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2. Create a Winning Team 1. Recruit
a partner or a committee. If you have a committee, consider recruiting
one person from each branch, store, department, etc.
2. Have a meeting with the past ECC.
Step
3. Set a Goal
1. Meet with
the CEO/GM to obtain support for your goals and plans.
2. Review/analyze past campaign history.
3. Use employee newsletters to communicate about the United Way
campaign and your company's goal.
4. E-mail messages on company network.
Step
4. Develop a Campaign Plan
1. Include
in your plan: dates of campaign, dates for employee meetings,
dates pledge cards are due, internal public relations, incentives,
reminders, campaign updates.
2. Use the Community Safety Net game to get employees engaged
in your employee meeting and to get people moving! United Way
staff or volunteers can run the game for you or show you how to
do it and provide the materials. The game takes 10-15 min.
3. One firm's campaign steering committee had a United Way Day
with agency tours and agency fairs for all three shifts where
they served refreshments. They also had a Wellness Run and a cafeteria
lunch, with the receipts from both going to United Way. These
activities were the attention getters, prior to conducting their
employee campaign. (You want to be careful though that a fun event
built as a fund-raiser does not provide employees the option to
say, "I already gave." (Payroll deduction pledges will
raise ten to twelve times the amount you could ever generate through
special event fund-raisers.)
4. The campaign at one company, which raised 30% more than the
previous year, featured a "Hat Day" for employees. On
the day that the CEO spoke to employees (in two large group sessions)
informal attire was permitted and strange hats were encouraged.
Judging was held immediately after the meetings, with prizes going
to the most creative, the most outlandish, etc.
5. Use mandatory
staff meetings for United Way presentations.
6. Employees
are paid for rally time.
7. Have food
and/or snacks at rally.
8. Tie a rally
into some other type of mandatory meeting (safety, sales, staff,
etc.)
9. Hold United
Way presentation rally on payday.
10. Doughnuts
and coffee on rally day.
11. Inexpensive
token gift to all who attend rallies.
12. Have agency
presentations featuring services your employees can relate to.
Possibly have multiple agencies at different times so employees
can choose the rally they wish to attend.
13. Feature
testimonials in rallies from your employees who have benefited
from United Way programs.
14. Contributors
to the campaign were honored at a "Have Breakfast on Us"
affair. Senior management and supervisors donned cook's clothing
to fry eggs, flip flapjacks and tend to the other serving chores
for breakfast "on the house".
15. The campaign
at one company concluded with a Pie Throwing event, with United
Way campaigners, company managers, and administrators on the receiving
end of the whipped cream. A special booth was set up in the parking
lot, and employees left their desks to participate. One- percent
contributors could be given one free ticket. Additional throws
cost a dollar and the proceeds were added to the campaign. A very
good time was had by all ? well, almost all.
16. Events
like a salmon run or ethnic dinners are good ways to kick-off
a company campaign. Continental breakfast to kickoff the campaign.
17. At one
firm an employee campaign theme "I'm Lucky" was used.
All employees were given pins with this slogan. The meaning behind
the saying was "I'm lucky I live in this community, I'm lucky
to have a job, I'm lucky to be able to give to United Way. "
18. A company
of 1,100 employees used the slogan "We Can Do It Better".
T shirts with a rainbow design were printed with the slogan, and
everyone giving a certain minimum donation received one. Top management
employees posed for pictures wearing their T-shirts that promoted
the theme of working together, (i.e. making a human pyramid, rowing
in a rowboat together). These pictures were then blown up into
posters. On particular days anyone wearing his or her United Way
T shirt to work received a free lunch. A rented popcorn machine
also provided free popcorn to those with T shirts and cost all
other employees 25 cents. All proceeds went to United Way.
19. For the
past two years one company has added spice to its United Way campaign.
The company sponsored a Greased Pig Contest where employees paid
$2.00 for a chance to chase down the greased pig of their choice.
They then had the option of turning the swine back to the meatpacker
for a ready to eat ham or take the piggy home.
20. Several
companies run Slogan Contests. Employees are invited to submit
ideas for campaign slogans. During the campaign a new slogan is
announced each day. Random phone calls are made to employees on
a daily basis and anyone responding with the correct slogan wins
a prize.
