March 13, 2008
United Way honors Everly for coordinator role
Many people on campus already know that Kerri Everly is an effective and successful campus coordinator for the Combined Fund Drive. But now the United Way of King County has made it official with one of its Coordinator of the Year awards.
The Coordinator of the Year award, one of three, was bestowed on Everly in a reception last week before a full house at Benaroya Hall, as part of United Way of King County’s annual Spirit of Caring award ceremony, where multiple honors were handed out.
“I am so honored to receive this award,” Everly said, then quickly shared the spotlight with others. “It was a team effort with more than 300 volunteers who helped with the most successful UWCFD campaign to date. How exciting for the University to be recognized in this way!”
Everly is program manager for the UW’s part of the annual drive, which is Washington State’s annual workplace giving campaign. Prior to becoming coordinator, she was the voluntary faculty/staff chair for the campaign. Before this job, she worked in several capacities at UW Bothell, including managing the Women’s Center, Education Planning Center and acting as adviser to the student newspaper.
She has managed four campaigns now, each sporting a higher total of donations than the last. In 2004, the drive raised about $1.48 million; in 2005 it raised about $1.61 million; in 2006 the total rose to $1.68 million and last year, in 2007, the drive brought in $1.84 million in donations.
It’s a small shop, and she and a program assistant stay busy managing donor relations and tracking pledges. Each August she’s joined by a team of campaign executives, who stick around through the end of the annual campaign in December and into February, she said, “and then planning commences for the next campaign.”
Everly earned the award, in part, because of her success in getting members of the UW community to pledge to the annual drive at “leadership” levels — the gold level, for pledges of $1,200 or more, and the silver level, for pledges of $600 to $1,200. “It was very exciting — we got increases in both,” she said.
She was also lauded for helping to support the United Way’s first Community Resource Exchange, in which 2,000 socks were collected for distribution to the homeless.
Jared Erlandson, public relations manager for United Way of King County, echoed the praise for Everly, saying, “Campaign coordinators are the critical link for a workplace to connect to the work the United Way of King County is achieving in the community. Kerri put together an exceptional campaign and brought meaning to the generous gifts of everyone at the University by illustrating how they are making a difference.”
Asked the hardest part of her job, Everly stayed professionally on message, saying it was “letting the campus community know about this great program and how easy it is to give to their favorite charities.”
