Best Overall Campaign
Nomination Form
Nominator’s Name: _Hillary Chrastil___________
Date: _January 19, 2012________
Contact info: _801-582-1565 ext. 5445_________________________________
Organization (as name should appear on award) _George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans
Affairs Medical Center__________________________________
Agency Head & Title: _Steve W. Young, Director___________________________
Campaign Coordinator: _Hillary Chrastil____________________________
Number of Employees: _2169_____
Final Dollar Results: $120,654________ Participation: _25%
Percent of Increase over 2010: -1.5% 2010Participation _24%
Please describe what this agency did to incorporate each of the following "model" campaign
components into their program. Feel free to include photos, examples of promotional
materials, etc. Use as much as space as necessary. Be specific about what was done to
achieve great results.
1. Top Management Support
Executive leadership at the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical
Center has always been incredibly supportive of the Combined Federal Campaign. This year
was no exception. The highlight’s of leadership support include:
 Approval of 4 hours of Authorized Absence for each Core Team Member.
 Approval of 4 hours of Authorized Absence for each Key Worker.
 Approval of 1 hour of Authorized Absence for each Time and Leave unit with 100%
contact.
 Approval of 1 hour of Authorized Absence for each participant of a Minute-to-win-it
game.
 Approval of 1 hour of Authorized Absence for each winner, runner-up, and spiciest
selection for the chili cook-off and salsa contest.
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Four weekly drawings for the privilege to park in the Director’s parking spot for one
week.
Participation in the annual Pie-in-da-Face.
Contestants for the inaugural CFC Fight Night.
Continuous support throughout the campaign through emails and articles in the
employee news letter.
Personalized thank you email from the Director.
2. Agency Goal Setting
Last year was a banner year for the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs
Medical Center campaign, which meant goals for this year needed to be thoughtful and
strategic. We set our goal at $125,000. We reached 96.5% of our goal, which feels
remarkable!! This year, we also set goals specific to the demographic analysis we completed
at the end of the 2010 campaign which showed that nursing, community clinics, and
employees in the 20-40 age categories had the lowest participation rate. We felt it was
critical to target groups that had not participated before, because contributing to CFC is
habitual and we wanted to help those groups take the first step. As a result of those specific
goals we saw a 117% increase from nursing, 143% increase from the community clinics, and
a 181% increase in employees age 20-29. That age group has a lot more years of
contributing to do!!
3. Trained Key Workers and Volunteers
This year we held two Key Worker trainings which accomplished a 60% face-to-face training
rate. This training included a video conferencing link for those Key Workers at our community
clinics. For the training, we adapted the slide presentation from the Coordinator training so
we could help the Key Workers begin to develop their individual strategies for the big task
they were about to take on. Specifically we focused on two things, making the campaign
personal and making it simple. As a result, we heard from several Key Workers who found
that sharing a time when they were supported by a charitable organization really changed the
conversation for prospective donors. We also heard from some who filled out the tops of the
form and paper clipped the section of local organizations so that new donors would not feel
so overwhelmed. Finally, we talked about our declining participation rate over the past
several years and the results of our demographic analysis from 2010. This helped the Key
Workers know where to focus their energies, since most of our annual donors will seek us
out. This strategy of helping Key Workers think about their personal strategy was successful,
because we saw an increase in participation this year!!
4. How was 100% contact achieved? (Describe methods, briefings, etc.)
Do to the variety in staff and work type in our organization, contact was accomplished in
numerous ways. From the Coordinator level, all-staff emails introducing the campaign and
providing logistical information were sent out, along with weekly updates highlighting the
progress of the campaign. In addition, there was an event every week for the duration of the
campaign, which made it hard to miss. From the Key Worker level, many presented CFC at
their routine staff meetings, many sent individualized emails to the folks in their groups, some
even held their own CFC Party complete with charity brochures and lunch!!! Each Key
Worker was provided a tracking sheet so they could document their progress, some took it to
the next level and tracked second and third contacts – dedication we loved to see!
