Ben Farrow

From the get-go, Ben Farrow ensured that Puget Sound Energy was well-positioned for a successful campaign season. He secured top-level management support and developed a keenly strategic campaign plan. At this year’s campaign kickoff, he and the team organized two lunch-hour volunteer activities to engage employees about United Way of King County. People made blankets and packed hygiene kits with toiletries to be given to people experiencing homelessness. While working on the blanket and kits, employees heard inspirational stories from agency speakers. In all, Ben’s beautifully executed campaign raised a record $350,000 for United Way of King County.

Caren Skube

Caren Skube played an active role in helping to secure Scott Carson as this year’s campaign chair, and supported his efforts throughout the campaign season. She was instrumental in managing communications and activities between United Way and Scott’s team.

Caren secured top level support in her role as coordinator for the Employee Community Fund of Boeing Puget Sound’s workplace giving campaign. That support gave her access to Boeing employees and the resources she needed to execute strategic campaign events to build awareness for the campaign.

This campaign year, Caren helped coordinate a new system to recognize leadership donors—which allowed Boeing donors to voluntarily opt-in and be recognized for their gifts.

Caren has always been a strong advocate for the Loaned Executive program, and helps work to secure loaned employees to ensure that United Way of King County has top-notch employees supporting our fundraising efforts. Her impressive works have greatly benefited United Way of King County to the tune of over $4 million.

Bill Wallace

Small but mighty—that sums up the National Frozen Foods Company. Its 39 employees have been leaders in giving over many years, and always have 100 percent participation. This year, under the superb campaign leadership of Human Resources Director, Bill Wallace, they raised nearly $60,000 for United Way of King County. Bill has stepped up as National Frozen Food’s campaign coordinator for the last 14 years, and thoroughly enjoys the challenges and rewards of the job. Many of the company’s 39 employees have worked there together throughout their careers, and the bonds are strong. Over half of the staff join in to plan a fun campaign and work together to make it a success. Following the kickoff celebration, Bill personally goes to each employee’s desk to drop off pledge forms and answer questions. A long-standing tradition always manages to end the campaign on a high note: On the campaign’s final day, one last employee holds out until the noon deadline to turn in a pledge form. Everyone gathers around the desk of the employee and heartily applauds when the deadline is met.

Volunteering is an integral component of Deloitte’s corporate culture. The company has a deep commitment to skills-based volunteering, pro bono services, capacity-building philanthropy, nonprofit board service and thought leadership.

Deloitte’s employee volunteer program is at the heart of its community involvement initiative. It includes a cutting-edge, $50 million pro bono program, board service, a year-round volunteer project and an annual day of service (IMPACT Day). In addition, the Deloitte Center for Leadership and Community program provides executive training for nonprofit leaders.

As a result, Deloitte employees are stepping up and giving back in a big way. On Deloitte’s IMPACT Day, 300 Seattle-based Deloitte employees donated 3,027 volunteer hours and spent the day giving back to EarthCorps, Food Lifeline, Seattle Public Schools and United Indians All Tribes Foundation.

Deloitte also partners with United Way Worldwide for Alternative Spring Break—which brings together community service leaders, Deloitte employees and selected college students to do service work during college spring break.

At its core, Deloitte’s strategy is to focus on helping people and communities thrive by using its best thinking to build stronger nonprofits.

The Microsoft Auction Tool
Microsoft IT built an online auction tool to help raise funds for United Way among employees. Over time, the capabilities of the tool have increased dramatically, in part because the tool has migrated to Windows Azure, the company’s new cloud services platform. Using Azure has enabled dramatic enhancements of the user experience, including 3-D graphics and motion effects with the Microsoft tool, Silverlight. In 2009, the Auction raised a record of nearly $500,000 for United Way, including the company match. The success of the auction tool has attracted broad interest from other companies and NGOs, and Microsoft is working to share its innovation with others to assist in their fundraising efforts.

