International Paper beat all previous records!

International Paper beat all previous records during the 2009/2010 campaign and was able to hand over a cheque worth over 100,000 Euros to the United Fund for Belgium (UFB). Read how the team accomplished this outstanding result.

When we got together for the first UFB Committee meeting on a grey day in early October to discuss our strategy for the 2009/2010 campaign, none of us were sure about how things would play out given the global economic crisis. Many companies and families were still in cost reduction mode and we knew it would be much more difficult than in previous years to convince our colleagues and business partners to join us in supporting such a worthy cause. However, we left the room with a strong commitment to keep our promise towards UFB and with a good plan to help get us there.

We quickly came to the conclusion that we needed to keep it simple and focus on a few, carefully selected projects and communicate them extremely well if we wanted to be successful. And that's what we did: The in-house activities we finally chose were all designed around the same principle: allowing everyone to easily participate with whatever amount they felt comfortable donating and included "Wearing-Jeans-for-UFB" - Fridays, an Office Lottery with many great prizes, a Silent Auction organized during our Christmas Luncheon and payroll deductions. Our strongest focus was on the cooperation with our business partners and inviting them to join forces with us to help people in need in Belgium. And as usual, both donations from employees and from business partners would be matched by International Paper with the same amount, thus doubling the benefit for UFB.

And our plan exceeded all expectations; both business partners and employees responded very positively to our campaign and gave generously. At the end of the campaign, we were able to hand over a cheque worth over 100,000 Euros to UFB Executive Director Katrien Goossens.

For us in the UFB Committee, the real excitement during this campaign was to see the amount grow every day and bit by bit realize that not only would we be able to meet but even exceed our commitment to UFB - something none of us had dared to dream of at the beginning of the campaign. Supporting our communities is part of our culture at International Paper and we are glad that we could make a difference for those that are less fortunate than we are. But the greatest joy for many of us was probably seeing the look on Katrien's face during the official handover at our offices.

"I am delighted we were able to achieve this all time record donation to the UFB, especially in the wider context of the economic environment", said David Higgins, Director of Communications & Government Relations and sponsor of this year's campaign. "It was the culmination of a very dedicated UFB team, our Brussels office colleagues and especially the very generous contributions from many of our business partners."

Written by: Claudia Brand, Communications Manager