IUB’s partnership with United Way honored at United Collegiate Conference

By George Vlahakis

Simpson

The conference’s organizers presented awards in four categories. IUB and United Way of Monroe County shared the award for community impact and the award for overall excellence.

Barry Lessow, Monroe County board president and county campaign co-chair of United Way, said the awards help to cap another productive year for the partnership between IU and the community.

“This is fantastic news,” Lessow said. “We all know the relationship between IU and United Way Monroe County is especially strong, and it’s nice to have that recognized by our peers. A round of applause for everyone.”

For more than a decade, local United Way representatives and combined charitable campaigns have gathered with volunteers at Big Ten schools to discuss best practices about campus campaigns, student involvement, special events and leadership giving.

Selection criteria for the four category awards come from surveys submitted prior to the conference and is based on materials shared at the conference and other input. IU won the award for “Outstanding Campaign Efforts in the Area of Community Impact.” Conference participants voted to determine who receives the award for overall excellence. IU won the “Campaign Excellence Award for Engaging Collegiate Communities.”

The only other Indiana higher education institution to be honored this year was Purdue University, which won an award for campaign performance.

IU Bloomington employees raised nearly $640,000 for this year’s United Way campaign in Monroe County, which was the largest amount ever contributed to the annual campaign from the university. The money raised at IU was 106 percent of a $600,000 goal. Overall, the “Solutions for People” campaign raised $1.72 million, which was a record for Monroe County.

IU’s portion of the “Solutions for People” campaign was co-chaired by Christopher Simpson, vice president for public affairs and government relations, and Dorothy Frapwell, university counsel. They were joined by a team of more than 200 volunteers from the campus to help 26 United Way agencies and other eligible not-for-profit groups in the community.