We work with 400+ companies locally to run Employee Giving Campaigns – giving their employees the opportunity to invest a portion of every paycheck in our community. But with different schedules, fiscal years and payroll cycles for each company, it can get pretty complicated, which means our team stays on top of three years at a time. We support these kooky schedules because we believe any one who makes a paycheck in our community should have the opportunity to give back, so we’ve developed processes to adapt to any company’s needs. Here’s how: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eke0sl9dr9k[/youtube] Every step of the process is completely flexible depending on the company’s needs, but here are a couple of common examples: Example 1: Company A wants to run their campaign in July. They prefer paper pledge forms because their employees are not often in front of a computer and, because they have branches across the state, want to enter their giving information themselves. After that process, they’ll their giving to our team by the end of November, but payroll deductions won’t begin until January, meaning their monthly payments to UWATX start in the new calendar year. Example 2: Company B wants to run a short one-week campaign in November. Because of the busy holiday season, they anticipate they’ll report their giving by the end of January. They will then begin payouts on a quarterly basis with the start of their fiscal year in April. While their campaign runs in November, we won’t see these gifts until […]
Read MoreUWATX: What We Do
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPZTdJaMoiY[/youtube] United Way for Greater Austin has been in this community since 1924 – committed to making Austin greater by building philanthropy and running strategic programs. In the presentation above, Debbie Bresette, our president since 2009, breaks down how we do it: To build philanthropy, we run employee campaigns, giving everyone in our community who earns a paycheck the opportunity to give back. We also coordinate volunteer efforts because we believe giving your time is valuable as well, and we work to inspire individual giving because we know we are all richer when we give back. Last year, we raised more than $16M for nonprofit organizations and coordinated nearly 100,000 hours of volunteering. Of that fundraising, donors entrusted $5.1M to our organization – and we put that giving to work for Greater Austin. In our strategic programs, se support young children through Success By 6, middle school students through Target Graduation and families through Financial Opportunity, and we provide an easy way to connect to services and resources through the Navigation Center. But we also know that it takes a village – for children to succeed, they need parent support, for families to thrive, they need quality education for their children. So our programs are structured to create wrap-around services. Our work is coordinated, knowing that supporting one student can be a key first step to improving the trajectory of a whole family. It’s also targeted in areas that have the highest needs, innovative (because we keep an eye on the landscape […]
Read MoreAn ambitious challenge: doubling the number of low-income children in high-quality care
We are proud to announce our new United Way for Greater Austin (UWATX) Success By 6 Center Project – an ambitious initiative to help 14 child care centers serving low-income populations meet and keep high-quality ratings. Our goal is to double the number of low-income children in the kind of care that changes lives. [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu_uTm5SeIM[/youtube] Center were selected based different criteria, including the number of low-income children they serve, and ratings from our Women”s Leadership Council. Our partners are: For a child to thrive, they need quality support in their life. That’s why UWATX is focusing on providing child care centers the key benefits that will truly make a difference in children’s lives. From a strong relationship with parents to supportive teachers and well-prepared child care directors, children depend on adults to help them thrive in the critical early years and our research shows that teachers are interested in increasing their education. UWATX is supporting continuing professional development for teachers and funding a mentorship program for center directors. We are also recruiting and training individuals to act as substitutes so that staff members can attend professional development opportunities while maintaining a high standard of care for children. Children also need safe facilities, engaging toys and books and educational materials. To fit these needs, UWATX is leveraging in-kind support through our networks to collect materials. We are also casino online providing tools like the High Scope math curriculum to build a strong foundation in math and kickstart children’s STEM education. […]
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