The Microsoft “Give” intranet site
Each year, Microsoft chooses a theme for its employee giving campaign. This year’s theme was “What’s Your Story?” Along with creative designs for T-shirts, ID badges and water bottles, Microsoft made creative use of Silverlight on the employee intranet to easily capture and share personal stories of giving. In addition, the entire site was re-architected using Microsoft SharePoint, making it easier for employees and volunteers to find and share information about charities such as United Way.

Digital Photographers@Microsoft 2009
Microsoft’s Photography Club partnered with the photography book company, Blurb, to produce Photographers@Microsoft 2009, a fine art photography book. Photos from nearly 200 club members were selected. The club decided it wanted to generate a $25 donation to United Way of King County from each book. Microsoft Community Affairs agreed to match that amount, bringing the contribution to $50 a book. To date, nearly 900 books have been sold, generating nearly $45,000 in contributions. In addition, Photography Club members were able to count all their time on the project as volunteer hours. Matched by the company at $17 per hour, this generated another $8,000, making the effort’s grant total well over $50,000.

Elaine Sells: Volunteer of the Year

When it comes to stepping up and giving back to the community, Elaine Sells leads the way. Elaine has volunteered with United Way of King County’s Impact Council since 2004. She’s been instrumental in helping guide the direction of our work to end homelessness and advocate for those who are most vulnerable among us.

At Washington Mutual, one of Elaine’s roles was to provide support for United Way of King County’s Individual Development Account program. A strong partnership with financial institutions is key to the IDA program’s success, and Elaine was a constant source of support as the program grew. Once her position with Wamu ended, Elaine offered to volunteer with United Way each week to support the IDA program as it underwent a major transition.

Elaine continues to volunteer with the Impact Council and with the IDA program, and was recently accepted into the PeaceCorps. Her tireless commitment to volunteerism and ending homelessness is an inspiration to us all.

Sandy Gregory: Executive of the Year

As the Director of Community Outreach for the Seattle Seahawks, Sandy is responsible for portraying the Seahawks in a positive light to the general public. Not only has she positioned the Seahawks well as a community-minded organization, but for the last 33 years she has poured her heart and soul into bettering the lives of the community’s most vulnerable and disenfranchised citizens.

For United Way of King County, Sandy has proven to be a true “MVP.” She has been responsible for pulling together every single field visit, player appearance, event and marketing promotion that United Way of King County received in our partnership with the Seahawks. From the Seagals at Day of Caring and Family Night at Qwest Field, to the autographed Seahawks merchandise and the Climb for the Community, Sandy has consistently made the possibility a reality.

Beyond helping us achieve a successful fundraising campaign, United Way of King County has enjoyed unprecedented brand awareness and publicity thanks to Sandy’s dedication and effort.

Lucy Pruzan: Ambassador of the Year

Lucy Pruzan’s unwavering commitment to United Way of King County has spanned the entire last decade and continues unabated.

In addition to the exceptionally generous financial support she and her husband, Herb, have offered, Lucy has been actively involved in United Way’s community services, governance and fundraising.

Lucy currently serves as co-chair of the nationally recognized Alexis de Tocqueville Society and along with Diane Dewbrey, has made tremendous strides in growing its membership base. She believes strongly in United Way’s work, talks about it passionately, helps raise funds at every turn and has graciously opened her home on multiple occasions to host events.

The state Senate has proposed a devastating $39.3 million cut to the Housing Trust Fund.  At least $32 million of this will come from funding that has already been allocated and projects that may already be underway.  The Housing Trust Fund is Washington’s most important means of providing safe, decent, and affordable housing.  Without the Trust Fund, we can’t make progress towards our commitment to end homelessness.  A cut this deep to projects that are already underway will not only put access to affordable housing at risk but will also cost us jobs when we can least afford to lose them.

