NEWS & EVENTS
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The
Business Council Receives Gold
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Stamford,
Connecticut; July 28, 2004 - - The Business Council of Fairfield County has been awarded a gold Connecticut Quality Improvement Award (CQIA)
Innovation Prize for its creation and maintenance of the online Fairfield
County Community Fundraising Calendar.
During
the course of 2003, a number of non-profit organizations had seen important
fundraising events suffer from schedule conflicts.
Although the events were held in different municipalities, they
appealed to overlapping corporate supporters, with negative consequences for
attendance, event quality and net proceeds. The Business Council, working with an advisory
team of corporate contributions managers, realized that all conflicts could
not be eliminated due to the number of organizations and limited viable
dates - but that most direct competition could be avoided if a long-range
community fundraising event clearinghouse calendar existed and were used.
The
innovation in this web-based calendar is not technological, but in the
application of the technology, said Lisa Mercurio, Director of the Fairfield County Information Exchange. By
providing non-profits with Fairfield County event date information online,
critical fundraising event planning can be done at anytime in a matter of
seconds.
In
trying to help municipally focused, non-profit organizations reduce harmful
date conflicts, The Business Council designed, and maintains a very basic web-based,
long-range, community fundraising event calendar.
The calendar enables event planners to avoid unnecessary conflicts,
thus improving attendance and financial results for the organization.
Because of the generosity of General Electric Consumer Finance, Pitney
Bowes, Inc., Purdue Pharma LP, The Thomson Corporation, and Xerox Corporation, the
service is available to the non-profit community throughout Fairfield County
free of charge.
The
Fairfield County Community Fundraising Calendar is an information resource,
not a control device. The Business Council can notify a community of nonprofits and they can
fill out a 10-question form and email the information back all in a matter
of minutes, at the cost of a local phone call. Monthly, more than 235
non-profit organizations, 20 corporate philanthropic managers and 30 community
information providers such as libraries and volunteer centers are directly
invited by email to submit dates and to consult the calendar prior to
finalizing their own plans.
Participating
non-profit service organizations like the Volunteer Center of Southwestern
Connecticut, The Collaborative Alliance and the Greater Bridgeport Area
Foundation forward the email to approximately 150 more organizations for a
total monthly distribution of more than 400. The email content compilation
process is also the distribution of the up-to-date calendar and the
utilization prompt. Each email message includes an embedded link to the
calendar hosted on The Business Council's web page, which includes an information
submission module. In addition, events may be submitted at any time and are
guaranteed to be posted within 3 working days of submission, if not sooner.
"CQIA Innovation Prize award winners embody the critical intellect that is the foundation of Connecticut's long-term growth," said Sheila Carmine, Founder and Executive Director of the 17-year old Connecticut Quality Improvement Award Partnership. "By applying this Connecticut Intellect, each of the prize winners is focused on helping humanity and improving our lives with novel and superior products and services. They are creating better health services, improving resource use, widening communications, enhancing education and increasing safety for us all."
Organizations wishing to be included in the Fundraising Calendar survey should call Betsy Schenkel at 203-359-3220. Event information may be submitted to The Business Council at anytime, by any community organization, at http://www.businessfairfield.com/commfundcalendar.htm.
The Connecticut Quality Improvement Award Partnership serves to promote and recognize performance excellence in Connecticut organizations. The entry level CQIA Innovation Prize is broadly based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Performance Excellence's three principles of Approach, Deployment and Results which are translated into CIP's criteria of Opportunity, Innovation and Numerical Results. The CQIA Partnership's 17th Annual Conference on Quality and Innovation will be held on October 13 at the Waters Edge Resort in Westbrook, CT. For more information on CQIA please contact Sheila Carmine at 203-322-9534.
The
Business Council of Fairfield County
One
Landmark Square, Suite 300
Stamford, CT 06901-2679
General Phone: (203) 359-3220
Fax: (203) 967-8294
Contact Us
The Business Council of Fairfield County
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