Seattle Times makes news with outstanding campaign

Mixing fun activities like a ping pong tournament with education about United Way helped create a successful Seattle Times campaign.

Seattle Times campaigners mixed fun and education to build another successful United Way of King County giving campaign. The campaign team paired activities, such as a ping pong tournament, pancake breakfast and a wine tasting event, with presentations from United Way of King County speakers. Employees were both entertained and informed about how their donations to United Way improve the community.

For the first time in the last five years, every single department at The Seattle Times got to within 90% of their giving goals, with most departments meeting or exceeding their goals. Employees topped their total goal of $245,000, through the combination of individual donations and fund-raising events during the campaign.

"Each department does events that work best for their teams," Corey Digiacinto, Seattle Times United Way committee events chair, said. "We have a lot of people on our staff who are very talented and willing to donate their time and abilities."

According to Digiacinto, a good strategy for successful events is tapping into meetings that are already on employees' calendars.

"We try to build on other department meetings that are already happening," she said. "We try to make the campaign easy and not an extra obligation for people."

To further encourage participation, the heads of departments at the vice president level let their employees know they are welcome to take the time to get involved in the campaign. Publisher and CEO Frank Blethen and other management team members lead by example by showing up and enjoying the events like all other Times employees.

The company makes an effort to involve all of its employees in the campaign. The Times' United Way campaign steering committee has representation from every department, and campaign activities are tailored to meet the needs of those who work the night shift and staff at other locations.

Being part of the campaign is a definite plus for Digiacinto, communications manager in the company's public affairs department.

"It is really important for me personally to be involved in the community, so I joined the United Way committee when I first started with the company," she said. "Helping to organize the campaign is a good way to meet people and it has helped me make connections to people in other departments that I wouldn't have otherwise known."

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