5. Campaign Publicity, Education & Fun
If there is one thing the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Campaign knows how to do, it is have fun! This year was, without a doubt, our most fun
campaign EVER!!! Before the campaign even started, we identified an employee who
completely embodies the spirit of CFC. His son had cancer as a child, and as a result his
family received tremendous support from their community and many of the organizations
represented by CFC. Our Public Affairs Office and Medical Media office collaborated to make
a short video of this employee and his son (who is now 18 and still in remission) which
illustrated the good that can be accomplished through charitable giving. It was so powerful to
see one of our colleagues share his story and even more so to see this young man talk about
his journey and the work he does now for children’s cancer groups. A copy of this video was
given to each Key Worker and shown at the Key Worker Training and Kick-off events.
As mentioned previously, we set some very specific goals targeting areas with low
participation rates, but we knew we would need to keep it lively to engage those staff that
have passed up the opportunity to donate time and time before. Our first effort was a road
trip to our West Valley Community Based Outpatient Clinic for a mini kick-off. At this event
we showed our video, had a bake sale, had forms and donor recognition gifts available for onthe-spot donating, and had a Pie-in-da-face event. This event was an amazing success!!
Seven staff members filled out their form and received their recognition gift that day, six of
those seven were first-time donors! There is no question they loved the pie-in-da-face
activity as we sold 30 whipped cream pies!!
We took the campaign “on the road” again on Halloween. This time we went trick-or-treating
in the patient care areas, where nursing staff typically find it hard to leave the bedside to
attend special events. Again, we knew we needed to do something special to create interest,
so in the spirit of the VA’s new core values and the CFC’s 50 th anniversary slogan we dressed
up as iCare Bears and went reverse trick-or-treating. This outing raised $1537 in
contributions and secured eight first-time donors!! Again, we brought along the donor
recognition gifts and every person that made a contribution received a candy bar (full-sized!!).
Without a doubt our best event this year was CFC Fight Night. This event drew more
participants than we could have expected! Between rounds, Core Team Members would
distribute booklets and forms, and it was so exciting to hear the announcer call out the
generous donations that were coming in. In addition, he read informational pieces from the
CFC book, but in the “let’s get ready to rumble” voice that kept the audience enthused! This
event was complete with “ring names,” entourages, and theme music! Again, this event was
conceptualized to encourage younger donors, and we did see exceptional gains in the 20-29
age group.
Our annual Kick-off boasts two of well known traditions, the chili cook-off and Pie-in-da-face.
Panel of Judges – including Jazz Dancers!
Chief Financial Officer… yes, that is a nose plug
People lined up to pie him – even an Associate Director!
Excellent form!
Chief of Internal Medicine
This group sold 130 pies!!!
This year we took it up a notch and added some minute-to-win-it games!
Cup stacking
Associate Director of Patient Care Services
This event was the best!
Participants got creative!
Finally, our Key Note Speaker this year was another VAMC employee who has had a very
personal experience with charitable organizations. Again, he was gracious enough to share
his story at our Kick-off and it was very well received by the participants.
Again this year, we had note cards made which showed what could be accomplished with
modest weekly donations. We handed these out at every event, including our two bake
sales, root beer float sale, caramel corn and cider sale, and salsa contest. Another new
addition was a campaign calendar which included the date, time, and location for each
special event. Each Key Worker was provided at least one calendar and I saw them posted
in almost every department I visited. We also put updates in the employee news letter and
included links to the CFC website. We knew this year would be full of fun when at our first
Core Team meeting, one of the members suggested we rename ourselves “The Hard Core
Team,” which we did, and we were!!
6. Final Thank-You Program
We have made a substantial effort to show our gratitude to our donors. This year, every one
of our 544 donors will receive a personally signed thank you card from me and my co-chair.
In addition, our Agency Director has sent out individual emails to each donor. I received a
call just today from one donor who was so impressed by the email from the Director that he
wanted to know if he should reply to it!! In addition, four donors were thanked for a whole
week when they got to park in the Director’s parking spot!!
In addition to thanking our donors, we really needed to thank our Core Team members and
the Key Workers. Each Core Team Member and Key Worker will receive a Special
Contribution Award with 4 hours of Authorized Absence. It was a small token in respect to
the outstanding work they all did!!