United Way chapters from around the country are in Allentown today to learn what the Greater Lehigh Valley chapter is doing right with its workplace campaigning.
The United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley has been named as a Center of Excellence by United Way Worldwide for best practices in workplace campaign, an honor that chapter president David Lewis said is a rare and distinctive honor.
He said that to the best of his knowledge, only two other chapters in U.S. have been given Center of Excellence Awards over the last seven years. Salt Lake City, Utah, and Madison, Wis., were honored for their education efforts.
Fundraising is always a challenge at any nonprofit, and Lewis said the strength of the workplace campaigns run by corporations in the Greater Lehigh Valley has set the standard for implementation and success in fundraising.
Lewis said the chapter’s most recent campaign raised nearly $12.1 million for area nonprofits and was the third consecutive year it set a fundraising record.
“We’ve been able to grow resources in the community by connecting donors to real issues that they care about,” Lewis said. “As a result, our donors have been extremely generous in their efforts to help our community.”
Lewis gave a great deal of credit for the success of the chapter’s fundraising to many of the corporate leaders that champion the United Way in their own ranks.
Some of those leaders were participating in the two-day event that is underway at the Renaissance Allentown Hotel.
Gerry Nau, CEO of Lafayette Ambassador Bank, Lisa Daugherty, director of business excellence at Victaulic, and Pete Ruggiero, executive vice president of Crayola, are among the speakers scheduled for the program.
