From Buttons to Blogs

Recently, United Way partnered with Cambridge, Mass.-based cMarket to extend Internet-based auctions as part of its package of services.

“We find companies start with one United eWay product and quickly expand,” says Michael Schreiber, executive vice president for enterprise services, United Way of America. “A lot come to us and say, ‘I’d like my employees to volunteer.’ Only when they get more involved do they start to say, ‘Boy, I’d like to be more strategic in my workplace giving campaign, and I’d like to get my employees on the boards of local organizations.’”

More than 700 corporations and local United Ways currently are leveraging United eWay for their institutional-giving campaigns, with the latter drawing an average gift of $330.

The service already has garnered the attention from organizations such as UPS, NASA, Hasbro and Sprint. For more information, visit www.unitedway.org/eway.

STAYING IN CONTACT
Boston Library Foundation relies on e-mail to cultivate young donors and keep its board informed.

If your annual operating budget depends largely on unpredictable government funding, as is the case for the Boston Public Library Foundation, it would behoove you to establish a means to attract — and retain — individual donors and supporters.

According to Executive Director P.A. d’Arbeloff, e-mail not only has given the foundation a way to deliver critical, time-sensitive information to its 60-member board of directors, but it’s also helped foster relationships with a group of donors it refers to simply as “Young Professionals.”

“One of the key opportunities that we have with e-mail is promoting and selling tickets for our lecture series and exhibits,” d’Arbeloff says, commenting on the cadre of unique individuals in their 20s, 30s and 40s who volunteer and financially support the foundation. “We have a very active and supportive group of young professionals who prefer to buy tickets online, prompted by an e-mail. People appreciate it. It’s quick and easy and informative, and they find it very helpful.”