“Money can’t solve everything overnight but it can certainly help. Part of the challenge is definitely the funding. In the business world, it’s about leading by example: focusing on organizations where there is a good strong culture and relationship with United Way and trying to get others on board. Depending on the sector, some businesses are doing better than others, but I think it’s incumbent on the ones that are doing well to adopt as one of their core values the notion of community and of giving back. To me, it’s one of those win-win things: it’s good for employees, it’s good for the community and it’s good for the corporation as well.

“I’ve been donating to United Way since I started my career. It’s been around for a long time and has a robust governance structure in place. I’ve always viewed it as a very comprehensive, well-run organization and I have a lot of faith and trust that the money will be put to use very effectively. You can’t always say that about other causes. We try to keep the momentum going and do something year-round, which is a bit different. Because giving back is one of our corporate values, we present a scorecard on a quarterly basis and the level of donations is one of the scorecard items we talk about every quarter. We measure it, we do events throughout the year, we try to keep United Way top of mind and I think that makes a difference.”