Ball State contributed 10 percent of United Way's total workplace campaign funds last year and was the third largest contributor
As a franchise of charities, United Way works to improve county citizens' lives by putting resources toward education, income and health, as stated on the organization's website. It currently supports 30 partners who run programs in the areas of education, initiative and health, said Jim Flatford, United Way’s director of impact.
“When somebody gives to United Way, it goes to cover our internal work as well as our granting process to those programs in the community,” Flatford said. “We make sure donor dollars are going to the most impactful programs and that they’re meeting issues we’ve identified as root causes of problems.”
Last year, Ball State employees donated $152,272—about 10 percent of United Way’s total raised in the workplace campaign last year—and was the third largest contributor. Their goal this year is to raise $155,000 during the campaign, which is from Oct. 6 to Nov. 30.
John Emert, the 2015 Employee Campaign Chair and associate dean of the Honors College, has been involved with the campaign since 1989 and has been a contributor to United Way since he moved to Muncie.
“The work United Way does for our community is important to my family and I, and we think it’s important to support efforts like United Way that make a real difference for the community,” Emert said.
Emert was asked to join the committee, which he said “was a natural next step.” The committee’s role is to represent all the different types of employees on campus and equip 200 team captains to either hand-deliver pledge cards or to encourage those they’re responsible for to turn the cards back in.
Jenni Marsh, president and CEO of United Way, said Ball State is a "tremendous" partner with Ball State both financially and in other ways. For example, MP3, a program that is a continuum of care for preschool to third graders, was started as an immersive learning project by two Ball State professors and has been funded by United Way since the beginning.
“Pat Clark and Eva Zygmunt developed the concept of doing a program where students would be immersed in the culture of a community and learn how to teach within the context of that community. Through that, MP3 was born,” Marsh said. “I believe another elementary school is looking at bringing MP3 into another elementary school, so it’s continuing to grow and do good things for the people of our community.”
Marsh said, as the leader of United Way, one of her responsibilities to make sure the organization is giving them all the support needed as funds are raised.
“I am so impressed by the volunteers who lead the workplace campaign at Ball State. You have a core committee of people who really understand that the work they do to raise money at Ball State improves thousands of people’s lives every single day,” she said. “The programs that benefit from the dollars raised really have a daily impact on people right here in Delaware County.”
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