project. Since I do not have Internet access, the library is a home away from home for us, so it was incredibly convenient to find this service there. And this was so much more than childcare, it also allowed my daughter […]

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Deloitte makes over Crockett High for IMPACT Day

On Friday, June 8, Deloitte professionals came together for IMPACT Day- a volunteer day where local employees revamped courtyards, common areas, and classrooms of Crockett High School. Before volunteers got down and dirty with various projects, they were greeted with an early morning pep rally to remind them why their volunteer work is so important, introduce them to the school  they were “impacting”, and provide a hearty breakfast to start the day. As projects began at 10 a.m., volunteers were assigned to different areas and set out to perform their duties. Some of these projects included: Building new bookshelves for students to house their achievements Sanding and painting the doors to improve the building’s appearance Landscaping the courtyard with flowers and grass Cleaning out the classrooms for the 2012-13 school year While volunteers worked on the outside beautification projects, additional Deloitte professionals taught no-cost workshops to local nonprofit employees on business counsel, leadership development and financial guidance, allowing these business professionals to gain important hands-on material. United Way for Greater Austin also managed additional volunteer projects for employees on campus, including downloading and preparing the new Samsung tablets with applications for the upcoming fall semester of Play To Learn. The Play To Learn project is an opportunity for parents and their children to learn together about school readiness at accessible neighborhood locations.  The course incorporates Samsung Galaxy tablets pre-loaded with children’s educational apps to continue the learning process outside class. One-hundred and fifty tablets were loaded by Deloitte on Friday […]

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Introducing: United Way for Greater Austin

After months of careful evaluation, we’re announcing an important evolution for our local organization: we are changing our name to United Way for Greater Austin! Austin is an incredible city to live and work in and we’re proud to be here, so this name change reinforces our long-standing commitment to our dynamic community. We deliberately chose for—and not of—because we are here in service to Greater Austin. The new name does not signal any change to our service area, we will continue to provide research-based and results-focused services to all ten counties where we work. We’ve been helping Central Texas for almost 90 years and are committed to creating a resilient, innovative, philanthropic, creative and thriving community for all. The new name is one component of a larger rebranding process, where we are reintroducing ourselves to this vibrant community. At United Way, we are solving problems not just for one person with one need, but creating solutions for a large community with large needs. Our mission is to make Austin greater by building philanthropists, helping the working poor overcome barriers and making sure Austin continues to thrive. With this change, we have a new Facebook page that we urge you to like to see updates on UWATX. You can also follow @uwatx on Twitter for even more posts on how we’re helping Austin continue to thrive. (Note: While our Twitter handle has also changed, if you were following @unitedwaycapitalarea, you are automatically following the new handle.) As always, we couldn’t do […]

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Campaign Co-Chair Q&A: Part 3

For United Way Capital Area’s annual Workplace Giving Campaigns, two dedicated volunteers help promote the importance of giving through the workplace by serving as Campaign Co-Chairs. This year’s Co-Chairs are Ben Bentzin, CEO of Interactive Health Technologies, Inc., and Jeff Thomas, Regional Vice President for H-E-B. They answered some questions about their role in the campaign in the last of this three-part series. Why do you think it’s important for people to give through their workplace? Jeff: First, it’s easy. If your workplace sets up a program that allows you to contribute a small amount each week over the course of a year, that small amount can mean a whole awful lot to an individual and collectively to the agencies United Way supports. Employers who set up processes and systems that make it easy for their employees to give, can make a big difference in that way.           How does workplace giving encourage philanthropy throughout Austin? Ben: A workplace giving campaign does three things: 1. It gives companies a chance to raise their corporation’s profile in our community. It extends and enhances the value of their brand because they’re seen as a good citizen. 2. It gives companies an easy way to do some social good in our community and be sure that those dollars are going to be spent in a way that’s really helping people living in poverty. 3. It’s a chance for employees to work together as a team. A lot of employees […]

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[GUEST BLOG] Volunteerism – Make a Difference for Your Community and Business

The power of workplace volunteerism is huge –Americans are volunteering in record numbers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ January 2010 report, 1.5 million more Americans volunteered between September 2008 and September 2009 than the previous year. Wells Fargo team members in Austin have been actively involved with the United Way for many years and in fact, our Diversity Council and Team Member Networks are already planning projects to support the “Day of Caring” campaign in the Spring.  In addition to working for a company that has contributed more than $1.6 million to the United Way since 1999, I have also had the honor of serving on the United Way’s Campaign Cabinet and the Community Advisory Council. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do. Yet there also is a host of business benefits that can result from community service. Read on for a few examples of win-win situations that can be created when businesses support their employee volunteerism.

