United Way Announces Campaign Award Winners

March 9 , 2007

United Way on Thursday, March 8 recognized donors and employers who ran outstanding fundraising campaigns to benefit kids and families in Snohomish County through United Way’s Local Community Fund.

The awards ceremony was held at the Community Caring Celebration,
held at the Holiday Inn, Downtown Everett to honor the people and employers who supported the annual fund-raising effort.

“Going Places” was this year’s theme for the Community Caring Celebration, highlighting the positive new directions that people’s lives
take when the community contributes to United Way.

A special “Going Places” award was also given to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Boeing Company and Frontier Bank—three major donors to United Way’s capital campaign. The nonprofit is moving March 28 to 3120 McDougall Avenue, Everett—the first building it has owned in its 66-year history in Snohomish County.

“We are extremely grateful to these three leaders who together gave a challenge grant of $500,000 for the capital campaign. I’m pleased to
report that we are almost to our goal of $1 million, and thank all those who have contributed to the new United Way Community Center,” said United Way President & CEO Carl Zapora. “It was important that our building campaign not adversely affect the 2006 annual campaign on which so many programs and people in our community depend, and it did not.”

“It’s been an exciting year for United Way and our community, and we’re not done yet,” said 2006 Campaign Chair Mike Tibbits, executive vice president and chief credit officer for Evergreen Bank. “We had great participation by organizations and individual donors, and 22 new campaigns at companies this year. We also still have several companies running campaigns this spring, so, while we won’t have final numbers for a couple of months, I can say that we expect to come in ahead of last year, and particularly in contributions to the Local Community Fund.”

The Local Community Fund represents donations to United Way that are not designated by a donor to a specific nonprofit. Only Local Community Fund dollars can be used by United Way for grants to local nonprofits and support for other initiatives such as the 2-1-1 information line.

“We applaud all charitable contributions and recognize that donors have a choice. In fact, United Way is makes it convenient for donors to give to any kind of charitable organization pretty much anywhere. But our real mission is building better lives for kids, families and communities in Snohomish County—that’s what the Local Community Fund does and that’s the work I’m deeply committed to,” Tibbits said.

Frontier Bank and the City of Monroe were recognized by United Way president Carl Zapora with President’s Awards for running the two most outstanding campaigns. Frontier Bank raised $170,000, with an average employee gift of $1000. City of Monroe employees increased their giving by 25%, with 76% of donations given to the Local Community Fund.

The Chair Challenge Award recognizes leadership by top management. Winners were Matt Reinhard, CEO of Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies, Inc., and Dr. Marci Larsen, Superintendent of Mukilteo School District.

Tibbits closed the ceremony by “passing the buck” to John Dickson, CEO of Frontier Bank, who will serve as 2007 Campaign Chairman.

See a list of our 2006 Community Caring Campaign award winners.

March 9 , 2007

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