St. Landry School Board, United Way create new partnership

St. Landry-Evangeline United Way and St. Landry Parish School Board have created a new “partnership” in Education and Community Improvement.
Until now, St. Landry-Evangeline United Way has not had an official relationship with the School Board and its employees, but that is about to change.
Beginning this fall, school board employees will be offered the chance to give to their favorite charity or to give to the educational initiatives of the United Way.
Currently, the United Way funds several educational or children’s services, including Stuff the Bus, Day of Literacy, Harlem Ambassadors, Dolly Parton Imagination Library, along with several after-school mentoring and tutoring programs.
“Typical United Way campaign methods of standing in front of employees, making a presentation about the work of the United Way and the agencies it supports, then passing out pledge forms will not be the primary method for school board employees”, said Ginger LeCompte, Executive Director of St. Landry-Evangeline United Way. Because of the number of school system employees, and given the small staff of the United Way, this type of presentation is not feasible or practical.
“To accommodate the number of employees, our United Way has engaged with the United Way of Southeast Louisiana in New Orleans, a United Way that is equipped with the technology and software to develop an online “e-pledge” system that we can provide to large companies, beginning with the St. Landry Parish School System,” states LeCompte.
“This method of donating and collecting pledges will be the first of its kind for St. Landry-Evangeline United Way to be directly involved with, and we are very excited about it. We will be working with the School Board representatives on the design and messaging that will be included in a customized web platform that will tie into the School Board’s current website, and with a click, will bring donors to various “donor-related” pages, allowing them to designate the amount of their donation, where they want it to go, and whether they want it to be deducted from their pay, sent via debit card or check, or if they want to be reminded with a “bill” periodically.
“They will also be able to click on a link to the St. Landry-Evangeline United Way website, where they will find out about the agencies we fund, the work we do, and the volunteer opportunities we have.”
Depending on the donations that are designated to “Education” within the United Way areas of focus, LeCompte hopes to establish a task force comprised of educators that will explore worthy educational initiatives that targeted donation dollars can support.
“As a funding partner with the St. Landry Parish School Board, I can imagine there are great ideas among our educators that with support could make a difference in students’ educational outcomes. I would love to see that kind of collaboration spring from a successful pledge campaign,” LeCompte added.
Campaign season for United Way is generally from August through November, with payroll deduction beginning in January. From pledges and donations collected, the United Way projects the allocations it will be make to the various funded agencies it supports.
Information: 942-7815.