21. A dunk
tank was set up where employees could buy two balls for $1 and
try to dunk different executives in the tank ? The proceeds went
to United Way. Or give agency facts to get a chance at the dunk
tank.
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22. $5 contribution
to wear jeans on Fridays. 23. Store-to-store
competitions or building-to-building competitions (ex: Haggen
stores or Horizon Bank branches competition or competition between
department stores at the Mall).
24. Divide
employees into teams and have competition between teams.
Step
5. Leadership Giving
1.
Target Top/Senior Management (or those with salaries $50,000
or above with a letter and/or meeting. Ask your CEO/GM to make
the ask.
2.
Ask previous Leadership givers.
Step
6. Educational Campaign
1.
Give employees incentives to attend employee meetings.
2.
The campaign committee conducted Agency Visits on a monthly
basis. Employees were asked to write letters about their experience
on the agency tour. An employee who does calligraphy transcribed
a number of these letters onto poster boards. Pictures of the
employee on the agency visit were added, and these letters went
up around the company all year.
3.
Artwork on the company magazine cover was nothing but the words
"United Way" repeated 384 times. An inside explanation
asked, "How many times does UNITED WAY appear on our cover?"
The answer, "384 ? What's in a figure? ?? Well, if this
was $384 in pledges to United Way, it could provide the following:
$144 a year will provide 11 days of residential halfway house
care by the Mental Health Association. $210 will provide disaster
emergency assistance (food, clothing, and shelter) for three
disaster victims. $30 will provide six days of camping for a
disadvantaged child at YMCA Camp. Your United Way campaign staff
can provide local figures.
4.
At the beginning of the campaign, Mobiles with agency names
on them were hung in the cafeteria. Five employees were called
at random each day and if they identified the "Agency of
the Day" they won a certificate for a free cup of coffee
or medium soft drink in the employee cafeteria. Two "mini
fairs" were held where various United Way agency representatives
answered questions about their agencies.
5.
Each month, a United Way agency or employee who benefited from
a United Way agency or service was featured in the employee
newsletter. The employees topped their goal by 37%.
6.
Employee and/or campaign volunteers and/or committees visit
United Way agencies.
7.
Use local campaign video.
8.
Informational displays or posters on bulletin boards, fences
or other places of high visibility.
9.
Question and Answer column in employee newsletter.
10.
Ask employees who have been helped by a United Way agency to
give a testimonial, that is, speak or write about their experiences.
A writer could be anonymous if they want. Volunteers for agencies
can also share.
11.
Quizzes to employees about United Way. Prizes for correct answers.
12.
United Way crossword puzzle.
13.
Agency Fair where several different United Way agencies set
up informational booths in the workplace.
Step
7. Make the 100% Ask
1.
Have greeters meet employees at company entrance to encourage
United Way participation.
2.
Inform employees of option to designate to specific agencies.
3.
One company coordinator wore the same tie during the campaign
week. Each time an employee turned in a pledge card the employee
got to cut off a piece of the tie. Not only was it great fun
for the employees, but it was a great conversation piece that
motivated employees to turn in their pledge cards.
4.
Raffle drawing for a day of vacation or some other item. Eligibility
for the drawing comes by turning in your pledge card...whether
you contribute or not. (A great way to collect all the pledge
cards.) Or auction off a day of vacation. Extra raffle tickets
could be awarded for: early turn-in, new givers, turn-in by
deadline, increased gifts, etc.
5.
Tickets for every $5 donated. Tickets used for prize drawings.
6.
Top giver names go into newspaper. Special pins work too.
7.
Personalize pledge cards with employee names.
8.
Spanish language pledge cards if you have an employee base with
Spanish-speakers.
9.
Be sure and ask. Prepare your employees ahead of time by sending
them emails, putting up posters, etc.
Step
8. Thank, Recognize & Report
1.
Balloon thank you or say thanks with a Frango.
2.
Put a Thank You list in your employee newsletter or on the bulletin
board.
3.
Have an informal afternoon ice cream social - invite all employees
to come, but offer group thank you to United Way donors at the
event.
4.
Send a letter/postcard from the CEO to each UW donor.
5.
Use testimonials from co-workers in Thank You notes.
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