As a United Way Volunteer, you raise vital resources that go right back into your community each year—helping countless families and individuals get the help they need most. But did you know that many United Way donors will soon retiree from the workplace, placing our Annual Campaign at risk of significant losses?

By attending this presentation, you have the opportunity to learn:

• why additional revenue streams are critical to United Way’s fiscal health and longevity;
• why planned giving and/or an Endowment is vital to your United Way;
• how to successfully solicit a donor for a Planned Gift;
• where other local United Way’s have been successful in these efforts;
• the most efficient way and time to make a charitable donation, and;
• the tax advantages of a charitable donation.

This will be a great resource for your future campaigns—please encourage your United Way team to join us!

When: Friday, February 29, 2008, 7:30-8:30 am

Where: GCG Financial, Inc., 3000 Lakeside Drive, Bannockburn, IL 60015

Breakfast will be served promptly at 7:30 am, followed by the brief presentation.

For more information or to register (by February 22), please contact Jack Kaplan, Chief Professional Officer at North Suburban United Way at (847) 509-8743, or Beth Curtis, Senior Manager, Strategic Giving, at United Way of Metro Chicago at (312) 906-2457.

The annual United Way Awards honor outstanding donors, volunteers, businesses and agency partners for their hard work and commitment to our community. The 2007 winners will be unveiled next spring, and recipients will be honored at our annual Community Celebration on June 27, 2008. Please note that the applications are due by February 1, 2008.

Complete award descriptions & applications can be found here »

Please take a look at some great pictures from the AT&T Hoffman Estates 9/11 Flag Raising Ceremonies! Also notice a new feature of the United Way website—a dedicated photos page (notice the new link above) that pulls images from our Flickr account. Neat stuff!

What happens when you combine the words “new,” “fantastic,” and “informative”? Voila! You get the United Way week-long Loaned Executive Professional Development training.

From Monday to Friday, first floor conference rooms became the training ground for forty new Loaned Executives. They mingled, exchanged ideas and discussed what it means to play an important role in the 2007 fundraising campaign, which will help shape the Chicagoland community.

“United Way views its loaned executives as keys to the success of its annual campaigns,” said Janet Froetchser, president and CEO of United Way, on the first day of training.

Task force members coordinated the training sessions, compiling an all-around agenda to ensure this year’s newcomers received all necessary tools to encourage a realistic start to handling this year’s campaign. Each session was concise, and included creative PowerPoint presentations, entertaining skits, lively Q&A sessions and even a pot-luck luncheon hosted by C.J. Jones, director of Outreach & Diversity. This year’s United Way video was introduced at a motivational mock campaign kick-off that featured Rhonda Washington and Tara Dabney of Family Rescue. Then Pam Tully, executive vice president, explained the vital leadership role United Way plays throughout our community.

The loaned executives also heard a wide range of speakers who underscored the importance of an LE and shaped a clear visual of our internal workings.

Participants not only soaked in vital information offered by a number of United Way representatives and special guests, but they were also given a chance to present their own speeches as an exercise in communicating the “United Way Message.”

“The well-organized ‘LE’ training program, helped me realize how much United Way does for the community and how I can help,” said Mark E. Drury, sponsored Loaned Executive.

The activities also included external presenters like Dawn Marie Vestavich and Amy Beck of the Dale Carnegie Training, who emphasized both professional and personal elements an LE must possess in order to succeed as a United Way ambassador, such as a professional demeanor and excellent communication skills. Mike Johl, UPS Community Relations Director addressed the importance of companies giving back to the communities where they conduct business.

Capping the experience on Friday, the LEs headed to the Anixter Center, whose mission is to assist people with disabilities to live and work successfully in the community, on the Near North Side where they discovered what “A Day of Caring” is all about.

“I’ve driven by the Anixter Center hundreds of times and always wondered what it was,” said Nina Eidell, Loaned Executive from Allstate. “So, you can imagine my delight to learn about what they do and to have a chance to actually contribute to their success of helping people with disabilities.”

Paintbrush in hand, they pitched in to refurbish Anixter’s meeting room—a job that was no small task, but brought a wealth of satisfaction to all involved.

“Painting the conference room was awesome,” said Eidell. “You could see the immediate impact that we had, and it was really fun to work closely with other United Way team members to make such a colorful difference.”