You likely know by now that many of our donations come from Austin-based businesses running employee giving campaigns by asking their employees to give a bit of each paycheck back to UWATX. But did you know that United Way for Greater Austin runs our own internal employee giving campaign too? That’s right–we don’t just talk the talk of being philanthropists, we pledge to pledge! We held fun activities to inspire our employees to give, including Twin Day (dress up like the person who inspires you to be a philanthropist), Represent Your Favorite Sports Team Day (complete with trivia and prizes) and Campaign Cool Down (in which we got to wear comfy workout clothes to the office and had a group stretch). Our own UWATX employees pledged to donate more than $23,000 out of their paychecks over the past few days back to United Way programs. As this year’s internal campaign kicked off, we asked our team leads what it was like to run a campaign in an organization that already gives so much. Our Resource Development team travels around town every day helping businesses run their employee giving campaigns, but how does this differ when it’s your own coworkers? Check out their answers to get some inspiration and tips when it comes to running your own campaign: When you signed up to be a part of organizing the United Way for Greater Austin campaign, what were your initial thoughts? Jeffrey King: Very excited! This was a learning experience and an […]
Read MoreYou Know It’s Campaign Season When…
You probably hear the phrase “employee campaigns” from UWATX, but if you don’t work in a business that runs campaigns, this phrase can be quite confusing. Employee giving campaigns are how we receive many of our donations throughout the year. Our Development Officers visit multiple workplaces to inform employees about United Way for Greater Austin’s work, help set up fun activities to encourage employees to pledge and coordinate team-building volunteer activities. We make it easy to give in your workplace through payroll deductions; employees sign up during their campaign to give $5, $10 or more per each paycheck for the upcoming year. We asked UWATX Development Officers Heather and Keith to give us an idea of what campaign season feels like to them. Heather says: UWATX runs employee giving campaigns throughout the year, but August through October are the busiest months when most of our corporate partners promote giving to make Austin greater! With running campaigns comes numerous planning meetings, special events, embarrassing challenges, tables of food, jars of pennies and large campaign finales. It’s a great time and one that I and my fellow Development Officers enjoy. These are a few of the ways I know it’s that time of year: 1. Your phone is full of companies’ campaign event photos 2. Your car turns in to the campaign mobile 3. Your friends tell you to quit asking them for money 4. Your wallet always has 2-1-1 cards in it 5. You change your clothes three times in one day – […]
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