The Breakfast of Champions kicked off campaign season in a great way by celebrating the Community Champions’ hard work and encouraging them as they head into campaign season. Formerly known as Employee Campaign Managers, this group pairs creativity with a heart for community change to facilitate and lead pledge campaigns in more than 400 workplaces across greater Chattanooga.

Lesley Scearce, CEO and president of United Way of Greater Chattanooga, talked about the benefits of  community.

“Chattanoogans give 50 percent more to charity than the average American,” she said. “Yet, we are one of the worst cities for a child to grow up poor. United Way is focused on fixing problems by investing money into programs and organizations that tackle the issues that data tells us are important.”

Donna Harrison, director of Women United and Community Engagement at United Way of Greater Chattanooga, talked about how community members can get involved with United Way. Community Champions learned about affinity groups like Emerging Leaders and Women United as well as how to coordinate volunteer efforts through the Volunteer Center.

The campaign team delivered eight strategies for campaign success in the workplace to equip Community Champions with ideas and best practices. The group covered topics such as getting CEO support, developing a plan and conducting an educational campaign.

At the end, Community Champions shared ideas with each other to collaborate on how to create a better campaign in their workplaces. Community Champions brought forward ideas on auctions to raise money as well as fun game shows.

“This is such an important group for us,” Donna said. “Community Champions are a crucial connection to our local workplaces. We truly could not impact the community in the way we desire to without them.”