United Way of Greater Portland Exceeds 2016 Campaign Goal
United Way of Greater Portland exceeded its 2016 fundraising goal of $8 million and projects $8,012,200 in community donations when the annual campaign officially concludes in early May. This represents a second year of consecutive growth, and the first time United Way eclipsed $8 million since 2011. Campaign results were announced at the Campaign Celebration on January 17.
“Exceeding our goal and increasing the dollars raised last year demonstrates our community’s generosity and commitment to working together to make our Greater Portland a better place for everyone,” said Michael Bourque, 2016 Campaign Chair and Senior Vice President of External Affairs at MEMIC. “We’re so grateful for all the support of local companies, donors, and leaders who helped achieve this tremendous result.”
United Way’s annual campaign kicked off September 9 with a rally, food drive and canned-good sculpture contest in Monument Square. The Campaign Cabinet, comprised of 25 leaders from every sector of our community, worked closely with United Way staff to generate support from companies and organizations throughout Greater Portland.
Thanks to Gorham Savings Bank, Hannaford, L.L.Bean, MaineHealth/Maine Medical Center, Unum, and WEX Inc. for loaning ten employees to bolster United Way capacity for nine weeks during the campaign. These Loaned Executives helped run workplace campaigns and informed others about United Way’s impact. BerryDunn, MacPage, Preti Flaherty, and Verrill Dana also sponsored this valuable program.
Campaign highlights include:
- The John T. Gorman Foundation, once again, doubled donor impact with a $250,000 matching grant.
- L.L.Bean, Unum, Hannaford, IDEXX, MaineHealth, TD Bank, WEX Inc, and Texas Instruments collectively contributed more than $4.2 million in corporate and employee giving.
- Apothecary By Design, Dead River Company, Gorham Savings Bank, Martin’s Point Health Care, MEMIC, Pape Chevrolet, and SIGCO, Inc. saw impressive growth in giving.
- Ten additional households joined the Tocqueville Society, United Way’s highest giving level for contributions of $10,000 or more. This group collectively contributed more than $1.2 million.
- Brick & Beam Society, United Way’s emerging leaders group, generated more than $78,000 among the 70 households involved.
- Women United, officially launching in 2017, will kick off their inaugural funding cycle with $80,000 thanks to the support of The John T. Gorman Foundation, Unum, MaineHealth, Dead River Company, and Gorham Savings Bank.
United Way also announced that John Chandler, Managing Principal at BerryDunn, will chair the 2017 Campaign.