The 2012 Employee Campaign season has just wrapped up, marking a successful year of giving from Austin businesses and their employees. To say thank you, UWATX is recognizing the companies that truly stood out in their giving, including three recipients for the 2012 Excellence in Corporate Philanthropy Award: 3M: 3M is a powerful supporter of UWATX- they came in second in raising dollars directly for UWATX programs and community impact. On top of that, 3M also touts the largest number of leadership givers and supported UWATX’s new brand with a generous donation of bus wraps that toured the city for months. 3M also matches every gift, stocks a large portion of our supply closet, gave in-kind donations to support UWATX’s rebranding efforts and consistently gives the largest corporate gift to UWATX in Austin! H-E-B: In the Greater Austin area, H-E-B employees make up the single largest source of employee giving support. They run a fun, educational, and competitive UWATX campaign in each of their stores, and truly embody the best in corporate philanthropy. Their success grows from strong leadership: From Charles Butt’s support of philanthropy, to Jeff Thomas’ personal investment of time and guidance, to store leaders championing the UWATX campaign across the region and individual employees who lead fellow Partners in giving back. Enterprise: Enterprise was the success story UWATX couldn’t stop talking about this year. Their campaign saw huge increases in total giving, giving to UWATX and a very high participation rate. Enterprise stressed the value of […]
Read MoreSpotlight: Heather Beckel Luecke on crafting a brand for our community
In November 2011, Heather Beckel Luecke joined the UWATX team and took on the challenge of re-launching the United Way brand locally. This May marks the one-year anniversary of our new name and look. Q from UWATX: What brought you to UWATX a year and a half ago? A from Heather: I was looking for a new professional challenge and was connected to Lauren Paver through a mutual friend. We had some great conversations at Bennu coffee shop and then I formally interviewed with her, Debbie Bresette and Aviva Pinchas – and I thought: “I want to work with all these really smart women!” What’s been the biggest challenge of jumping in to the nonprofit sector and of re-launching a legacy brand like United Way? In terms of the biggest challenge of re-launching a legacy brand – it’s a FUN challenge because it’s difficult. To stay within the rules of the brand and respect the brand but at the same time dust off the cobwebs, make it more local and push the envelope a little bit. The biggest challenge for me of working in the nonprofit sector is getting used to a different way of thinking about an allocation of resources to tackle social issues. I’ve never had to deal with this in for-profit or political advocacy work where the question is asked upfront: “Okay what marketing dollars do you need to make this happen?” UWATX board member Gayle Greer turned us onto a TED Talk by Dan Pallotta that […]
Read MoreIntroducing: UWATX Young Leaders Society
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsdV9X8bhUs[/youtube] United Way for Greater Austin is introducing a new iteration of our Young Leaders Society – a giving society for young professionals. This version has a few exciting changes: Rather than giving $1,000 to UWATX themselves, young leaders will have the option to raise a portion of their contribution. That means individuals can leverage their networks to get support. YLS will focus on UWATX’s Target Graduation program – helping students stay on the path to graduation and being successful in school, work and life. YLS members will participate in volunteer projects with middle school students, changing lives not just with their dollars but with their time also. On top of on-going volunteer events, YLS members will also have the opportunity to participate in networking and professional development events, taking advantage of UWATX’s more than 400 business partners and connecting to other new and emerging Austin leaders “We’re relaunching this group to reflect the amazing city that we are part of – a city filled with young, vibrant talent,” said Debbie Bresette, President of UWATX. “We are here for this city, and YLS is another step towards better serving our community and growing philanthropy.” Get to know the YLS Founding Committee, learn more about the exciting projects they’ve participated in so far or sign-up for a volunteer project.
