As thousands of Calgary area jobs vanished throughout 2009, some employees were so anxious about their future that they didn’t even notice their workplace United Way campaign was on. Three of Calgary’s largest companies laid off hundreds of workers in a key week of the campaign.

Yet by year’s end, the United Way of Calgary and Area had not only reached its goal of $47 million, but passed it – and squeaked by the previous year’s take of $49.5 million for good measure.

Just setting the 2009 goal was challenging enough, says president Ruth Ramsden-Wood. The board had to balance the growing needs of agencies facing their own shortfalls with the struggles the business community faced. “Calgary was firmly in recession. The signs of recovery were not evident as soon here as in other parts of the country. Input from workplaces and the business community led us to step back on our goal. It was a tough, heavily debated decision.”

Priorities changed quickly to combat recession

Throughout the year, the United Way moved quickly to address new needs, pouring extra funding into job retraining programs with waiting lists, publishing a Help in Hard Times guide for vulnerable youth and boosting service through the community 211 help line that connected people with services. Ramsden-Wood and her colleagues worked hard to maintain the profile of those accomplishments.

“Our work was visible to our donors,” she recalls, “and as the campaign progressed, there were signs that some workplaces were trying to raise the same amount, even with vastly reduced staff.” The same recession that led to so much job loss meant that everyone knew someone who needed or might need the kind of help that the United Way funds.

Nevertheless, the recession created difficulty with sponsorships. Many organizations, finding it hard to get attention, let alone attendance, scaled back their fundraising events. Ramsden-Wood says it was clear in the fall that people were otherwise engaged, and definitely not focused on events, going out or giving money.

Surge of generosity at year end

Finally, in the first week of December, Calgarians began to see early signs of an economic turnaround in their city. “After that,” explains Ramsden-Wood, “we began to see new energy and momentum. Engineering firms here have been decimated. Yet nine in ten of them raised as much money as last year or more, including one company that went from 1,600 workers to 600. More than 150 new workplaces ran their first campaigns. We’ve never seen that in any year. It’s a truly inspiring response.”

By the second week of December, Ramsden-Wood realized that the goal was in sight. Surpassing it by $2.6 million, though, was something she wouldn’t have predicted. “People in Calgary rose to the occasion in a stellar way,” she recollects. “We were all over the moon by the end of December.”

She credits the campaign success to being nimble enough to examine everything midway through the campaign and make corrections. She and her colleagues renewed the focus on the visibility of the organization’s work and ramped up the attention to small business campaigns and first-time workplace participants. It paid off with more success than anyone in the organization anticipated, with a final tally of $49.6 million.