Click here to send your message

The Senate needs to hear that an investment in the Housing Trust Fund now will provide housing for thousands of families in need, many of whom are struggling more than ever because of the recession.  It will provide homes for people leaving homelessness, low-wage working families, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

It’s critical that Senators hear this message loud and clear.  They need to know that now is the time to INVEST in the Housing Trust Fund, not cut it. Please take a moment send your message and also forward this email to at least three of your colleagues and friends.  Ask them to join you in this critical action today.

The folks at Stamp Out Hunger are getting an early start to their food collecting this year thanks to the help of Campbell’s Soup.  If you join Stamp Out Hunger’s Facebook fan page, Campbell’s will donate 1 can of soup ( up to 1 million pounds!) to Feeding America.

Stamp Out Hunger is one-day event where the postal service collects food left by mailboxes and delivers it to Feeding America.  Last year, they collected a record 73.4 million pounds of food for the hungry.  It’s a really cool project and we’ll be sure to remind people to participate as the day (May 8th) comes closer.

But for now, join their fan page and make a free donation!

Lauren Kutschka, Gene Roeglin, Nikki Chellew accepted the Spirit of Puget Sound Award for Costco.

United Way of King County awarded the prestigious Spirit of Caring Awards on March 3 in front of a crowded ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue. Honorees included individuals and corporations who represented the best in giving and volunteering.

Costco Wholesale received the Spirit of Puget Sound Award, recognized as King County’s highest achievement in corporate philanthropy. The award honors outstanding community involvement, sustained campaign excellence, and the promotion of volunteerism.

For the 2009-2010 campaign season, the employees of Costco showed incredible heart, and boundless generosity. Chairman Jeff Brotman’s and CEO Jim Sinegal’s strong leadership and commitment to United Way of King County resonated throughout the company, and made this campaign year an exceptional success. Leadership Giving levels (gifts of $1,000 and above) jumped seven percent company-wide, and overall participation was 84 percent—a 33 percent increase company-wide.

At the campaign kickoff at Costco’s Issaquah headquarters, Seahawks players Lofa Tatupu and Deon Grant joined with Seahawks CEO Todd Leiweke to get the crowd primed for a winning season. Adding to Costco’s campaign’s success was its innovative new giving strategy utilizing the Express Pledge System. This point-of sale pledge system for employees enabled gifts to go directly to United Way of King County in $5 increments—generating nearly $60,000.

In all, Costco’s Northwest region raised $3.7 million for United Way of King County during their superb campaign. Costco employees also gave generously of their time, volunteering at last year’s Day of Caring. In addition, Senior Vice President of Depot Operations John Thelan joined the “Climb for the Community” team, and Costco stepped up in a big way to support the Response for Basic Needs and help people hurt by the economic downturn by pledging $100,000 during the Climb.

Yesterday, the IRS released a statement indicating that there are more than $1.3 billion in unclaimed federal tax refunds for people who did not file for 2006. This includes approximately 37,000 filers in Washington state! If you are one of those people, you need to file your 2006 return by April 15, 2010, or you lose that refund…

Our sites can help!  Don’t miss out on your money!!

Did you know that in L.A. County, certain “restaurants” accept food stamps? It is part of their Restaurant Meals Program that has been running since 2005.

For those that don’t know, food stamps (aka EBT) is generally only allowed for food products that must be prepared. So allowing benefits to be used at restaurants is a pretty radical shift in the program’s scope.

I put the word “restaurants” in quotation marks above because the participating restaurants in the program are almost all fast food chains — Domino’s, Jack in the Box, El Pollo Loco, and Subway are the most prevalent participants.

At first glance, I found the program to be pretty ridiculous. Since the only options were unhealthy foods, what good does this program do aside from promoting obesity? However, my opinion changed slightly after I read their FAQ.

The Restaurant Meals Program is only available to the homeless, disabled, and elderly (over 60). For these groups, cooking is difficult if not impossible. So even with food stamps, their options are limited and usually unhealthy. I mean, what can someone experiencing homelessness buy at a grocery store that will be warm and nutritious?

