United Way Board Members,

Campaign season is here! We kicked off our community campaign with an exciting United Way Night at the Ballpark between the Cardinals and Padres. Campaign Chair and Ameren Corporation CEO, Marty Lyons, threw out an honorary pitch while Scott Hartwig, our campaign co-chair and Commercial Banking leader and market executive at Regions Bank in Greater St. Louis, rallied the crowd to unite with us. It was an evening filled with fun and comradery. 

Please assist us in spreading the word about this year’s campaign. You can do this by sharing the templated post and graphic below. Remember to tag us!

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The annual United Way of Greater St. Louis community campaign is underway, providing stable funding throughout the year to 160+ local nonprofits that address a breadth of needs in our community! I’m honored to serve as a board member this year, helping local people to live their best possible lives each day. It’s more than a campaign, it’s a cause. Unite with us and learn more at Helpingpeople.org.

Download the graphic here.

Introducing our 2023 Campaign/Mission video!

Each year, we develop a video that is used and shared with community partners during our campaign. This year we reimagined the piece and created something we could use year-round, relabeling it as our Mission Video! It tells more of the United Way story, and we could send it to anyone who wants to know more about us as well as play it at events, etc.

We are especially excited about our friend Rene Knott of KSDK who did the voiceover for the video!

ENJOY!

Watch here.

Media Highlights

It was exciting to be featured in Bally Sports’ pre-game show by reporter Jim Hayes. I had the opportunity to share our mission and enthusiasm around the community campaign.

Marty, Scott, and I had the opportunity to be guests on the KMOX pre-game show as well with Board Member and host Mike Claiborne for a roundtable discussion highlighting the incredible efforts of United Way in the community and encouraging our neighbors to unite with us. 

In addition to our pre-game show appearance, Marty was a featured live guest on Total Information AM on KMOX with Tom Ackerman and Megan Lynch discussing the benefits of collective giving during campaign season and the impact we have on our region. 

Also, hot off the press is the cover story feature in Town & Style!

And The Award Goes To….

We honored Larry Thomas, longtime United Way board member and retired partner from Edward Jones, with the Freeman-Kortkamp award.

The Freeman-Kortkamp Award was created to honor the outstanding service and performance of a United Way of Greater St. Louis board member who makes the community a better place to live, work and thrive. The award was first given in 2006 to Robert O. Kortkamp and Frankie M. Freeman, two longstanding United Way volunteers who made an incredible impact on the organization and community.

Thomas has supported United Way in various ways for 24 years, lending his time and resources to several volunteer and committee roles. He has served on United Way’s Board of Directors since 1999, finance committee since 2004, executive committee since 2006, and became their board vice chair in 2009.

Additionally, Thomas has been a member of United Way’s Alexis de Tocqueville Society, compensation committee, campaign cabinet, planned giving committee, administrative budget committee, and served as chair of the Charmaine Chapman Society.

Larry’s commitment to service and being a leader in the United Way community is one of the reasons why United Way is able to make thoughtful, informed decisions on how to build strong and equitable communities where everyone can thrive. Larry has consistently stepped up to lend his efforts to ensure we can continue to help our neighbors in need, and that is why we are honored to recognize him for his longstanding leadership in the community. Congratulations Larry! And a heartfelt thank you for all the ways you support United Way.

Truly Honored

I am so honored to be recognized by Missouri Senator Brian Williams who recently awarded three “trailblazers” from the community with certificates of recognition acknowledging the impressive accomplishments of Missourians, especially those who have distinguished themselves as exemplary public servants and dedicated their livelihoods toward improving the St. Louis Community. 

Uniting Auxiliary Boards in Illinois for Greater Impact



We value the support of our Auxiliary Boards throughout the Illinois Region and thank you for your positive impact on local communities. After lengthy discussions and engagement with board leaders across the area, we have decided to combine the Tri-Cities and Southwest Illinois auxiliary boards. TCAD and SWID will become the Illinois Region - North Auxiliary Board. The focus of this integration is to unite and create more synergy in the five counties in the area. The Illinois Division will be renamed, becoming our Illinois Region - South Auxiliary Board. The two auxiliary boards will remain under the Illinois Region. Instead of three auxiliaries, we will now have two focused roundtables to help ensure our neighbors across the region live their best possible lives. These changes will be effective January 1, 2024.

Board Spotlights



Share your light! To honor your commitment, compassion and service as a United Way Board Member we want to acknowledge you and give other board members the opportunity to learn more about each other. We will soon be inviting board members to share your story and inspire others about why you’re passionate about United Way. Watch for an email from Micah Salonis inviting you to participate. We look forward to learning more about your why in an upcoming Board Spotlight!

Calling all hosts!

As we begin planning our board and committee meeting schedule for 2024, would you be willing to host one of our board or committee meetings in 2024?

We greatly appreciate all the board members and companies who have opened their doors to United Way in the past and want to expand the opportunity to all members. If your company can provide space, we’d love to talk! Meeting sizes range from 20-100 participants, and hosting opportunities are available on weekdays, usually from 8:30-10:30 am or 4:00-5:30 pm.

We offer a hybrid option for most meetings and will need the capability to connect to Teams or Zoom during the session. We also welcome hosts for events and socials.

If interested, please contact Heather Dawson or Micah Salonis.

This is just the beginning of what will be an exciting campaign season. Thank you for your support and uniting with us!

Best,

Michelle D. Tucker | President and CEO | United Way of Greater St. Louis