October 6, 2022

UWCFD kicks off campaign 2022

On Thursday, October 6, members of the UW community came together virtually to celebrate the kickoff of our annual workplace giving campaign. 

Our guest speaker was Jack Gomer, current board member and mission alumnus of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Jack joined MSF in 2015 and completed three missions in Nigeria and South Sudan. Outside of MSF, Jack worked in health care and development in China, Ecuador, and Bolivia.

Guided by medical ethics and principles of impartiality, MSF serves victims of war, disease and natural disasters without regard to race, nationality, gender, religion, or political affiliation.

In his talk, Jack stressed the MSF principles by which emergency health care is provided to anyone who needs it: neutrality, impartiality, independence and bearing witness.

These principles allow MSF to respond to crises without a political agenda or affiliation with a particular country, while staying accountable to its individual donors, who account for nearly 95% of total fundraising for the organization.

MSF responds to a variety of emergencies such as epidemics and pandemics, including COVID-19, cholera, HIV, and tuberculosis; displacement of refugees and internally displaced people fleeing conflict; and environmental disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and floods. MSF also provides care to people excluded from healthcare as a result of internal conflict.

There are many services provided by MSF medical teams: mobile health clinics, treatment of infectious diseases, vaccinations, water and sanitation interventions, surgical interventions, treating sexual and gender-based violence and addressing mental health needs.

The scale of MSF is truly staggering: in 2021 alone, they provided over 2.5 million outpatient consultations, nearly two million vaccine doses, treated 100 thousand children in hospitals, provided 45,000 deliveries and 75,000 individual psychological evaluations.

Individual fundraising is essential to maintaining MSF’s continued ability to quickly mobilize teams to respond to emerging crises.

UW Vice President for Human Resources Mindy Kornberg also gave remarks, inviting UW employees to think about the causes and issues that matter most to them and to be the change they wish to see in the world.

Missed the kickoff? Watch the recording on our YouTube channel.

Ways to engage

It’s the first week to give! We’ve got a $5 Starbucks card – courtesy of WSECU – for anyone who makes a new gift of $5 or more, increases an existing gift by $5 or more OR logs an hour of volunteer time between October 5 – 13.

Lunch & Learns: We have three lunch & learns coming up focused on Doctors Without Borders. These will be hybrid events so you can choose whether you tune in virtually or join us in person.

October 19: Join us at the UW Tower to hear from speaker Karin Huster, registered nurse and clinical instructor in the UW Department of Global Health and Child, Family and Population Health Nursing. She was recently part of an undertaking by Doctors Without Borders to respond to the threats posed by COVID-19, managing the organization’s pandemic response in Hong Kong.

Virtual nonprofit expo: October 12, 2022 from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. We’ll be online again this year. Visit the first day and in the opening hours of the event, you can visit the with staff hosting non-profit booths. All the booths will be up throughout the campaign. Check out your old favorites and find your new favorites. This is a great way to learn more about the good work happening here and around the world.

Virtual silent auction: Wednesday, Oct. 12, 8 a.m. – Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022, 5 p.m. Check back soon to see our auction items.

Coordinator Connections: Let’s get together on October 27^th at 9 a.m. – in person (HUB 337) or online – and check in. Get great campaign tips and tricks, meet your fellow campaign coordinators and have fun! Register here

Meet the campaign assistants: The UWCFD is delighted to welcome our 2022 campaign assistants, who will work closely with volunteer campaign coordinators from across the UW’s three campuses and the UW hospitals to make this year’s workplace giving campaign a resounding success.