Read MoreMeet the friendly faces behind the new Young Leaders Society
Today, United Way for Greater Austin (UWATX) introduces the new and improved Young Leaders Society (YLS), a diverse group of young professionals under the age of 40 who give or raise $1,000 annually to support UWATX. YLS unites the professional and social aspects of being a young professional with the intrinsic need to shape our community. – Brendan Day, Baker Botts For a few months, the Founding Committee and I have been getting a jump start by volunteering our time with students in UWATX Target Graduation – a program focused on keeping middle school students on the path to graduation. Moving forward, YLS members will also raise money and spread the word about the critical middle school years. The Founding Committee of YLS is made up of 15 dynamic professionals from a cross-section of industries in the corporate, civic and nonprofit sectors. All accomplished and passionate individuals in their own right, they are joining together to extend their talents, time and money to help prepare Austin students for success in college, work and life. YLS members engage with students at Webb, Decker and Mendez Middle Schools learning to be volunteer leaders and are encouraged to leverage their networks to mobilize more supporters for the Target Graduation program. Whether it is a campus clean-up, a tutoring session, or a mentoring opportunity, YLS members seek to inspire and shape new leaders in Greater Austin. Through various professional development and fun networking opportunities, the Founding Committee is working to expand YLS and work with other young leaders […]
Read More[INFOGRAPHIC] Philanthropy in Austin
![[INFOGRAPHIC] Philanthropy in Austin](https://www.unitedwayaustin.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/AmplifyATX_blog_feat-1.png)
Download a larger version. Learn more about our impact, Play To Learn, Learn Where You Earn or Middle School Matters or get more informed about philanthropy by looking at some of our sources: Chronicle of Philanthropy: philanthropy.com Corporation for National and Community Service: volunteeringinamerica.gov The Daily Beast: thedailybeast.com Global Impact: givingpartner.charity.org UWATX Impact Calculator: uwatx.org/impact Independant Sector: independentsector.org Association of Fundraising Professionals: afpnet.org
Read MoreThe love of my life and our shared vision
Anyone who has ever met me knows that I have never met a stranger and I live my life as an open book. So in this month where we celebrate love I thought I’d share a little about the love in my life and how it has given me such a strong foundation for the work I have chosen to do. More than thirty years ago a young man walked into my home, and into my life, a friend of a friend who had come to visit. In true Valentine’s spirit, it was love at first sight for us both. All these years later, after raising four children together, my husband Patrick and I live in a three-generational household with one of our daughters and her two children, 4 ½ and 2. It makes for a home full of noise, mess, frequent viruses, and lots and lots of love. Patrick and I also share a deep and abiding commitment to bending the arc of history towards justice. But in addition to sharing three decades of marriage and family-building, Patrick and I also share a deep and abiding commitment to improving the lives around us, and – to paraphrase Dr. King – to bending the arc of history towards justice. Over the past two decades we have each found different ways to build that mission into the career paths we have chosen. As president of United Way for Greater Austin, I am dedicated to building a strong and resilient community and […]
Read MoreLet our leaders know: Austin children are an important investment
In Greater Austin, low-income children are our fastest growing demographic and before they even get to school, they are falling behind. Our community is also falling behind in the level of public support we provide to vulnerable children – investing as little as one tenth of what comparable cities are spending. Right now, UWATX’s Success By 6 team is leading a community-wide advocacy effort on behalf of our youngest and most economically vulnerable children and families. We’ve already met with 9 leaders and plan to visit 3 more in the coming weeks to share our message about the importance of the first years. We’ve created a dashboard to highlight key data about this growing challenge as well as specific policy recommendations for the City and County. Beyond one budget cycle or legislative session, we are working to make early childhood a civic priority for our community. Between now and March 1st, as we meet with City Council members and County Commissioners, you too can lend your voice. Share this post or any of these links with your social networks and tag our community leaders to spread the word. You can also contact our community’s leaders via phone or email and let them know that early childhood matters to you. We’ve crafted this template as a starting point: Dear [NAME] – As a concerned resident of Austin/Travis County, I believe that every child in our community has potential. Yet too many of our youngest and poorest children do not enter Kindergarten […]
Read MoreButter Half sets the scene for Austin’s couples
It’s been almost a year since UWATX joined with Creative Suitcase to paint the Butter Half mural – a large-scale work that reflects our mission to bring people together. Since then, the Butter Half mural has (pardon the pun) spread throughout Greater Austin. It’s been pinned, tweeted and blogged. It’s even made it’s way into a scavenger hunt, an editorial, a cutest couple content , on nail art and onto Austin’s most comprehensive to do list. But more than anything, the mural has been the background for couple photo shoots. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, we asked the photographers and subjects of such pictures why the mural spoke to them: Jin + Vincent Ferrer: We love seeing this quirky mural outside our living room window! Truly a visual perk of living on the East Side and, also, a nice daily reminder to keep the wedded bliss fun and unpredictable. Jodi Bart Holzband: My fiance, now husband, found the mural as he was searching the web for murals in Austin. We really love street art and had a handful of other murals picked out as backdrops, but when we saw the ‘You’re My Butter Half’ mural, we were so excited, because we hadn’t seen anyone else use it as a backdrop, and because it seemed pretty appropriate for two food-lovers. Sabrina Consolascio-Garcia of Sabrina{bean}photography: My poor honey was feeling pretty icky that day and he still allowed me to drag him out of the house for a little adventure. I actually read […]
Read MoreFood needs, household expenses dominate needs in Greater Austin
The UWATX Navigation Center has published its annual report of trends in community needs for social services. A few key highlights: The UWATX Navigation Center answered 342,000 calls in 2012 while maintaining a 1 minute wait time and customer satisfaction scores between 96 to 98 percent among different services. Callers for 2-1-1 Texas, a partnership with Texas Health and Human Services Commission, skewed heavily based on gender: 70 percent female to 19 percent male (11 percent did not report their gender). Calls for food pantries increased 55 percent from 2011 to 2012. Food insecurity continues to be a challenge for our community and, perhaps surprisingly, children continue to be among those most affected – one out of four children in Travis County lives in poverty. Household expenses, including electric bill payment (13,879 calls), rent assistance (13,659 calls) and low-income housing (7,574 calls) remained among the top needs. This matches community trends: the percent of Austin households that pay more than 30 percent for housing increased by 3 percent from 2009 to 2010. Just two years into the partnership, the UWATX Navigation Center made 76 percent of all appointments for Central Health, giving Austinites easier access to medical assistance programs. Download the full report or check out our infographic below for more highlights: 2012 Community Needs and Trends Report – Highlights | Infographics
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