Associates Invested in Humankind During Annual United Way Campaign

We truly invested in humankind during our 2016 United Way campaign held in early November, raising 36% more in total campaign dollars than 2015!

Throughout the week, associates seized the opportunity to engage, invest and do the most good.

• Collaborating on their United Way events, the Chicago and Milwaukee offices packed 20 backpacks for Opus Foundation-supported nonprofit Big Shoulders Fund that were given to St. Nick’s school.
• Kansas City team members kicked off their week early, volunteering with Kansas City Neighborhood Academy on Friday. The group worked on reading and writing with youth in kindergarten to second grade.
• St. Louis associates volunteered at Home Sweet Home, a furniture bank for veterans and families living in poverty. Working with Home Sweet Home, they spent the day helping a single mother, who recently left a domestic abuse situation, and her two children get settled into a new home.
• Continuing to build community, Minneapolis and Denver associates volunteered with their respective 2016 Building Community Award finalists. At Clayton Early Learning, eight volunteers cleaned out and prepped garden beds for spring and painted the nonprofit’s wellness space. Additionally, they assembled 30 school kits that included the essentials—crayons, colored pencils, scissors, erasers, coloring books, flash cards and a few fun items! Working with Perspectives, Minneapolis associates packed 144 ‘Home for the Holidays’ food kits for youth who generally only eat at school, 144 literacy kits for the youth and 55 Thanksgiving dinner kits. Additionally, associates donated two large bins of winter gear just in time for winter to hit. Perspectives is focused on moving women and their children out of cycles of despair and into hope. They offer wrap-around programs that include supportive housing, a learning center for homeless and at-risk children, clinical and employment services and more.

“Hosting a volunteer activity with our Building Community Award finalist was a great opportunity to strengthen ties and give back to the community,” said Brittany Rihanek, senior marketing and communications specialist for Opus Holding, L.L.C. “All of our volunteers were excited to help out and truly embraced the idea of building community.”

Other highlights included:

• Total Raised: $118,443
• Pledge Participation: 57% (up from 43% last year)
• New pledgers this year: 68 people
• Pledges: +34%
• Special Event Income: +48%