February 6, 2003

United Way giving sets new record

The 2002 United Way campaign received contributions and pledges totaling $251,899. The figure exceeds the University’s goal of $250,000 and sets a new Northwestern campaign record.

A total of 861 staff and faculty members contributed $242,789; 35 Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation (NMFF) staff members contributed $4,355; 21 retirees and 12 emeritus faculty contributed $4,755.

Of the total amount, United Way beneficiary agencies will receive $237,598 and other charitable organizations will receive $14,301, as this was the first year of an open campaign. Next year’s campaign will again allow donors to “write in” names of any non-profit organizations recognized by the Internal Revenue Service.

The 2002 campaign resulted in a 9 percent increase in total contributions and pledges. Separately, Northwestern donors increased their individual contributions by 5.1 percent.

For the second year, University President Henry S. Bienen allocated $5,000 toward a departmental participation rate contest. The Graduate School won $2,500 for first prize with a 72 percent rate, University Services won $1,500 for second place with a 64 percent rate, and Alumni Relations was third for a $1,000 prize for a 59 percent rate.

Honorable mention goes to two departments within Information Technologies — technical support services and management systems — as well as University Relations for exceeding the 40 percent participation rate level.

In addition to the group participation contest, the 2002 campaign had an early bird raffle and a year-end raffle with greatly expanded prize lists over the previous year to motivate employees to give generously and early. There were 83 winners of the United Way Year-End Raffle.

The three grand prize winners were Irene B. Helenowski, Preventive Medicine, who won a Dell personal computer; Lawrence B. Dumas, Provost, who won a Micron personal computer; and an unnamed winner who donated a computer from Computer Discount Warehouse to a University office.

“Besides the group contest and the raffles which generated interest in the campaign, we increased the number of campaign areas and managers from 23 to 42 this year,” said Brian Peters, director of University Services.

“History has shown us that if a campaign manager has a manageable number of employees to encourage, the participation rate is much higher. We plan to increase the number of areas again next year. The campaign managers put in a great deal of effort to help raise funds for the 2002 United Way campaign. Our thanks go to them and to all the departments for their increased participation.”

The campaign managers for 2002 were Lynn Carver, Alumni Relations; Dan Bulfin, Athletics and Recreation; Michael Jones, Administration and Planning; Ingrid Stafford, Controller; Paul Weller, Facilities Management; Guy Miller, Human Resources; John Marshall, University Services; Dave Schultz, University Police; Ruthy Delgado, Center for Public Safety; Judd Kimball, School of Communication; Carolyn Feller, School of Continuing Studies; Laura Sowatsky, Development; Anne Kerins, Education and Social Policy; and Jan Allen, the Graduate School.

Other campaign managers included Jay Needleman, Tom Board, Steve Kahrs, Charlene Hunter, Dana Nielsen, and Eric Dvorak, Information Technology; Loren Ghiglione and Bridget Calendo, Medill School of Journalism and Media Management; David Besanko and Roxanne Hori, Kellogg School of Management; Amy Kovalan, Law School; Josh Dranoff and Mark Seniw, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science; Janet Stevens, Gail Rosenblum, Sheri Lindsay, Sherrell Bender, Erin Yale, Deborah Lutner, Jeff Tapper and Laurie Daniels, Fineberg School of Medicine.

Bernard J. Dobroski, School of Music; Stephen Fisher, Provost’s Office; Heidi Levin, Research; Tim Stevens, Student Affairs; Bunni LaBahn, University Registrar; Frank Cervone and Florence Heady, University Library; Alan Cubbage, University Relations; Flo Redmond, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences; and Brian Walsh, Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation, were also United Way campaign managers.

The 2003 campaign has a goal of $275,000 and 900 donors. If you would like to contribute your time to the 2003 campaign, contact either Brian Peters at 1-8420 or b-peters2@northwestern.edu or Lucile Krasnow at 7-5762 or

l-krasnow@northwestern.edu.