From Basket Raffles to “Beverage Grams’

How a creative approach to employee engagement boosted giving at Pepper Construction, thanks to Exceptional Employee Coordinator of the Year: Sarah Thurman

For the past several years, Pepper Construction has been a consistent, enthusiastic, and dependable company partner to United Way of Central Indiana.

Then, 2020 grinded many company campaigns to a halt. United Way heard from so many employee coordinators, like Sarah Thurman, who wondered how virtual events, stay-at-home work environments, and economic uncertainty would affect companies and their employees who historically supported United Way.

But Sarah rose to the challenge and inspired her committee to develop a new plan for Pepper Construction’s United Way campaign. The first and most immediate goal – convert paper pledge forms to electronic pledge invitations. The result? Employee participation more than doubled in one year.

The next major step – how to engage all levels of construction employees creatively during quarantine? Sarah pivoted the company’s traditional – and very popular – in-person Team Basket Auction to a virtual Team Basket Raffle, which boosted participation even more than in previous years. Additionally, Sarah and her committee created a special ‘Beverage Gram’ program, where any employee could send their colleagues a drink of their choice, a snack, and a personal note for a small donation. With 126 beverage grams sold, Sarah knew these employee engagement techniques had a lasting effect.

Finally, with a “we’re-all-in-this-together” approach, Sarah encouraged her company to think beyond its employees by including its sub-contractors in the campaign. One such contractor made a first-time contribution of $500.

As the awards committee noted, “Sarah Thurman is a ‘rock star’ employee coordinator. She knows how to incorporate the fun elements of a campaign while not losing focus on why giving to United Way is so important. Pepper Construction came together as a unified team, all because of Sarah’s leadership.”

Congratulations to Sarah Thurman on being named United Way’s Exceptional Employee Coordinator for 2020-2021.