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Campaign Spotlight: Courtney Medford

As a Public Relations major, Courtney never pictured herself working in the nonprofit industry after graduation.  However, 3 months into her job as a Campaign Associate (CA) at United Way Capital Area (UWCA), Courtney confesses that her passion for this work has grown tremendously in ways she couldn’t have imagined. Before joining the team, Courtney was a typical Public Relations major at St. Edward’s University.  She was focused on maintaining a good GPA, and served as the President of her university’s Public Relations Student Society of America chapter. “My interest in non-profits first started in college” she admits.  “But my passion grew as I became more involved with United Way’s philanthropy efforts.”

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Campaign Co-Chair Q&A: Part 2

For United Way Capital Area’s annual Workplace Giving Campaigns, two dedicated volunteers help promote the importance of giving through the workplace by serving as Campaign Co-Chairs. This year’s Co-Chairs are Ben Bentzin, CEO of Interactive Health Technologies, Inc., and Jeff Thomas, Regional Vice President for H-E-B. They answered some questions about their role in the campaign in the second of this three-part series. Why do you give to UWCA? Jeff: It’s a wonderful organization that touches so many different needs in our community and I have a passion around many of these needs- education for one, especially early education. You can impact the life of a young child even prior to going into school and make a difference in their life forever. Right now, we’re putting a lot of time, energy and money into building literacy rates in the state of Texas and our chairman Charles Butt is very passionate about that, as I am. I also have a passion around the well-being and health of the people in our community. H-E-B is doing an awful lot to make sure we’re educating our partners about being healthy, taking better care of themselves and many of the organizations that UWCA touches connect to that. There’s so many different needs in our community that, if not for UWCA, would go unfilled, so that’s why I’m passionate about giving and supporting United Way. Why do you have a passion for improving the Austin community? Ben: When I’m out during campaign, I talk about […]

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Campaign Co-Chair Q&A, Part 1

For United Way Capital Area’s annual Workplace Giving Campaigns, two dedicated volunteers help promote the importance of giving through the workplace by serving as Campaign Co-Chairs. This year’s Co-Chairs are Ben Bentzin, CEO of Interactive Health Technologies, Inc., and Jeff Thomas, Regional Vice President for H-E-B. They answered some questions about their role in the campaign in the first of this three-part series. What is the role of the Campaign Co-Chair? The role of the Campaign Co-Chair is to be the cheerleader for the campaign. It’s a lot like being in a political campaign, except instead of running for yourself, you’re running to raise money for our community. I love being Campaign Co-Chair, it’s a chance for me to go out every day- I’ve been out every day this week- and talk about all the impact we can have through education, income and health. I also love seeing the diversity of the campaigns that we have and how these employee-driven campaigns are totally different but perfect for their individual companies- they’re motivating for employees, it gives them a chance to get to know each other better and do some good in the community. Why did you choose to become this year’s Campaign Co-Chair? I’ve been associated with United Way almost my entire H-E-B career and in fact early in my management years with H-E-B in the early 80s, I was the coordinator for H-E-B’s United Way campaign for one of those years. Ever since then I’ve had a connection to […]

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United Way Capital Area Partners with Businesses to Raise $16.5 Million

Each year, United Way Capital Area (UWCA), raises money to address the root causes of poverty in Central Texas. This year, UWCA has set an ambitious annual campaign goal of $16.5 million. Recognizing their campaign goals this year, and every year in the past, can only be met through the support of the many businesses that participate in the Workplace Giving Campaign, UWCA kicked off its season by thanking the employees of more than 300 Austin area companies for their loyal and continued support of the community. “We are so grateful for all of our community support and want to celebrate the successes of our donors and volunteers,” said UWCA President Debbie Bresette. “The companies that participate in our campaign are the ones who raise the money needed to fund the programs that have had a profound impact on the lives of people in our community.” UWCA hosted the kickoff event in the parking lots of five Central Austin H-E-B stores, whose own workplace campaign exceeded $1 million last year. The employees who stopped by one of the five locations, all near companies that participate in the Workplace Giving Campaign, were provided with breakfast items and beverages on their way to work as a token of gratitude. “It’s important that as a company we contribute to our community, but it’s also important to the people who work at Texas Gas Service that they are able to be actively engaged in affecting change in the communities that they live and work […]

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