So while eating pizza is not ideal , if it’s the only option for someone to be able to get a hot meal, then I understand.

I still think that some healthier, affordable restaurants need to get on the program but I’m less critical of it now that I know all the facts.

Darren Branning lived under a bridge in Renton and did his best to stay as far away from people as he could. Gnawing hunger pains, exposure to raw Pacific Northwest weather and the paralyzing chatter from voices deep within his head made him withdraw further. Darren desperately needed help to move beyond simple survival and begin the journey to recovery and self-sufficiency. He got that help through the state’s General Assistance Unemployable program.

Unfortunately, some are calling to cut this crucial temporary lifeline to thousands who are unable to work through no fault of their own. While it’s important to balance the state’s budget, cutting GAU is not the way to do it. This short-term fix can have long-term consequences that could cost taxpayers more through state services for the homeless as well as increased use of emergency mental health and other services.

United Way of King County supports programs funded by state government to provide a safety net. In the case of GAU, people such as Darren use the program when they are out of options. The program also helps many temporarily disabled people have enough money to eat and stay in housing until they can work again. GAU keeps people from sleeping under bridges and on the streets, enabling them to make the transition from dependence to self-sufficiency. It is a cost-effective program that works.

The $339 monthly assistance GAU provides is a ray of hope for those such as Darren. It is not meant to be a permanent support system. In fact, the average length of time a person is on GAU is about 11 months. GAU is not government largess to those unwilling to work; rather, it’s an effective, inexpensive way to help good people who have no disability or workers’ compensation insurance, have been temporarily disabled and are therefore unable to work until they are healthy again.

To qualify, a person must provide medical or psychological proof of being incapacitated. Further proof must be submitted every six months to stay on the program. The recipient must be a Washington state resident, prove financial need and undergo treatment and referral assessment. Those whose sole disability is alcoholism/drug addiction and those in the criminal justice system are ineligible.

Taking people off GAU won’t suddenly make them eligible for the federal SSI program. These people are ineligible for the federal program because their disabilities are temporary, and SSI is meant for people who are disabled for more than a year. Instead of moving caseloads from the state to the federal level, eliminating GAU would move people from homes to homelessness. In King County alone, almost 3,000 people would be affected, and they could end up joining the 8,000 who are already on King County’s streets on any given night.

The GAU program affects too many lives to consider cutting, and it makes sense to adequately fund such an important safety net for thousands. If we are shortsighted, it could end up costing us millions.

United Way of King County currently commits $6 million annually to ending homelessness in our community; however, we can’t do it alone. Our community still needs to have government at the table to provide the strong, effective programs such as GAU to keep people out of the rain. We believe ending homelessness is one of King County’s most urgent issues, and we urge elected officials to ensure community safeguards such as GAU are kept in place.

Protecting GAU ultimately helps protect our state’s fiscal health and also helps protect something more important — people like Darren. He is now in a warm home and employed . He no longer needs GAU because he is earning a living and is on the road to recovery. But where would he be if this safety net was not in place?

UPDATE: Currently more than 16,000 people receive GAU, nearly 5,000 of whom live in King County. With emergency shelters filled to capacity and low-cost housing in short supply eliminating cash assistance and limiting medical benefits will have a devastating impact on individual lives and local communities.

Take action now to protect GAU and join United Way of King County by calling, e-mailing or writing your senator and the senators listed below. Ask them to:

1. Preserve the cash grant so that GAU recipients can pay for rent, food purchase and basic needs.

2. Remove time limits on medical benefits.

3. Include additional funds for shelter/housing of GAU recipients.

Click here to find the senator from your own district. From King County? Please also contact these Senators from Ways and Means Committee whose vote is critical to support of GAU:

Learn more about GAU in the Security Lifeline bill 2SHB 2782.