Spokane County United Way knocked on the doors of 150 percent more CEOs and other top managers here for its 2009-2010 fundraising campaign, in which it posted the biggest dollar increase in contributions in 15 years.

In another change in tactics, the organization, which funds 34 charities here, instituted a challenge grant by six companies that matched up to a total of $60,000 in new or increased contributions made during the drive.

United Way says it raised $4.7 million in the campaign, or 4 percent more than it had brought in during its previous drive, although the 2009-2010 campaign year won't end officially until June 30. President and CEO Tim Henkel says United Way fell short of meeting its campaign goal of raising $4.8 million, but achieved the increase even though it received smaller amounts in some corporate contributions or from some employee groups.

"We did realize many losses in the campaign," Henkel says. "We offset all of them and still had the increase of 4 percent."

The increase, of $187,879, "was our largest and most significant in 15 years," says Diane Wright, United Way's vice president of resource development.

While final statistics aren't available yet, it's believed that 17,600 participants pledged to give in the campaign, up from 17,247 in the previous year, says Wright. United Way reached its high-water mark for donors in 1993-94, when 37,009 participants gave, although records aren't available back further than that. The number of participants fell to a low of 17,088 in 2006-07.

For its most recent campaign, United Way employed much more heavily a concept called the "CEO call," Wright says. In such calls, a staff member and a volunteer call on the CEO or manager of a company, she says.

"We go in with a customized 'ask,'" she says. In some cases, the goal is to increase employee contributions, to seek a corporate gift, or to request a so-called "leadership gift" of $1,000 from an executive, she says.

United Way made 80 such calls for the 2009-10 campaign, up sharply from 32 calls for its 2008-09 campaign, Wright says. At companies where it made the calls, employee participation in giving generally rose, she says.

United Way will use the CEO-call tactic even more broadly in its 2010-11 campaign, perhaps calling on as many as 100 top managers for that effort, Wright says. She adds, "We know it works."

In addition, the organization plans to employ the challenge grant strategy again, she says. In the most recent campaign, Avista Corp., Potlatch Corp., Itron Inc., Deaconess Medical Center, Valley Hospital & Medical Center, and Bank of America pledged jointly to match up to a total of $60,000 in new contributions or increases in contributions made during the campaign.

The six organizations, however, ended up making new or increased contributions of $107,000, which provided more than enough additional money to match the $60,000 they had pledged, Wright says.

"It definitely proved successful," Wright says. "What we hope to do is expand that level of challenge grant next year."

United Way now is emphasizing the goal of shifting from a" transactional relationship," or merely dropping off pledge cards at places of employment for its annual campaign, "to more of a one-on-one, long-term relationship" that involves "communicating results" achieved by the agencies United Way funds, Wright says.

Says Henkel, "We have to create a clear understanding, way beyond a transactional relationship, of what this community has said it needs to accomplish" and show donors how charities "are creating and effecting change," he says. Otherwise, campaigns become "about moving money from one place to another."

"If people give only because someone has asked them to and has made it easy for them to do it, that's completely insufficient," he says. "We've got to show the community that change is taking place."

United Way also is placing a new emphasis on the value of its campaign participants becoming volunteers, Wright says. She says research has shown that individuals who volunteer give 10 times as much to charity as others, because they give to a cause they care about, see an unmet need they can fill, know that giving is the right thing to do, and try to set an example for their families.

On Aug. 27 last year, Spokane-based Potlatch provided an example of the value of volunteering. That day, a team of 18 people from the company dug trenches for a new yard and landscape sprinkler system at YFA Connections' Crisis Residential Center for at-risk and homeless youths, at 201 W. 6th. They also painted the counseling center inside and cleaned 5,000 square feet of carpet.

"It was amazing," says Cathy Doran, CEO of YFA Connections. "It was a hot day. If you're familiar with the South Hill, you know how much rock they had to dig through to dig the trenches. They were supposed to do four hours of work. They refused to leave until they were all done."

Michael Covey, chairman, president, and CEO of Potlatch, will chair United Way's so-called "campaign cabinet" for its 2010-11 campaign drive, Henkel says. Those roughly one dozen volunteers oversee the CEO calls and help with fundraising efforts in other ways.

United Way made an additional change by moving its campaign kickoff event from the usual venue of a rally held in a hotel meeting room to the food distribution center of Second Harvest Inland Northwest, which supplies food to food banks in the region. On Sept. 18 last year, volunteers helped sort food shipments at Second Harvest, and two teams went to the Salvation Army and the Boys and Girls Club of Spokane County to help sort food delivered by Second Harvest's mobile food-distribution service, says Jason Clark, Second Harvest's executive director. He says the volunteers also helped distribute food to recipients.

"All of our campaign cabinet volunteers were very moved by that," Wright says. She says it increases volunteers' commitment to charitable endeavors when they "can see firsthand they're making a difference."