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On Tuesday, Employee Campaign Leaders (ECL) from across the greater Austin business community gathered at the Alamo Drafthouse Village for an exciting first look at new UWATX materials and to get inspired to run campaign.  Attendees ranged from longtime partners such as 3M, H-E-B and the Austin American-Statesman to new business partners Liquidation Channel and Adlucent – a diverse crowd ready to see what’s in store of UWATX and what we’ve revamped this year to make their role a bit easier.

ECLs have a ciritical role in Employee Giving Campaigns: championing employee giving at their company by tailoring their campaign (events,meetings, signs, e-mails and more) to fit with their company’s culture and engage their peers. These leaders work with UWATX representatives to craft a campaign that not only  gives their peers the opportunity to give back in an easy way but also showcase the benefit of investing locally.

To make that happen, UWATX representatives bring to the table best practices, printed and digital materials and a slew of experience speakers. This meeting was an introduction to this year’s brand new slate of tools.

“Since our rebranding  feeds into everything we’re doing this year, it made good sense to hold a meeting at the Alamo Drafthouse, which has a brand that is so original and uniquely Austin,” said Megan Carvajal, Director of Workplace Engagement at UWATX. “We wanted to re-introduce United Way to some of our most treasured volunteers.”

ECLs experienced UWATX’s new brand, from the new name to the bold colors and the Makes Austin Greater concept, and also enjoyed sneak peaks of tools including our new website and an early cut of our video.

Set to launch in the coming week, ECLs were the first to see our new site, including  a dedicated ECL portal to network and share ideas with their peers in our community, celebrate success and much more. The website will also offer a plethora of new and updated templates from UWATX, customizable letters and an updated impact calculator to help their employees visualize what their gift can really do in the community.

The new UWATX video, produced by the creative and passionate minds at Sneaky Giants, moved the crowd to tears and motivated them to raise even more money and awareness in their employee campaign.

UWATX also welcomed Bobby Jenkins, Owner of ABC Home and Commercial Services and 2012 UWATX Employee Campaign Co-Chair, to share his vision for the community and his confidence in the ECLs who’ll lead our 2012 campaign to great success. Since ABC just finished running their first campaign,
Bobby spoke from experience about how vital ECLs were to the work of United Way and how critical that work is for Greater Austin.

To showcase some particularly successful campaigns, UWATX recognized 3M, UPS and H-E-B for consistently meeting their goals by following United Way campaign best practices, engaging with their UWATX account manage, and doing the hard work to raise money in their workplace so we can continue to help the Greater Austin community thrive.

A special thanks goes out to Sneaky Giants and Alamo Drafthouse for helping us create a truly memorable event.

Check out more pictures from the event, learn more about H-E-B’s Employee Campaign or see pictures from other campaigns events and volunteer projects.