The Colorado Combined Campaign is mostly about raising money for hundreds of nonprofits and other agencies around the state.
But the campaign – the workplace fundraising campaign for Colorado state workers, including those at UCCS – is also about raising the profile of those organizations, said Stacey Howell, customer service specialist, University Center. She and Gudrun McCollum, library technician, Kraemer Family Library, are co-chairs of the UCCS campaign.
The Colorado Combined Campaign was launched almost 30 years ago and has raised more than $32 million. This year’s campaign kicked off Sept. 1 and continues through Dec. 31. More than 600 nonprofits are eligible for funding through the 2016-2017 campaign, and the campaign partners with United Way organizations around the state to ensure that donations go to the organizations that donors have designated.
Organizations funded by the campaign run the gamut. They include social service agencies – those focused on helping victims of domestic violence, providing emergency services after disasters, helping the homeless and providing food for the needy, for example – and also dozens of others. Other beneficiaries include groups that focus on the arts, children and youth, civil rights and equality, conservation, seniors and the outdoors.
Beyond donating, the campaign offers UCCS employees a chance to learn more about hundreds of nonprofits around the state and the resources they offer, Howell said.
New nonprofits for the current campaign include Boys and Girls Club of Fremont County, Children First of the Rockies (a domestic violence agency), Centro de la Familiar and Colorado Ovarian Cancer Alliance, among others.
Howell and McCollum are using an email campaign to UCCS faculty and staff to raise awareness, along with a weekly prize drawing for donors. Howell and McCollum laugh about the variety of font sizes and colors featured in their emails: “We had to get creative to get people to open them,” Howell said.
Employees can donate through payroll deductions, a recurring credit card donation or a one-time donation with cash, check or credit card, online or with a paper form. This year, the Colorado Combined Campaign goal for UCCS is $21,500, they said. Put another way: “The leadership team would like to see us beat CU Boulder,” Howell said.
- Donate online at www.ipledgeonline.org/_coloradocombinedcampaign or
- Print a paper pledge form at http://www.coloradocombinedcampaign.org/uploads/2/8/4/0/28407717/pledge_form_2016.pdf and send it to Stacey Howell, University Center, or Gudrun McCollum, Kraemer Family Library.
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