For years, the United Way of Chatham-Kent’s annual fundraising campaigns were led by one or two people; chairs and co-chairs.
That’s a great deal of work, leading the way to raise $1.5 to more than $2 million dollars each year.
The chairs attend countless meetings, donation events and activities promoting the campaign and asking for support for tens of thousands of those in need in Chatham-Kent.
This year, the folks at Advanced Realty leapt outside the box. All seven people at the small business make up the leadership for the 2019 campaign.
It makes excellent sense, as small business is the backbone of our local economy. Business owners and managers are very busy people and very often don’t have the ability to commit the large amount of time the campaign needs.
But a team of dedicated individuals collectively can.
Led by broker of record Bill Myers and sales rep Tricia Weese, the Advanced team has a $1.5-million target for this year.
Weese, a former Chatham Voice staffer, has volunteered for many years for the United Way. Being the mother of a young child, she does not have the time to chair the campaign alone.
Ditto for Myers, who enjoys giving back to the community, but couldn’t commit to chairing or even co-chairing the fundraising campaign.
Add on Advanced’s teammates, and Myers and Weese are well supported in leading the charge.
Advanced has sponsored various United Way events in recent years, so it is a cause near and dear to everyone’s heart at the business.
Taking the team approach has delivered a “why didn’t someone think of this sooner” moment to many a fundraising brain.
We’ve had some very strong past campaign chairs and co-chairs, but those were people who generally had enough spare time to give to the campaign to do it justice.
On a couple of other occasions over the past decade or so, it was a struggle for one or both co-chairs. The commitment and pressure can be exhausting.
But this year, with a team approach, it will be interesting to see the energy level from the campaign leaders day in and day out, and to see how it impacts the fundraising bottom line when the campaign comes to a close.
We think this is the start of a new trend.
