Sharing Best Practices: IBM

This column profiles a campaign that gets results while utilizing innovative strategies. We hope that by hearing from your peers, you gain some fresh ideas to use in your own campaign. If you'd like to be featured in an upcoming Best Practices profile, contact your United Way liaison.

This month, our conversation is with Annie Dunsky, corporate citizenship and corporate affairs manager, IBM. With approximately 1,200 employees locally, the company raised over $157,600 for United Way for Southeastern Michigan last year.

How long is your campaign? For our regular employees, the campaign runs during the first three weeks in October. For executives and retirees, the campaign time frame is extended.

How do you engage retirees? We mail campaign information. They can make monthly or ongoing deductions. We also invite our retirees to campaign events that we plan for our regular employees.

How do you communicate about the campaign? We send a weekly e-mail regarding campaign activities at the local offices. We also have posters throughout our building that promote campaign information.

What events and engagement activities do you host during the campaign? Our kickoff is an ice cream social where we invite nonprofits participating in the campaign to have a booth and educate our employees about their work in the community. Our retirees are invited to this event as well and really enjoy attending.

In addition, we host a blood drive during the second week, and end the third week with organized volunteer activities. After we added the volunteer activities and the blood drive we saw an increase in participation from our employees in this region.

What's your biggest challenge? Our biggest challenge is engaging mobile employees who work off-site as well as our billable employees who don't have a lot of time to spend at activities. To include both groups, we offer a variety of activities with varied time frames to meet their needs and encourage employees who work off-site to come into the office. We strive to meet the needs of as many employees as we can.

What are your plans for the next campaign? We’re planning a few specific volunteer activities with some of our diversity groups to build their relationships with one another, while at the same time promoting the campaign.

What's your biggest piece of advice to other campaign coordinators? Don't be afraid to be creative when planning campaign activities. We're all doing more with less these days and everyone needs a break to have some fun. The more entertaining or personal you can make your activities, the more you'll see your team get engaged.

3M Employees Live United

On a summer day not too long ago, employees at 3M got out of their offices and into the community. Members of the company’s extended leadership team volunteered in Detroit’s Grandmont Rosedale neighborhood, clearing trees and debris to make way for a tree nursery that will serve the local community.

After the project ended, participants shared their reflections. Many expressed an interest in doing more in the community and appreciated the opportunity to connect the dots and discover what it means to Live United.

3M believes that providing volunteer opportunities for their employees is integral to their United Way campaign. Volunteerism helps individuals develop a personal connection with an organization's work, and often encourages participants to support the campaign. In addition, many employees take their reflections back to the office, which persuades others to donate money or time as well.

United Way works with companies throughout the year to integrate volunteerism into their philanthropic programs. If you’d like to set up a volunteer project for your company, contact the volunteer center at 313-226-9450.