by Allison Temnick
Community Investment Advisor
When many employees think of United Way of Salt Lake, they think of t-shirts, chili cook-offs, and fun company events. It can be easy for the average employee to forget how much planning goes on behind the scenes of every successful campaign. To help companies be successful, United Way of Salt Lake has made a list of “best practices,” or steps that we have identified that result in great campaigns. This year, one company in particular – KeyBank – did an exceptional job of taking those suggestions and running with them. Here are just a few examples of how KeyBank incorporated “best practices” into this year’s campaign:
- Connect with your United Way of Salt Lake representative – KeyBank’s employee campaign manager, Pam Lechner, met with me more than a month before its campaign kicked-off. That gave us plenty of time to plan fun, engaging campaign activities for the employees.
- Involve leadership – The District Manager of KeyBank, Jill Taylor, has been a United Way supporter for years. She spoke at the beginning of one of our employee kick-off presentations and shared why she is passionate about United Way of Salt Lake. A message from the top is always extremely helpful!
- Recruit a planning committee – Pam identified a group of KeyBank employees who are passionate about LIVING UNITED so that they could help her with the planning process. This team shared ideas and resources in order to come up with creative campaign events, like the KeyBank employee carnival!
- Schedule employee meetings – This year, United Way employees had the opportunity to present to nearly every KeyBank employee in the state. Managers from various locations made time for us to share stories about our work in the community and how we are changing the odds for kids and families.
- Offer incentives – KeyBank leadership got on board with this idea, and offered to personally wash cars for the first two branches to get 100% participation in the United Way campaign. As you can imagine, those two branches filled out their pledge forms pretty quickly!
- Encourage Neighborhood Center site visits – The KeyBank committee was invited to visit a United Way of Salt Lake Neighborhood Center, Central Park (the Police Athletic League Boxing Center in South Salt Lake). At this site visit, KeyBank employees got to meet some of the children, tour an incredible facility, and see the difference that we can make when we all LIVE UNITED!
- Make a corporate contribution – Each year, KeyBank also gives a corporate gift to United Way of Salt Lake. Employees are motivated to give when they realize the company is “practicing what they preach” and setting a good example from a corporate level.
- Have fun! In addition to everything else, the KeyBank committee planned and hosted a carnival for all KeyBank employees and their families. This fundraiser included a ring toss, face painting, and a cake walk – as well as food and other fun activities.
- LIVE UNITED – In addition to all of these best practices, KeyBank has decided to involve United Way of Salt Lake in their annual spring volunteering event, Neighbors Make the Difference Day. Our volunteer team is already involved in the planning process for the May event. We can’t wait to see what the final result will be when over 100 KeyBank employees step out into the community to make a difference together!
Thank you, KeyBank, for being a great example of what it means to LIVE UNITED!
Photos of KeyBank’s fun campaign events!
